They also take full-body strength. You push your feet towards the ceiling as if you’re trying to leave footprints, squeeze your legs together, contract your whole torso towards your navel, anchor the shoulder blades together, straighten the arms strongly, press through the whole hand… it takes a while for all those muscles to be even.

[I started learning at the wall, to get oriented, and then L-shaped handstands, to get used to having my back towards an empty room, and then full handstands in the park, where the landing was softer.]

Like any pose, they will eventually be easy. You get over the fear. You learn how to fall out of them. You learn to “flow up” — kick up towards the ceiling, not up-and-over.

[That last one I learned Monday at Studio Anya with Derek. He can jump into a floating Crow (knees off of arms), then press up into handstand, before you even figure out where the trip wires are located. Budokon!!!]

And there is something psychological about learning to stand on your own two hands. I’m getting my work life together in a way I never have before, and it’s funny that once I started telling myself “I can do this!” in handstand, repeating it until there was no space in my head for any other option, the same was true for running my own business.

Happy handstanding!

Anatomy for Yoga; click to view Uttanasana Spread

McGraw-Hill Publishing was kind enough to send me their latest yoga book to review. Anatomy for Yoga: An Illustrated Guide to Your Muscles in Action, by Nicky Jenkins and Leigh Brandon, is a helpful guide to a personalized yoga practice. The authors provide an overview of yoga anatomy, including terminology, main systems, and breathing. They also review meditation and the chakra (or “subtle”) system, and how it might affect your physical systems.

From there, they identify four major postural types: kyphosis (round shoulders), lordosis (overarched lower back), flat back, and swayback (hips forward). Each type has a few possible causes; you might have a head-forward posture because of your computer setup, the sports you play, or the emotions trapped in the chest.

You’re supposed to identify your own postural type, which is the hardest part of the book. If I knew my bad habits, I’d correct them already, right? They do advise a teacher’s help, and indeed when my teacher started calling me “Ribby” I finally figured it out. (Lordosis.)

There are then ten or twelve poses prescribed for each type, plus a chakra focus and a few positive affirmations. It’s a Hatha pace; you’re supposed to stay from one to four minutes in each pose. Each sequence ends with a breathing exercise and a meditation. The lordosis sequence included two poses that really push my buttons: Crescent Lunge (holding the back foot) and Forearm Plank. The swayback section, another contender, had a lot of hamstring stretches, which I definitely do not need, so my diagnosis seemed on track. I went through the prescribed sequence on a couple consecutive mornings, and it was both challenging and relaxing. The “grounding” meditation at the end was a topic I’ve been thinking about for weeks, so again it was right on track.

The customized nature of the sequencing really inspired me to practice; it was as if a live teacher had given me a lesson. It didn’t quite feel like a full practice (Forward Bend was the only inversion), so I’d weave in a few personal poses to make it completely satisfying.

The detailed illustrations, by Juliet Percival, are another feature of the book. All the muscles that are active or stretched in the pose are listed, and illustrated on the figure. This style of drawing, similar to the illustrations by Sharon Ellis in Yoga Anatomy or Frédéric Delavier in Strength Training Anatomy-3rd Edition (Sports Anatomy), is much more informative than a simple outline of the pose. Visualizing the muscles helps to activate them. And when your yoga teacher says “go deeper,” you’ll have a sub-surface layer to work with.

My main criticism of the book is its title — “Anatomy for Yoga” implies more breadth than this book manages. There’s a nice introduction to both scientific and subtle systems of anatomy, but it is not a very comprehensive book of asanas. There are about 44 poses, including variations, but many are physical therapy exercises like “Leg Drops,” not classic yoga poses. The book’s main focus is the causes and treatment of postural problems. I can’t help but think the title was chosen for search engine optimization, or competitive marketing. A more accurate title might have been Therapeutic Yoga Sequences: An Illustrated Guidebook. Or even Yoga for Bad Posture.

I was also somewhat perturbed by the cover design. It’s a mirror image of the best-selling Yoga Anatomy book by Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews. Given that Anatomy for Yoga also mirrored their predecessor’s title, it makes the book seem like a cheap knockoff.

I took Leslie’s advanced studies course, so I’m quite familiar with the illustrations he uses for breathing and the spine. I was pleased to see Anatomy for Yoga demonstrating a like-minded, modern understanding of breathing mechanics. But I was surprised to see that Yoga Anatomy was not included in the list of references; it’s been Amazon’s best-selling yoga book since 2008.

Noting these similarities, I did a side-by-side comparison of the two books, to see how the details compared.

	Yoga Anatomy	Anatomy for Yoga
Cover Design
Background Info	Philosophical concepts; Breathing anatomy; Breathing mechanics; Diaphragm details; Spinal anatomy; Spinal evolution; Spinal movement; Bases of support	Anatomical terminology; Joint movements; Posture categories; Postural problems; Postural benefits of yoga; Spinal anatomy; Breathing mechanics; Meditation benefits; Chakra balancing; Sun salutations
Main Content	Encyclopedic review of major yoga poses, with rich background on breathing and spinal anatomy	Therapeutic sequences for common postural problems, with notes on their physical, emotional, or subtle causes.
Poses Covered	About 75, counting variations.	About 44, counting variations, but many are not classic yoga poses. 4 breathing practices 4 meditation practices
Pose Info	English and Sanskrit name; Context for name; Classification; Level of difficulty; Key structures; Key joint and limb actions; Muscles working; Muscles lengthening; Breathing suggestions; Obstacles; Cautions; Variations; Special notes	English and Sanskrit name; Benefits of pose; Instructions for pose; Key joints; Joint movements; Muscles active; Muscles stretched; Modifications / variations
Pose Illustrations	Main view; Alternate view; Related details	Main view; Alternate view (outline only)

A couple other details: both books nicely illustrate the muscles used in the pose, but neither one color codes the lengthening/stretching muscles differently than the contracting/active muscles. Both books like long lists of muscles; YA presents them in list format, AfY in a more readable chart. (Though, as a student and sometimes teacher, I’d much prefer to have them phrased as directive statements: e.g. “Engage the biceps” instead of “Muscles active: Biceps Brachii.”)

So while both books start with breathing and the spine, and make good use of illustrations, they differ in purpose and execution. Yoga Anatomy will give you more pictures of more poses, and a deeper understanding of breathing mechanics and integration. It’s like an encyclopedia. Anatomy for Yoga will give you an emotional, subtle, and anatomical overview of bad posture, and guidelines for therapeutic practice. It’s like a (mis-named) manual. I have to say it: you can’t judge a book by its cover.

If you’ve read either book, I’d love to hear your comments.

Visvamitrasana, from Yoga Journal

From Tara Glazier, at Abhaya Yoga:

Student: Why do I feel like I’m pulling my shoulder out if its socket? [in Visvamitrasana]

Tara: You might be!

This wake-up call drew a big round of laughter from the class. It’s easy to forget that the asanas are serious challenges for the body. (She went on to explain that we need to draw the shoulder strongly back into its socket to counteract the force of the leg.)

Tara Glazier, the owner of Abhaya Yoga in Dumbo, was teaching us the concept of arm spirals. (It’s an alignment refinement she said she just figured out last week, after 10 years of practice.) We would internally rotate the arms, rounding the shoulders, to feel the width across the upper back, the spreading between the shoulder blades, and the expansion of the breath in the back of the body.

Then we’d externally rotate the arms, lifting the upper chest, drawing the shoulder blades together, to feel the expansion of the breath in the front of the body. It was a potent exercise that made the arms feel as though they started in the center of the body, instead of stopping at the shoulder. And for me, it gave a fascinating endpoint to the breath. I usually lose track of it somewhere in the throat, but the movement of the chest and lungs illuminated the depth of the inhales.

[Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews teach similarly fascinating spirals at The Breathing Project... it's cool to feel it all coming together.]

All of this related to the idea of fullness. Tara had taken a day of silence last week, and shared her experience. We run around all day, talking and helping and working and playing, spilling out energy until we feel drained. We can balance this external focus with a day of silence. Our other senses come alive; we notice colors, smells, flavors, and feelings much more strongly. We can practice breathing. Inspiration. It refills the tanks.

So as we practiced poses this morning, I really felt the breath as a form of food. As I’m sitting here now, I still am. I’m thinking about other ways to refill the tanks in my life. And it’s funny that it starts with doing less.

Molly’s yoga class is known for it’s [sic] intelligent Hatha flow in a vigorous and dynamic style that heals, balances, and promotes adventure in the way of transgressing personal boundaries. Using precision in asana (physical postures), pranayama (breathing techniques) and practive [sic] as well as the tools to develp [sic] an individual connection to the art of yoga. Classes are paced moderately and are designed with modifications for all levels and abilities. Molly is inspired by the teachings of Tantra, and infuses these teachings into her classes. “When we change the way we look at things; the things we look at change.”

She was calm and well-paced and had a lot of unusual alignment instructions (engage the spinal extensors in Warrior III; shoulders over the elbows in Dolphin). She said she studies with Irene Dowd at Julliard, who teaches anatomy for dance, which sometimes conflicts with the specifics of yoga alignment but is often better at getting the general direction across. For example, “drop your shoulders” might make students collapse through the whole chest.

Turns out this was Molly’s last class at Greenhouse; her school schedule has changed so she has to drop that class for now. I’m so glad I went. This is kind of the whole feeling behind this site, that your brain and habits will talk you out of so many things so stop thinking and go now!

(She’s also at The Well, a new-ish Pilates studio at 25 Broadway, at Wythe.)