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 Schiffmann...