anatomy

Leslie Kaminoff’s YogaAnatomy.net Newsletter

Leslie Kaminoff’s YogaAnatomy.net Newsletter

I’m not sure why it took me so long, but I finally signed up for a weekly online newsletter at http://yogaanatomy.net/ delivered by Leslie Kaminoff, a leading anatomy teacher and author of the  #1 best-selling yoga book “Yoga Anatomy.”

Once a week, I receive an email that features tips and information about yoga and anatomy. Every email features a different pose and its anatomical intrigues: for instance, Halasana (Plow Pose) a couple of weeks ago included information about the muscle groups, skeletal movements and rotations, as well as implications for the breath and a couple of excellent animations to illustrate the pose.

Kaminoff also includes a quote of the week. An ardent fan of a well-intentioned quote, I especially appreciate this inclusion. They are often perfectly straight-to-the-point. Just what a yoga student needs to hear:

There is nothing wrong with you that you have one tight hip and one loose hip, or one leg that wants to turn out a little more than the other. This is what it is to be human. So give yourself a break.

The newsletters include a short video on various topics related to teaching. They also provide information about signing up for his acclaimed Yoga Anatomy Course, previously only available at his studio (now available online!). “The Breathing Project in NYC, has helped teachers and practitioners from yoga, dance, pilates, and somatic therapy backgrounds improve their teaching, enhance their personal practice, and provide better experiences for their students and clients.” (http://yogaanatomy.net/)

If you aren’t already receiving the weekly newsletter from YogaAnatomy.net, sign up now! Visit www.YogaAnatomy.net and provide your email address in the top right corner. Enjoy the wonderful information from Leslie Kaminoff!

OUR CONSCIOUS ‘WEB’ : ARE YOU LISTENING?

Over the course of the last several weeks we have looked at the benefits of the fascia system, and showcased a few of the meridian lines with relation to the practice of yoga and sport, but before we break the lines down further, lets take a moment to  bring the fascia system into consciousness and reconnect with the bigger picture.

Yoga and sport are not just about muscles and contractions – it’s about whole body communication and connection to the self. It’s about a whole series of systems working together as a unified symbiosis of pure movement.

We have discussed that this body wide net is one of the body’s most significant communicators in providing us with feedback and messages as a response mechanism to what is going on in our body. It is a conscious web, always present, communicating mechanical messages in and around the body, a synergistic dance of tension and compression,  force and stability.

The question is…are you listening?

These whole body linkages, not only shed light on how the body responds to pain, discomfort, energy levels etc, –  but there is a much larger connection between the fascia, the body and the mind; which is much more powerful.

Yoga engages the body and mind in a way that has therapeutic benefits and acts as a gateway to “re-form” ones self, our purpose and acts to discipline the mind through working with the body. Our attitude, energy and behaviors play a significant role in how our fascia responds; thus a conscious, all encompassing sensory experience.

Myofascial Meridians can give you a deeper understanding of the whole-body patterning needed in posture and function, in every day life and in performance based athletics. It gives us insight into the very concept that isolating a muscle or “area” is rarely the problem or failure, (meaning just one muscle, or the point of failure in the structure resulting in pain). When you experience knee pain or back pain, your whole body and every system experiences this on a biological level, however, we are custom to thinking and feeling it within a narrow lens. Yoga can help expand our perception and allow us to listen and become more aware of each movement as a whole body experience.

In transformational bio mechanics and functional movement (which Yoga paved the way for), this is called re-modeling or re-patterning.

“The way we have looked at Western anatomy is undergoing a somewhat of a revolution, or a paradigm shift. You’re constantly remodeling your system both in response to your psychological experience and your physical experience, and your habitual experience, including your exercise. So that if we starting looking at how this system operates as a system we would start to see a whole other way in which the body is conscious. Yoga can be seen as a fascial remodeling technique” – Tom Meyes, The Magazine of Yoga

For example, the ‘Spiral Line’ can show you how to resolve and re pattern rotational compensations or a lack of spinal mobility in a way that no assessment of any single muscle can give.

Fascia has ten times the innervating power then muscle; therefore, it is a grand communication tool and conscious operating system to tune into. Next week our exploration of the fascia web and anatomy trains continues with the Lateral Line, where we will explore a movement meditation for understanding the mechanics and benefits to side bends, and lateral movement.

Sources: Tom Meyers – Anatomy Trains & The Magazine of Yoga

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