Anatomy Studies for Yoga Teachers & Movement Professionals

Cross-Training for Yogis: Cultivating Functional Balance in the Upper Body

Jason Ray Brown — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 23:13:00 +0000

Does Yoga Cultivate Balance in the Body? An expression that I often see written and hear discussed in reference to the physical practice of yoga asana is that it “brings balance to the body.” The suggestion seems to be that if you practice yoga regularly, it will naturally result in a more muscularly balanced body. […]

Yoga & Beyond: A New Podcast Series with ASFYT Alum Ariana Rabinovitz

Jason Ray Brown — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 21:38:05 +0000

Ariana Rabinovitch, New York City yoga teacher and ASFYT alum, recently started a new blog and podcast series called Yoga & Beyond. She has done some great interviews with a few of the leaders in the mind-body movement field (Brooke Siler, Chrissy Carter, Brooke Thomas and Katy Bowman so far), and more are sure to […]

Anatomy of Asana: Dandasana & Paschimottanasana

Jason Ray Brown — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 03:52:39 +0000

Dandasana, staff pose, is a great assessment posture to determine whether or not a student will be able to skillfully practice seated forward bending postures like Janusirshasana and Paschimottanasana. The ideal alignment in Dandasana requires that the thighs are flexed 90 degrees at the hip joints with the knees fully extended, while maintaining the natural […]

YogaCity NYC Panel Discussion: Physical & Subtle Anatomy

Jason Ray Brown — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 01:48:00 +0000

This past Wednesday I had the privilege to participate in a panel discussion with Brette Popper (moderator), Amy Matthews, Alison West, James Bae, Alan Finger and Swami Sadasivananda. The panel was sponsored by YogaCity NYC and was hosted at Yoga Union in New York City. A lot of people turned out to hear us explore […]

Great Muscles to Know: The Piriformis

Jason Ray Brown — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 11:00:17 +0000

While I probably shouldn’t have favorites, I do confess to having a special fondness for the piriformis. It’s got a super cool name that just kind of rolls off the tongue (click here to hear it pronounced), it feels great to stretch it, and when it’s flexible it’ll add much more sukha to your Sukhasana (Comfortable pose) […]

Prepping for Eka Pada Galavasana (Flying Crow)

Jason Ray Brown — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 01:27:14 +0000

Hey guys! Check out this fun little video that I put together awhile ago showing a posture progression that prepares for Eka Pada Galavasana, Flying Crow. I’ve included some bullet points after the video indicating which muscles need to be stretched, and which postures you can stretch them in. If you enjoy, please share and […]

The Language of Movement

Jason Ray Brown — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 21:28:22 +0000

INTRODUCTION When discussing the anatomy of yoga, it’s important to have a commonly agreed upon terminology, a language of movement, so that we’re all on the same page and can communicate more precisely when discussing such things as the location of bones and bony landmarks; the locations, attachments and actions of muscles; and the anatomy […]

Keeping the Front Knee Safe in Pigeon (Part 1)

Jason Ray Brown — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 22:25:17 +0000

When coming into pigeon pose, if a student is unable to laterally rotate the thigh at the hip joint sufficiently they may inadvertently overstretch the ligament on the outside of their knee (the LCL) and/or compress the soft tissue on the inside of the knee (the medial meniscus). In the above video we explore how […]