YOGAJOURNAL.COM / 42 / FEBRUARY 2018
ANATOMY
PRACTICE WELL
Deepening your anatomical perspective refines your kinesthetic sense
by helping you feel into your entire body—which is greater than the sum of
its anatomical parts. The connective-tissue net, known popularly as fascia,
weaves those parts into one integrated whole. By Tom MyersHow fascia shapes us
PHOTOS: RICK CUMMINGS; BODYILLUSTRATION: MICHELEGRAHAM;INSETILLUSTRATION:PROF.P. MOTTA/DEPT. O
F ANATOMY/UNIVERSITY“LASAPIENZA”,ROME/SCIENCEPHOTOLIBRARYIF I ASKED YOU what a heart is like, chances are you’d
say it’s like a pump. The lungs are often described as
“bellows,” the kidneys “a filter,” the brain “a computer.”
We tend to view the body in mechanical terms because
we live in an industrial age—and because the body has
been described as a “soft machine” ever since the scientist
René Descartes coined the term in the early 17th century.
So it comes as no surprise that most anatomy books
show you body parts—this muscle, that ligament—as if
we’re assembled part by part like a car or an iPhone. But
instead of timing belts and mother-
boards, we have hamstrings and
biceps. An anatomy atlas is a help-
ful tool for learning, but the error
comes when we start thinking that
humans are actually built that way.
What is actually going on under
your skin is so different from what’s
in those pictures.
Your body is much more like a
plant than a machine. We are grown
from a tiny seed—a single cell, or
fertilized ovum, about the size of
a pin prick—not glued together in
parts. This seed contains sufficient
instructions (given the proper nour-
ishment) to create a helpless,
squalling baby, who turns into an energetic toddler,
a feckless teenager, and then finally a mature adult.
By the time we’re adults, we consist of approximately
70 trillion cells, all surrounded by a fluid fascial network—
a kind of sticky yet greasy fabric that both holds us firmly
together, yet constantly and miraculously adjusts to
accommodate our every movement.
The traditional biomechanical theory of the
musculoskeletal system says that muscles attach to bones
via tendons that cross the joints and pull bones toward
each other, restricted by other “machine parts” called
ligaments. But all these anatomical terms, and the separa-
tions they imply, are false. No ligaments exist on their
own; instead they blend into the periosteum—vascularconnective tissue that serves as cling-wrap around the
bones—and the surrounding muscles and fascial sheets.
What this means is that you weren’t assembled in different
places and glued together—rather, all your parts grew up
together within the glue.
For example, the triceps are wedded by fascial fabric
to their neighboring muscles north, south, east, and west,
as well as to the ligaments deep in both the shoulder and
elbow. If you contract the triceps in Plank Pose, all these
other structures will have an effect and be affected. Your
whole body engages in the action—
not just your triceps, pectoral, and
abdominal muscles.
The takeaway for yoga? When
you do poses, it is useful to put
your attention anywhere and every-
where in your body—not just the
obviously stretched and singing
bits. A release in your foot can help
your hip; a change of your hand
position can ease your neck.Fascial function
The fluid fascial network that
lives between each cell in your body
consists of bungee cord–like fibers
made mostly from collagen, includ-
ing reticulin, and elastin. These fibers run everywhere—
denser in certain areas such as tendons and cartilage, and
looser in others like breasts or the pancreas.
The other half of the fascial network is a gel-like web
of variable mucopolysaccharides, or mucus. Basically, your
cells are glued together with snot, which is everywhere, and
is more or less watery (hydrated) depending on where it is
in the body and what condition it’s in.
All the circulation in your body has to pass through
these fibrous and mucousy webs. Generally speaking,
the denser the fibers and the drier the mucous, the less the
fascial web allows molecules to flow through it—nourish-
ment in one direction and waste in the other. Yoga helps
continued on page 44LEARN MORE
Join Tom Myers for a seven-
week online introduction to
anatomy for yoga students and
teachers. You’ll learn how to
think of movement in holistic,
relational, and practical ways,
and how to identify common
postural patterns, as well
as strategies for cueing to
awaken parts of the body that
may need work. Sign up at
yogajournal.com/anatomy101.