Your Spine, Your Yoga is the long-awaited second book of theYour Body, Your Yoga series. Focusing on the axial body, from the tip of the tailbone to the top of the skullYour 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

Your Spine, Your Yoga is arguably the first book that looks at the spine from both the Western anatomical/biomechanical point of view and the modern yoga perspective. It is filled with detail, discussion, illustrations, and practical advice for spines of all types. This emphasis on variety is welcome and necessary: no two spines are exactly alike, and no two people have the same biology and biography. What your spine is able to do may be vastly different from what other yoga students’ or teachers’ spines can do.

The human spine is unique in its structure and function. Primarily, it provides stability through the core of our body, allowing forces to be transmitted from the upper body (arms and shoulders) to the lower body (pelvis and legs) and vice versa. Secondarily, the spine allows tremendous range of movement. Unfortunately, in modern yoga practice we find the primacy of these two functions reversed, with flexibility prized over stability. This focus on spinal mobility comes at a grave cost to many students. Stability is lost, and when that happens, dysfunction and pain often follow.

Just as all tissues and areas of the body need a healthy amount of stress to regain and maintain optimal health, so too our spine needs the appropriate levels of stress to remain functional throughout our lives. How we choose to exercise the spine makes a difference, though. Knowing the way the spine is built, specifically, howyour spine is built, will allow you to tailor your exercises wisely to match your goals.

Your Spine, Your Yoga is the second book in theYour Body, Your Yoga series and focuses on the axial body―the core, from the sacral complex, which includes the pelvis, sacrum, and sacroiliac joint, through the lumbar and thoracic segments of the spine, to the cervical complex, which includes the neck and head. The structural components of each segment are examined: from the bones, to the joints, ligaments, fascia, tendons, muscles, and even the neurological and blood systems. The range and implications of human variations are presented, as well as the ways these variations may affect individual yoga practices. The sources of restrictions to movement are investigated through answering the question “What Stops Me?” The answers presented run through a spectrum, beginning with various types of tensile resistance to three kinds of compressive resistance.

Whether the reader is a novice to yoga, anatomy, or both, or a seasoned practitioner with an in-depth knowledge in these fields, this book will be valuable. For the novice, there are easily understood illustrations and photographs, as well as sidebars highlighting the most important topics. For the anatomy geek, other sidebars focus on the complexity of the topic, with hundreds of references provided for further investigation. For the yoga teacher, sidebars suggest how to bring this knowledge into the classroom.Your Spine, Your Yoga can be used as a resource when specific questions arise, as a textbook to be studied in detail, or as a fascinating coffee-table book to be browsed at leisure for topics of current interest.

Table of Contents for Your Spine, Your Yoga
Gratitude
How to read this book
Preface
Foreword
Summary of key concepts
Intentions

Chapter 1: The axial body
Overview of the axial body

• Axial landmarks
• Spinal segments
• Variations of the spine
• Curves of the spine
• Posture perfect?
• Bones of the axis
• Ligaments and fascia
• Movements of the spine
• The kinds of stress in the spine
• Spinal nerves and neurodynamics

Overview summary

Chapter 2: The sacral complex

Form

• The architecture of the sacral complex
• Bones and cartilage
• Joints and ligaments
• Muscles of the sacral complex
• Fascial trains of the sacral complex

Function: Application in yoga postures

• Normal ranges of motion within the sacral complex
• Stressing and supporting the sacroiliac joint in yoga postures
• Normal ranges of motion of the whole sacral complex

Sacral complex summary

Chapter 3: The lumbar segment

Form

• The architecture of the lumbar segment
• The bones of the lumbar segment
• Axial fascia and muscles
• Lumbar and thoracic muscles

Function: application in yoga postures

• Normal ranges of motion
• Sources of tension
• Sources of compression
• Variation in ranges of motion for flexion and extension
• Yoga and the lumbar spine

The lumbar spine summary

The thoracic spinal segment

Form

• The architecture of the thoracic spine
• The bones of the thorax
• Joints and ligaments
• Thoracic fascia
• Thoracic muscles

Function: application in yoga postures

• Normal ranges of motion
• Sources of tension
• Sources of compression
• Variation in ranges of motion for twists and side bends
• Biomechanics of the breath and its variations

Thoracic spine summary

The Cervical Complex

Form

• The Architecture of the cervical spine
• The bones of the cervical complex
• Joints and ligaments
• Muscles of the cervical complex
• Fascia of the cervical complex

Function: application in yoga postures

• Normal ranges of motion
• Movements and their restrictions: tensions and compressions
• Variation in ranges of motion

Cervical spine summary

Volume 3: Summary

Major Sidebars

It’s important
The flaw of averages
The myth of the static ideal
Where is the neutral spine?
The myth of the static ideal
What does "stable" mean?
Early morning yoga and yoga after sitting
Stress, stretch, flexibility, mobility and hypermobility
Defining some terms
Yoga poses, sitting postures and sleeping position can overstretch nerves
Yoga and the sacral complex
In standing yoga postures, should we tuck the tailbone?
Defining the core muscles
Stiffness and stability
Our orientation to gravity affects the amount of stress on the spine
Different yoga postures stress the vertebral discs in different ways
Avoid twisting the spine when it is flexed or extended and under load
For deeper backbends, relax the extensor muscles!
Bracing and Spacing
Building endurance
Of bent knees and straight spines
Maintaining our vital capacity as we age
Slowing the breath is better than deepening the breath
Galileo, scaling laws and Headstand
The vertebral arteries
As you get older, be careful of weight bearing neck movements!
Returning the head to neutral
Shoulder stand—a high risk, low reward posture
Headstand—a high risk, low reward posture

It’s complicated
Statistics
Approximation and Distraction
Shear is stressful
Naming the nerves and their routes
The sciatic nerve
Force closure and form closure
Details of the sacrum
The perineum
The ways the sacrum moves
Does the sacrum nutate or counternutate in backbends?
Is it possible to therapeutically adjust the sacrum?
Changing the alignment of your hips before twisting
Snaps, cracks and pops—noisy sacrum
Lumbar lordosis in sports
Variations between the lumbar vertebrae
The spines of contortionists
Deep fascia and aponeuroses
The strength and stiffness of the spinal ligaments
A functional view of the erector spinae
The strength of the back muscles
How can our spines lift heavy loads?
How much stress can our spines tolerate?
Variations of the thoracic vertebrae
The diaphragm pulls and pushes on the heart
Membranes and ligaments between the skull and neck
Coupled movements
The neck does not move as one unit
Whiplash and sports trauma

Note to teachers
Learning to sense the spine
To hinge or not to hinge?
A philosophy for counterposes
Moola bandha and Kegel exercises
Can you feel relative movements of the ilia or of the sacrum?
Stress, twists and the sacroiliac joint
Don’t be fooled by the apparent curve in the lower back!
We cannot isolate and activate individual muscles
Watch your students!
Keep watching your students!
A flat back does not create a neutral spine
Strengthening the bones of the spine
Combatting hyperkyphosis
Sometimes it is okay to do only one side of a pose!
Variation in breast size will affect some women’s yoga practice
Movement can enhance breath, breath can enhance movement—sometimes!
Jalandhara bandha

Web appendices
Measuring the curves of the spine
Body size and spinal curves
Orientation of the facets
Creep and counterposes
Thickness of the discs and vertebral bodies
Hypermobility and Yin Yoga
Spinal biotensegrity
Variations in the shapes and sizes the auricular area of the sacroiliac joint
Pelvic parameters and variations
Accessory joints of the sacral complex
Myofascial meridians
Sacral, low back and neck pain and problems
Moment arms, torque and force
Wedging of the vertebrae and discs
Alignment of the spinous processes
Prying open the anterior discs in deep backbends
The thoracolumbar fascial train
More on the strength of the spinal ligaments
Folding forward with arms overhead increases stress in the spine
Axial rotation and lateral flexion can create flexion and extension
How yoga affects our blood chemistry
Other anterior neck muscles
Muscles of the face and jaw