Your Spine, Your Yoga

Book excerpt: Your Spine, Your Yoga is the long-awaited second book of the Your Body, Your Yoga series. Focusing on the axial body, from the tip of the tailbone to the top of the skull, Your Spine, Your Yoga will explain how your body is unique and how this uniqueness affects your yoga practice. The latest anatomical understanding of the spine and its biomechanical abilities is described in varying levels of detail, for the novice to the experienced reader. Applying these principles to a safe and effective yoga practice holds a few surprises: you may discover that not every pose in yoga is a good idea for you, given the nature of your spine and the way we have previously been taught to stress it. Stability is more important than mobility for the vast majority of people, although many yoga classes promote the opposite view. Your Spine, Your Yoga offers alternative perspectives and prescriptions for a yoga practice that is spine sparing and strength building, based upon your unique biology and biography and your unique intentions