Customer Reviews

Anatomy of Movement

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As a student of yoga and dance, I've been looking for an anatomy book to help me understand what's involved in movement. Unfortunately, most of the books I found were encyclopedic reference tomes that overwhelmed me with information. So I was delighted to run across this one: because its specific focus is movement, the drawings and descriptions cover only the relevant anatomical details. It's easy to understand and clear without being simplistic. The organization of the book makes it easy to find the information you want. And it doesn't just show joints and muscles; other relevant body parts are illustrated so the reader comprehends how everything works together (I never understood what the diaphragm really looks like until I saw this book!). This is a book that belongs in everyone's library -- it's not just for dancers or bodyworkers.

As other reviewers have said, this is an excellent introduction to anatomy and kinesiology. The book strikes the perfect balance between clinical detail and practical knowledge for body-workers, athletes and dancers. We have copies of several pages up on the wall at my Pilates studio which get referred to often.

All the major skeletal muscle groups of the limbs and torso are covered. It is not a disection manual. It is organized for students of movement. Of particular value is the section on the work of the psoas and the "psoas paradox" that is somewhat controversial.

To get more in depth, one text I can recommend for the dancer/Pilates instructor is "Dance Kinesiology" by Sally Sevey Fitt.

This excellent book focuses on the practical explanation of joint construction and function. Describes in easy-to-understand terms how muscles act upon joints. Uncanny in its ability to simplify a complex subject, if studied carefully it will give there reader an understanding of applied anatomy and kinesiology to almost second year university level. Excellent-yet-simple illustrations can be related to Dance, Gymnastics, Yoga and Martial Arts. I have used it extensively throughout my degree and in my opinion it should be a standard text in all human movement and physiotherapy courses.

The book contains hundreds of drawings showing the attachments and actions of the skeletal muscles. Muscle actions are related to movements of stretching, walking, standing, dance, sport, etc. Diagrams show the range of movement, how muscle action varies with posture and position, directions in which force is exerted, how the action of one muscle affects another.

This book is everything I wanted. I faced facts a long time ago that when it comes to subjects like science and anatomy, I'm not incredibly gifted. But I understood everything in this book during the first read. It is all laid out so matter-of-factly, that it is easy to digest.

As a yoga instructor, I have been looking for a book that covers how the human body moves in a way that I could apply towards my knowledge of postures. This book succeeded admirably.

The Anatomy of Movement is a well-written and organized book that is targeted to athletes, dancers and others who need to understand physical structures and their functional relationships to movement.

The book has very clear and detailed line drawings that are easy to understand and convert to three dimensional visualizations. They are also presented logically and without a lot of jargon or superfluous detail.

The book is organized by regions of the body and it does a good job of covering all areas. There is also a nice balance between diagrams and text.

I was a biology major as an undergraduate and a teaching fellow in Physiology. I also took comprehensive anatomy at the doctoral level and I found this to be just enough detail for people who are athletes. There are more comprehensive books out there, but if you want to learn the essentials painlessly, this is your book.

Another good book with a different focus is the Anatomy of Yoga by McCall. This includes yoga specific information and more text relating to movement. I regard the book I'm reviewing and the Anatomy of Yoga as complimentary.

I agreed with the comments of a previous reviewer that most anatomy books tend to be overwhelming tomes that provide little understanding to those who want to apply it to their movement discipline. As a professional martial artist, I have found that this book is by far the most practical book on anatomy I have ever read. Blandine Germain clearly explains "the how" of body movement and the relevant tissue, tendons and range of motion. It is an excellent roadmap for troubleshooting inefficient movement whether you are a bodyworker, athlete, dancer, or martial artist.

In all of my materials as a massage therapist, none of them covered ligaments functions, names and locations as well as this one! Beautiful illustrations and it's a book that makes you get up and move every few minutes as you're reading!

I used book for my Yoga Teacher training course. Learning the larger muscles is easy, but the smaller more detailed, deeper muscles is diffucult. This book really illustrated these wonderfully!
Loved the movement directional pictures, though sometimes I was still confused since I was doing a slightly different movement, such as rotating shoulders/blades back and down (used in most yoga poses), then also while upside down in a headstand, trying to get the muscles identified was difficult.
Glancing through the book was overwhelming, but when I really sat down to examine a movement, it was great!

The is the best explanation I've ever seen of how the muscles and joints work together to let the human body move. It has been an outstanding resource while I have suffered through several joint related problems, and impressed both my chiropractor and othopedic surgeon as well.