IGX

"Anatomy for Yoga" DVD with Paul Grilley
Sold by Pranamaya at www.pranamaya.com (same outfit that markets some of Andrey Lappa's DVDs)

The DVD is about 3.5 hours of a hands-on workshop for what appears to be yoga instructors on how individual anatomical differences affects yoga posture and practice. When movements at the joints are limited in some fashion, a distinction between "tension" or "compression" is made. A limitation of movement due to "tension" is one where the elastic tissue of the body reach their stetch limit. With proper body work and practice, limitation due to tension can often be overcome. A limitation due to "compression" is one where tissues, most often bone, are forced together. Limitations due to compression cannot be overcome. Most of the examples on postures and individual joint movement are demonstrated by experienced yoga students/instructors from the workshop demonstrating a wide range and movement limitation due to compression. The take-home message is that because of natural individual differences in anatomy, every one's yoga will be different. If two people look the same on the outside, their experience will be different. Ya, I know, not suprising... but it does demonstrate the incredible variance in individual joint movement and it's effect on basic yoga postures with experienced students. It's interesting how different students make compensations both the hypermobile and hypomobile (is that a word?).

A brief and abridged menu:

The lecture menu -
* The Big Picture
* Shoulder vs. Spine
* The Femur
* The Pelvis
* Proportion
* Orientation
* Q & A
* Conclusion

Interactive Skeleton menu
(disappointing but pretty. not a major part of the product)

Bonus Lectures menu -
* Connective Tissue
* Taoist View of Life
* Femur Bone: Twist of the Shaft
* Femur Bone: Angle of the Neck
* Femur Bone: Length of the Neck

Comparison Graphics menu -
* Student Asana Comparison Slideshow
* Femur Bones Comparison Slideshow
* Anatomical Movements Slideshow

All-in-all I really liked this DVD. I find it helps me understand a bit better my limitations with yoga, bodyweight and other exercise. In the past I have been a bit of an idiot with stretching as I was trying to do with my body what I saw in the pictures and as a result my knees are a bit loose due to a stretching of some of the ligaments that shouldn't have been stretched.

I like Grilley's stuff. He's laways been controversial. He's first book was Yin Yoga, wherein he advocates holding poses for very long periods of time, like 30 minutes, to overcome flexibility issues. This came out when power yoga was all the rage.

I read an article about the topic of the book by him in Yoga journal. Again, not all yoga teachers want you to tell their students this. Of course it's true, different bone/tendon/ligiment lengths make things impossible for some people.

Hopefully this will become more of a talked about and accepted thing. In most classes there is brutal compitition to get to a certain form of a pose to be in the cool group.

Grilley talks a lot about variations on his Yin Yoga DVDs already. For me, I got enough of it on those. I heard that the anatomy DVD is great but once you've watched it twice, you get the point and then it's usefulness is at an end.

His POV is so helpful to me personally. I hate the idea of yoga as competition. Grilley is the perfect antidote to that stuff.

I noticed a new book by Sarah Powers out on the stands - "Insight Yoga". It's a variety of meridian-based yoga exercises that combined Grilley's "Yin" practices with various "Yang" supplements. Grilley wrote the foreword, so I supposed he approves her approach. (I think she also has a couple of DVDs out).

The explanation of Yin in yoga vs Yang is very coherent and easy to comprehend .I can't say what Western Medicine and physiology would say in response, or how many PhDs and PTs would think she is crazy, but she does make it easy to understand in Western terms what Yin yoga hopes to accomplish for a person's health, vitality, spirtual advancement, etc.

It make Bob Cooley's model look (do this pose to undo your birth trauma, etc) look pretty dumb by comparison. She manages to integrate Vipassana meditation in there too.

Thanks for the review, Mutant!

Abandoned by Wolves wrote:I noticed a new book by Sarah Powers out on the stands - "Insight Yoga". It's a variety of meridian-based yoga exercises that combined Grilley's "Yin" practices with various "Yang" supplements. Grilley wrote the foreword, so I supposed he approves her approach. (I think she also has a couple of DVDs out).

IIRC Grilley's 'Yin' yoga was somewhat in response to a flood of primarily 'Yang' yogas; he seeks to balance the 'Yang' practice rather than correct or replace it. I don't remember the lineage, but I believe he studied 'Taoist' yoga with a teacher in Japan, hence a lot of the 'Yin/Yang' imagery. IMHO, many mini-mall yogas in the past have come across as overy flaccid, it's not suprising that 'strong' yogas like Bikrams emerged.