I remember I picked this boo up last year, like in September of so and after reading a few pages I sat it back down. I didn’t want to read another A&P book. And my first thought was this is another damn textbook and I am burnt out from school. But I decided to give it another go after asking my boyfriend which yoga book I should read. He choose this one and I figured, hey, why not give it a shot again. I am glad I did.
I only have a year of A&P under my belt and I did find it a little distracting trying to remember all the medical names of the bones and muscles and tendons in the body, and not to mention the terminology for yoga that I am not really familiar with. But that didn’t deter me, I kept on moving forward, flipping back if I needed to see what a word meant.
What I like about this book is that it goes through a pretty in-depth explanation of all the muscles and how they relate to a particular asana. What this book contains is 276 pages, 11 chapters of anatomy and how it relates to the individuals body and the basic principles behind them. Within the 11 chapters 6 of them are divided by asanas (standing, sitting, kneeling, supine, prone and arm support) which makes it easy for me, personally, to figure out which asanas I want to start with and how to divide them up and combine them on certain days of practice.
With the breakdown of how the muscles act with the body I can understand the positions better, being that I am in the medical field and I always want to have good blood flow to the tissues and the rest of my body this was actual a perfect read for me to start my year off with. I will and can be more mindful of how I stretch and what positions I put my body into. Be more cautious of pulling or pushing myself, and understanding it isn’t about touching my forehead to the floor, but more about giving my spine the stretch that it needs. I can also focus more on my breathing when it comes to certain positions and how to really breathe correctly.
I took quite a few notes from this book, and with a couple weeks practice, I will have a very easy , and body friendly yoga practice that I can commit to and not overdo. I have a tendency to overdo things. A lot lol. I have always wanted to do yoga and this book was the perfect stepping stone for me to start my practice.
I totally recommend this book if you want to understand how the muscles in your body and bones and breathing work with one another in your different asanas.
5 out of 5
Serenity of the Dark 