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Scientific Keys #1
The Key Muscles of Yoga: Scientific Keys Volume I
Through full-color, three-dimensional illustrations of the skeleton, major muscles, tendons, and ligaments, Dr. Ray Long describes the science behind yoga. A board certified orthopedic surgeon who has studied yoga for more than 20 years, Dr. Long combines his knowledge of anatomy with his understanding of yoga to present the anatomic structures that are key to your practice of this discipline. The book balances art, science, and spirituality as it traces the forces at work throughout your musculoskeletal system during yoga practice. Stunning illustrations reveal the role that each muscle plays in the practice of yoga. With an understanding of these structures, you can learn to break through blockages, optimize your experience, and avoid injuries. Designed for use on the mat, this book is an indispensable guide for anyone who wishes to fully integrate the body and mind during yoga practice.
504 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2005
659 people are currently reading
2115 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
August 13, 2008
This is one of the most beautiful and well-done yoga/anatomy books I have ever seen. As learning anatomy can be daunting for some, this book has more illustrations that text. There are full explanations of muscle, tendon, ligament, facia, and skeletal functions as they pertain to yoga poses. I recommend this book to anyone practicing or teaching yoga. The spiral bound cover makes it very practical to use.
July 25, 2015
This is a handy anatomy reference for yoga teachers and practitioners. The bulk of the book describes major muscles, or—when relevant—muscle groups. For each of the key muscles it gives the insertion, origin, innervation, agonists, synergists, and depicts the muscle in color drawings. The book also shows typical yoga postures in which the muscle is engaged or stretched. This gives one some idea of how the muscle is affected by changes in attitude and state of contraction.
True to the title, this isn’t a general anatomy and physiology book for yoga. It specifically deals with the muscular system. That being said, it does have some opening matter on the skeletal system, the various types of joints, and other fundamentals that one must understand to grasp how muscles create movement and change bodily alignment. It also has a few brief chapters at the end that deal with important issues like breathing and bandhas. However, if you’re looking for a book with substantial coverage of the anatomy and physiology of breath or nervous system activity, you’ll likely need to look elsewhere. The book also addresses the concept of chakra, which seems out of place in an otherwise scientific book, but it will be appreciated by those who view the body in that way and is easily enough ignored for those who want a strictly scientific presentation of material.
While the book is limited in its focus, it does a good job of giving a lot of information in a concise fashion. The graphics are easily interpreted and one can readily distinguish the muscles in question. I found the book to be well-organized and easy to use.
I’d recommend this book for any serious yoga practitioners, particularly teachers and those who need to be concerned about the minutiae of movement and alignment.
True to the title, this isn’t a general anatomy and physiology book for yoga. It specifically deals with the muscular system. That being said, it does have some opening matter on the skeletal system, the various types of joints, and other fundamentals that one must understand to grasp how muscles create movement and change bodily alignment. It also has a few brief chapters at the end that deal with important issues like breathing and bandhas. However, if you’re looking for a book with substantial coverage of the anatomy and physiology of breath or nervous system activity, you’ll likely need to look elsewhere. The book also addresses the concept of chakra, which seems out of place in an otherwise scientific book, but it will be appreciated by those who view the body in that way and is easily enough ignored for those who want a strictly scientific presentation of material.
While the book is limited in its focus, it does a good job of giving a lot of information in a concise fashion. The graphics are easily interpreted and one can readily distinguish the muscles in question. I found the book to be well-organized and easy to use.
I’d recommend this book for any serious yoga practitioners, particularly teachers and those who need to be concerned about the minutiae of movement and alignment.
May 27, 2017
This book is exactly what its cover promises it to be: a guide to functional anatomy in yoga. And a good one too, I might add!
The first chapter gives an introduction to the basics of anatomy, which prepares you properly for the in-depth discussions of the chapters on the muscles. I do think that this chapter could benefit from some revision as it could make the relations between concepts clearer, but content-wise everything's there.
The funny thing is that what that first chapter lacks in terms of structure and relations is what makes the chapters on muscles so good: they are structure very clearly, which aids the learning process in many ways.
Another big asset to this book is the use of images. These visual tools help to connect theory to practice.
Lastly, I'd like to draw attention to the level of depth in which the muscles are discussed; I am greatly impressed by that. When I was studying to become a Kinetic Therapist, I was taught the hard facts but not the functional part of anatomy, which makes it abstract. None of that with this book, making it accessible to anyone interested.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in learning what's behind their yoga practice.
The first chapter gives an introduction to the basics of anatomy, which prepares you properly for the in-depth discussions of the chapters on the muscles. I do think that this chapter could benefit from some revision as it could make the relations between concepts clearer, but content-wise everything's there.
The funny thing is that what that first chapter lacks in terms of structure and relations is what makes the chapters on muscles so good: they are structure very clearly, which aids the learning process in many ways.
Another big asset to this book is the use of images. These visual tools help to connect theory to practice.
Lastly, I'd like to draw attention to the level of depth in which the muscles are discussed; I am greatly impressed by that. When I was studying to become a Kinetic Therapist, I was taught the hard facts but not the functional part of anatomy, which makes it abstract. None of that with this book, making it accessible to anyone interested.
I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in learning what's behind their yoga practice.
March 2, 2011
This book was fascinating to me. I am new to anatomy so I was taken back by how complex our bodies really are.
September 28, 2019
Ray Long, a certified orthopaedic surgeon and founder of Bandha Yoga, is the author of Key Muscles of Yoga, and he believes that a basic understanding of the musculoskeletal system is beneficial to yoga practitioners to “optimize practice, break through blockages and avoid injuries."
This was one of the anatomy texts that was required reading for my YTT-200, and it was chosen because it specifically presents key muscles in the context of yoga poses so that we'd understand what a muscle is doing in a given pose. There is not a lot of text, and tons of great images of the human skeleton, the work of digital illustrator, Chris Macivor.
For those that have a tough time in grasping the fundamentals of anatomy, Key Muscles is an introductory text most helpful in reinforcing key concepts. For example, the description of the basic function of joints does not go into the complexity of joint mobility. Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews’ Yoga Anatomy make a strong argument about going beyond the traditional understanding of joint movement as a ball and socket or a hinge, in order to awaken ourselves to the full-range and potential of our movements. Here we are given the foundational understanding and like any good introductory text, it gives you a strong starting-point to explore further.
Key Muscles of Yoga has three parts to it. Part 1 explore the pelvic girdle and thighs, Part 2 the trunk and Part 3, the shoulder girdle and upper arms. It introduces the reader to the terminology for the locations on the body, the skeleton, joints, ligaments, muscles and tendon and movement concepts. Getting to see the skeleton in yoga poses is a great visual - you see exactly how the hip internally rotates in garudasana/eagle pose, or how your gluteus maximus, largest of the four muscles out the outside of the pelvis, contracts in purvottansana/upper plank pose.
Highly recommend.
This was one of the anatomy texts that was required reading for my YTT-200, and it was chosen because it specifically presents key muscles in the context of yoga poses so that we'd understand what a muscle is doing in a given pose. There is not a lot of text, and tons of great images of the human skeleton, the work of digital illustrator, Chris Macivor.
For those that have a tough time in grasping the fundamentals of anatomy, Key Muscles is an introductory text most helpful in reinforcing key concepts. For example, the description of the basic function of joints does not go into the complexity of joint mobility. Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews’ Yoga Anatomy make a strong argument about going beyond the traditional understanding of joint movement as a ball and socket or a hinge, in order to awaken ourselves to the full-range and potential of our movements. Here we are given the foundational understanding and like any good introductory text, it gives you a strong starting-point to explore further.
Key Muscles of Yoga has three parts to it. Part 1 explore the pelvic girdle and thighs, Part 2 the trunk and Part 3, the shoulder girdle and upper arms. It introduces the reader to the terminology for the locations on the body, the skeleton, joints, ligaments, muscles and tendon and movement concepts. Getting to see the skeleton in yoga poses is a great visual - you see exactly how the hip internally rotates in garudasana/eagle pose, or how your gluteus maximus, largest of the four muscles out the outside of the pelvis, contracts in purvottansana/upper plank pose.
Highly recommend.
November 15, 2017
In some ways, this book was helpful, but it's organized oddly and some muscle groups are detailed while others had me wondering, "where the hell is this muscle?" Overall, it was fine, and a nice supplement to Keil's Functional Anatomy of Yoga. On its own, it might have been more confusing than supportive.
September 13, 2011
Fantastic book. Great illustrations and concise descriptions of the muscles in the poses. Both volumes are great tools for yoga instructors.
March 9, 2012
- http://www.BandhaYoga.com
- available in SG NLB 611.7 (Serangoon)
- available in SG NLB 611.7 (Serangoon)
January 18, 2021
I love this book! I especially love that for each of the poses there is a diagram, Long provides the illuminated chakras. The only difficulty I had with this book was with some of the diagrams. Long uses the skeleton to show how the different muscles are contracted and awakened. It was hard to see some of the outlines of the muscles. Aside from that, this is a very good resource when determining how some poses are going to affect the bodies of patients and clients and gives you the chance to modify according to the patient/ clients needs.
March 6, 2018
This book is grand for learning the anatomy for yoga. It goes into great detail about how poses affect the skeleton and muscles. However, this is not what I was looking for and wanted something more basic, perhaps what I'm looking for is in the second book focused on poses.
This book is recommended for someone who wants to study yoga for college/university studies or aims to become a yoga instructor.
This book is recommended for someone who wants to study yoga for college/university studies or aims to become a yoga instructor.
February 16, 2020
Took me back to my faculty days, so a fast read for me. Mostly about anatomy but some intro into the amazing insight by people lived thousands of years ago. Stabilising pelvis is the most important element of bodily health so it is chakra 1. Before diving into the asanas everybody should know some anatomy. Second book must be read too.
November 5, 2018
Fantastic
After years of trying to understand why yoga is so beneficial, seeing how the muscles react with each pose makes it clear. It also helped me understand why certain poses are not possible for me, at least at the moment.
After years of trying to understand why yoga is so beneficial, seeing how the muscles react with each pose makes it clear. It also helped me understand why certain poses are not possible for me, at least at the moment.
April 22, 2020
Writer of the book being a Doctor & Yoga Practitioner for more than 20 years, had set positive ground before I started this book. Book is very informative with less text and more depictions, making it graspable. Though medicine terms are toughest to understand but perfect picture will make you understand the concept completely. I have made my understanding better in knowing how and which muscles work/ get impacted in doing various Yoga Asanas. It is a goto book for Yoga Teachers.
November 15, 2020
A good guide to the muscles and the main joint structures, if you are new to anatomy and physiology like I was it would help to have a basic introduction first but after that this is an easy to use guide which is well laid out with good diagrams.
January 23, 2022
Now that I have read through this book once, I am going to be returning to it frequently. I am also looking forward to reading another book in this series about the key poses. My only complaint is that sometimes it's hard to get a sense from the illustrations of exactly what I'm looking at.
March 23, 2017
3.5
A good source to learn about anatomy. However, there are unclear pictures, and inaccurate answers for test questions.
At one point downward dog is even referred to as upward dog (the image of down dog).
I will continue to use this book, but I'm not sure it's the best source available.
A good source to learn about anatomy. However, there are unclear pictures, and inaccurate answers for test questions.
At one point downward dog is even referred to as upward dog (the image of down dog).
I will continue to use this book, but I'm not sure it's the best source available.
October 4, 2017
This has less muscular detail than the other books I've read on anatomy.
January 28, 2018
Brilliant book. Perfect for learning about anatomy and how it relates to yoga poses. Awesome illustrations
April 6, 2018
Very instructive and informative
August 17, 2018
Too many mistakes
August 27, 2018
I don't know why I waited so long to read this, but super beneficial for yoga teachers and practitioners
January 16, 2019
Used this one for Yoga Anatomy class. Very insightful and learned SO much about my body.
April 18, 2019
Great reference book. It's simple and easy to understand. Beautiful illustrations.
January 7, 2020
Great Yoga anatomy book displaying yoga poses!
January 22, 2020
My fav Anatomy book on yoga.
March 7, 2020
Didn't quite finish this; waste of time. Poor writing, poor editing, inadequate diagrams/labeling/captions. Glad I didn't purchase this myself.
May 10, 2020
A long list of muscles, hard to memorize in one read, but I imagine it could be very helpful during asanas even if you remembered half of it.
May 18, 2020
amazing medical illustrations. the pages on downward facing dog helped me improve mine.
May 23, 2020
Great supplement for YTT
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews