“You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body,” insists yoga instructor, licensed massage therapist, and anatomy teacher Kelly Solloway, author of the brilliant The Yoga Anatomy Coloring Book.
This fun frolic through your body via yoga poses provides an entertaining and informative journey by having you use your colored pencils to get better acquainted with the bones, joints, and muscles used in yoga.
After an overview of helpful terms, Kelly covers the skeletal system, joints, and connective tissue, followed by the muscular system. Each anatomical feature is illustrated with a beautiful black-and-white drawing of a yoga posture, or asana, to color.
Coloring the bones and muscles and their names will help you remember their location and function, and 32 perforated flashcards enable readers to quiz themselves and study yoga anatomy on the go.
“This book is not intended to teach you how to do the yoga asanas,” Kelly explains. “It is designed to teach you what you are actually doing with the muscles and bones in your body to move and align the body as you practice properly. It is an introduction that focuses on the fundamentals and is intended to inform rather than overwhelm.”
From Planes of Movement to Muscles of the Lateral Side of the Leg, you’ll learn terms, find practice tips (if the pain starts along the lower back, it may be indicative of root nerve compression) and fun facts (the top of the Sacroiliac Joint creates the dimples in the lower back) — all which will help you create a deeper relationship with your body through yoga. And isn’t that exactly the point of this exercise?