Your Body, Your Yoga: Learn Alignment Cues That Are Skillful, Safe, and Best Suited To You Paperback – April 12, 2016

Hands down, THIS is the most significant book on the execution of yoga postures in print. Many years ago, Paul Grilley, quietly began introducing the implications of skeletal variation to the yoga world. In many ways, this was a Copernican Revolution, upending a deeply entrenched cognitive bias that said the correctness and safety of a yoga posture could be determined by the trained eye of a teacher. The assumption within this paradigm was simply that everyone had the same skeleton, and that any limitation in a yogi's capacity to achieve or execute a posture was due to 'tightness' in their soft tissues. Well, not so fast. In exposing the truth of skeletal variation and its implications, we now know, thanks to Paul's early work, that soft tissue tension is only half the story. The shape, orientation, length, and angle of your bones also influences how and to what degree you can move.In the wake of this understanding, a new paradigm of Functional Alignment has emerged, soon - hopefully - to obviate the pernicious legacy of Aesthetic Alignment. Functional Alignment is based on the principle of aligning the body in a way that is functionally optimal to the unique conditions of the individual. Aesthetic Alignment is based on the principle of organizing the body in ways that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye (right angles, parallel lines).Bernie Clark's book, "Your Body, Your Yoga," is the proverbial Bible of this new movement, and the full-throated culmination of Grilley's pioneering work. Clark details in systematic exactitude how and why physical variation will influence how somebody will be able to do or NOT do a particular asana in a given way.But yogis be warned: inevitably, learning and applying the information contained within this book will require you to question and, likely, unlearn much of what you were taught during your previous yoga training. This will not be comfortable. The struggle to integrate the insights of this book will not be easy. Cherished teaching cues will be exposed for the imperfect approximations that they are. But the rewards are equally rich.Once integrated, you will be able to practice and teach in a significantly more sophisticated and nuanced way. And as a teacher you will become less an authority on what the student should LOOK LIKE while doing yoga and more of a collaborative facilitator, coaching your students to make wiser choices for themselves with regards to what alignment considerations make most sense.In my Yin Yoga teacher trainings, "Your Body, Your Yoga" is the core text for unlocking the complexity of human variation. Thank you, Bernie Clark, for your work and the brilliant clarity by which you convey it.

In light of the growing popularity of yoga and the rise of injuries in the yoga room, this book couldn't have arrived at a better time. It's not an anatomy atlas as most yoga anatomy books are, but rather a comprehensive examination of how our structural anatomy *works* and how our unique variations impact a practice. He provides invaluable advice for ascertaining in your own body what feels appropriate and even how to spot trouble in your students. I recently taught an anatomy intensive based in large part on my studies with Bernie's teacher Paul Grilley and the information provided in this book. The students, mostly teachers, were completely blown away as so much of this material isn't covered in a typical yoga TT. Indeed, I think much of the information would be completely new to even long-time teachers. My copy is already well worn as I keep going back to it again and again.While Bernie does a fantastic job of keeping the material readable, it's very dense. I think this book would be a bit over the head of a lot of average yoga practitioners who don't already have an inner body geek. But that shouldn't stop anyone serious about practicing for life to give it a go. I can't wait until the other volumes arrive.

Very interesting book

I have taught the anatomy sections of yoga teacher trainings for many years, often as a guest instructor, and I've never found a book that I thought was an ideal text for students/new teachers until this book. This book is exceptionally well-written in three ways: it is easy to read, using language that is approachable and easily understandable by a wide range of readers, it is evidence-based with clear descriptions about how and why each assertion is reasonable (with citations), and the text is enjoyable, with personality and character.Bernie Clark has a way of describing the facts of anatomy, which are rarely cut and dry, without inventing a host of new vocabulary that prevents the reader from cross-referencing or additional reading. He draws together many different traditions and has quite clearly outlined what I think is most essential for new teachers and practitioners to understand about their bodies. I highly recommend any yogi and every yoga instructor read this book.

This book explains very well why we should customize yoga to our body and needs and not compare our practice and ability to others. I highly recommend it.

This is an incredibly well researched book. It contains every bit of anatomy/physiology information that a yogi could want or need.To be honest it was so advanced that it was a bit over my head for a general practitioner of yoga. But if you are well versed and a teacher, say,it would be so helpful. Teachers are given ways to assess student's individual anatomy variations: one "cue" does not fit all!

Bernie's book "Your Body, Your Yoga" is essential to have for anyone who is interested in learning about their body -- from yoga practitioners, yoga teachers, fitness instructors, movement lovers.... this must be on the top of your must read list. This book will deepen the relationship you have with your body and help you revisit your "goal-fixations" in your practice and relax your own attitude about your own practice. This will take you to a new level of understanding about the mechanics of YOUR OWN body and what works the BEST for YOU. The book is easy to read -- with wonderful illustrations and easy-to-understand examples. Thank you Bernie for your contributions to the yoga/body movement field.Lisa Jang, Yin Yoga Practitioner and Teacher Faculty at The Yoga Company, San Ramon, CA and Just Breathe {Yoga} Rivermark, Santa Clara, CA