Your Spine, Your Yoga: Developing Stability and Mobility for Your Spine, (Paperback)

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, how your spine is built, will
allow you to tailor your exercises wisely to match your goals.

Your Spine, Your Yoga is the second
book in the Your 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