Customer Reviews

The Key Muscles of Yoga: Scientific Keys, Volume I

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is fantastic! Have both Vol I & II, and they are invaluable for anyone wanting to learn about yoga, being healthier, or any nursing or med, or physical therapy student.
The book shows which muscles are involved in each yoga move - the ones working, being stretched, or supporting the body weight. For anyone in medicine, this also breaks down movements into steps and illustrates why the patient is in pain with that movement. For anyone in physical therapy, is illustrates why you need to do that excerise & shows how it will help you.
As a student in a yoga teacher training class, this helps me learn how to do the poses correctly and which muscles are working with each pose and how to avoid stressing injuried body parts. Fantastic reading and a great resource!

The Good: One of the best pictorials I have seen on the muscular system. I really like the way the author separates and groups the muscles. Great for learning and relearning your muscle anatomy.

The Bad: I found a couple of mislabeled muscles in the spine and forearm. I sent an email to confirm this with Bandha Yoga but have no heard back. I use Netter as a reference among other text books.

So, my old review is before and it was titled "mixed reviews". I would like to point out that this book has several printings and they each keep improving - errors are getting corrected. This makes me happy as it shows a commitment to sharing accurate information. I highly recommend this book.


I use this book often to teach other teachers about yoga anatomy. The book has sort of made its way into the mainstream and is the often the book used by teacher training schools. Pretty pictures are appealing, aren't they? The pictures are a great learning tool, the quality of the images is supreme. However, the content of the book and the arrangement for that matter leave me perplexed. If using the book to learn specific areas of the body, you find yourself flipping around A LOT. Furthermore, some important information is lacking, at odds with what's common among anatomists (without an explanation), or hard to find. But....pretty pictures are appealing, aren't they? So I use the book as a supplement. Hope that helps.

Wow. This book is awesome. I am a yoga teacher and I teach anatomy to students in a yoga teacher training program, and this book will help me do both better. Really clear pictures and explanations. Includes bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, movement, organs, breath, chakras, bandhas, and of course asana. Expensive though, and Amazon doesn't carry it. Will have to search around for the best price. I borrowed one from a fellow yoga teacher and am on a quest to find one for myself.

I highly recommend a visit to www.bandhayoga.com
for a preview of the 650 amazing full color illustrations and sample chapters in this book. Author Ray Long MD, FRCSC, is a board certified orthopedic surgeon who has studied yoga for over twenty years, training extensively with B.K.S. Iyengar and other leading yoga masters. While I have several other highly recommended and complimentary books on yoga and anatomy, this colorful, dramatic guide to the major muscles stretched and strengthened in yoga postures, brings it all-together!

--Suza Francina, author, The New Yoga for Healthy Aging and other books.

Great to see the muscles in action. I wish I had this book when I first started teaching. This is a great visual image support to understanding the prime movers in asana. I also liked seeing the antagonists and synergist. It is also very helpful to students in understanding verbal instructions and creating an internal image to work with their experience.

I have many anatomy books after completing my 200hr yoga training this fall. While there are many wonderful texts out there, The Key Muscles of Yoga Vol. I is the best for the beginner. The computer generated illustrations are comprehensive and the minimal text really gets the main points across. Another benefit for the person new to anatomy is that the bones and muscles of each major group are covered with reference to the movement they make in various yoga poses. Additionally, because this written by an MD, the technical language is there but it's not scary and provides a great introduction to learning the proper movement terms.

Highly recommend this for the person new to either yoga, anatomy or both!

This book was shown to us during my 200 hr. yoga certification class. This is the creme de la creme of anatomy books! The skeleton figures depict what each muscle is doing as it is in specific yoga poses as well as what the opposite muscles (antagonists) are doing as well. An extremely comprehensive book that is a must have for any yoga teacher or student. Highly recommended!

As a student of Anatomy, Massage Therapist and Yoga teacher I find this book an invaluable resource. Clear, detailed pictures give me all I need to know of the Yoga asana and their application and effect on the human body.
I always wished I had X-ray vision, but I don't need it 'coz I have Ray Long's fantastic book!

I love this book! Understanding what Yoga is, how to do the poses, the flow, and the total benefit is one thing. But, to take my practice far beyond that, I bought this book and the companion (Key Poses of Yoga) and now I really understand and can feel the muscles and skeletal structure that I am working--or not working--as I move. It has made a world of difference in my practice!
I keep this book and its companion open on my coffee table for quick reference every morning. This provides me the opportunity to better visualize my movements and when I find a pose is harder to move into sometimes, I check the book to see which muscle might be the problem.
Many thanks to the author and illustrator for this series!