There are virtues and drawbacks to the use of the traditional concepts and belief systems in yoga to inform its various practices. On the one hand, for many, the belief that one is engaged in an experience rooted in ancient knowledge and validated by the passage of time provides a level of confidence and reinforcement. Also, learning a new and foreign set of concepts within the context of what appears to be a holistic and coherent paradigm signals and emphasizes the ways in which learning yoga is not simply an adjustment to one’s physical exercise activities, as it might be in, say, adding a new move to one’s basketball offense or a new stitch in knitting.

Yoga involves a transformative approach to physical activity centered more in the breath and the sense of the bodymind than in simply a new arrangement or movement of the limbs. So inviting students to learn the traditional yoga practices and belief systems can be an insightful and affirmative part of the practice and, for many...

This is excerpted from Chapter 9 of Yoga Therapy, "Kinesiology and the Biomechanics of Movement."

The trouble with the fast lane is that all the movement is horizontal. And I like to go vertical sometimes.

—TOM ROBBINS

YOGA ASANAS ARE TYPICALLY DEPICTED in the yoga anatomy literature in the same static form that we find presentations of human anatomy more generally. We are given idealized perfect forms showing the precise position of the bones (and occasionally ligaments) in various asanas, with muscles added to show how the skeleton is held in that position. These portrayals help us understand the basic form of the asana and which muscles are doing what in support of it, sometimes including identification of the role played by each muscle. Many of the best of these published works on yoga anatomy are written by teachers with a primary background in Iyengar-style yoga, which emphasizes, in the words of B. K. S. Iyengar, the “perfect pose.”

The American yoga teacher Erich Schi...

This is excerpted from Yoga Therapy, Foundations, Methods, and Practices for Common Ailments.

(Photos showing asana details are in the book only.)

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The vertebral column (spine) generally consists of 33 vertebrae (rarely 32 or 34) arranged in five regions: cervical (C1–C7), thoracic (T1–T12), lumbar (L1–L5), sacral (S1–5), and coccygeal (four that are not ordinarily numbered). Although vertebrae in the sacral and coccygeal regions are fused, fibrocartilaginous intervertebral discs separate, bind, and provide shock absorption between all but two of the other twenty-four vertebrae—the atypical C1 and C2 (Atlas and Axis, respectively), with C1 resting on the facets of C2. Thus, the most superior disc is between C2 and C3, and the most inferior disc is between L5 and S1.  

The varying shapes of the intervertebral discs give curvature to the spine. All have a common structure: the annulus fibrosus, several thin fibrocartilaginous layers that form an outer...

Excerpted from Yoga Therapy, Chapter 2.

The source of the world is motiveless and has the unique appearance of consciousness and bliss. It has an eternal Nature [prakriti], like the shadow cast by the sun. Although herself inert, she used the consciousness of the supreme Self [purusha] to create all and everything which is transient, like a piece of theatre.

In the beginning, Nature, the mother of all, gave birth to intellect [mahat], composed of desire [rajas] and vast in appearance [sattva]. Out of that came personal identity [ahamkara]. It was born in three divisions [gunas], according to the qualities of purity [sattva], passion [rajas], and darkness [tamas]. From the unity of purity and passion arose the ten organs [indriyas] and also the mind [manas]. The organs are: the ear, the skin, the eye, the tongue, the nose, the voice, the hands, the feet, the sex organs, and the rectum. Those with detailed understanding say that the first five are the organs of intellect, while th...

[Excerpted from Yoga Therapy, Chapter 3, "Modern Medical Science.]

I'm intrigued and concerned that in a yoga world in which truth ("satya") is widely considered a supreme moral principal there is widespread acceptance or tolerance of falsity, or what in Trumpian language might be called "alternative facts." Why do so many otherwise intelligent and rational people subscribe to ideas or theories that have long ago been proven wrong?! The concept of nadis, which I've explained in detail in some of my books, is from pure speculation, with some writers asserting that the culturally agreed upon number of 72,000 is somehow "correct." Similarly, we have the theory of humours, without which most of Ayurveda and the concept of the gunas loose their foundation...humours being concepts for explaining the basic building blocks of life forms (and other forms) that were disproven in early post-Renaissance physics. 

The scientific method claims to approach health and healing with empirical evi...

The top seven results of a Google search for the terms “skin” and “yoga” are all about the most superficial aspect of skin – not the health of the skin, but how it appears.

Search results promise yoga for naturally glowing skin, 6 powerful yoga asanas for glowing skin, 5 yoga poses for beautiful skin and more.

In her book Yoga Cures: Simple Routines to Conquer More Than 50 Common Ailments and Live Pain-Free, Tara Stiles offers practices for four specific skin conditions: acne, cellulite, dark eye circles, and wrinkles.

Working under the theory that stress causes acne, Stiles prescribes stressful asanas—plank, chataranga dandasana, side plank, and bow. By simply learning to stay calm through challenging asanas, Stiles asserts, practitioners will limit the negative impacts of stress, thereby reducing acne.

We can appreciate this idea, and recognize that learning to stay calm in stressful situations is a general benefit of practicing many yoga asanas. But the truth is, the development...

There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.

         —ANAIS NIN

Healing what ails us, whether physical injury or existential angst, is a leitmotif of yoga dating to ancient times. Today, yoga therapy is emerging from the shadows of intensely vigorous, workout-oriented yoga, reaffirming the healthy transformative potential of yoga. This growing trend might be associated with “leading edge baby boomers,” many of whom caught the largely countercultural 60s yoga wave, but now at an average of 70 years-old are a bit more frail. There’s also growing awareness that yoga can help with everything from alcoholism and PTSD to sprained knees and injured wrists.

Curiously, yoga chikitsa – Sanskrit for yoga therapy – can be a confusing concept. It is the term coined by Tirumalai Krishnamacharya to describe...

Excerpted from the "Introduction" to Yoga Therapy: Foundations, Methods, and Practices (712 pages, forthcoming November 2017, North Atlantic Books/Penguin Random House)

Excerpted from Chapter 17, " Communication and Interaction in Yoga Therapy," Yoga Therapy: Foundations, Methods, and Practices (712 pages, forthcoming November 2017, North Atlantic Books/Penguin Random House)