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...