68 Yoga anatomY
DrawingS
The asana images in this book are based on photographs of various models that were taken
during several sessions (figure 5.1). Some of the perspectives are quite unusual because they
were shot from below using a large acrylic sheet or from above using a ladder.
The photos were used as reference for the anatomical illustrator, who posed her skeleton
in the various positions and sketched the bones by hand. After a round of corrections, the
muscles and other structures were added using computer software, and several more rounds
of corrections and adjustments were made to produce the final images.
The labeling of the structures in each drawing, as well as the various arrows and other
indicators, were added last. Muscles are sometimes labeled in the drawings for reference
purposes and may not be active in that particular asana. If you find a muscle in the text
that is not labeled on the accompanying drawing, use the muscle index on page 270 to
find an illustration of that muscle.
Figure 5.1 Yoga Anatomy photo shoot at The Breathing Project in New York City. Leslie Kami-
noff (far left) supervises as the photographer, Lydia Mann, shoots Derek’s bakasana from below
the acrylic sheet. Janet and Elizabeth stabilize the ladders. The final artwork from the resulting
photo is on page 232.
concluSion
It was often a challenge to know what to say about the actions in the joints and muscles
for each asana. Each body is unique. Each body has different ways of responding to gravity,
different pathways for recruiting muscles, and a different amount of tone in the joint cap-
sules and ligaments. Two people can use different muscles to create the same joint action
and then have completely different sensations of the experience in the same asana. We
each have our own way to distinguish between sensations of stretching and lengthening,
working and holding, or pain and release.
In a few cases we list muscles that are lengthening but are not necessarily active—
described as passively lengthening—to distinguish them from muscles that are actively
lengthening in an eccentric contraction. For some people these muscles will have the sen-