Body and Breath

Each month a new series of 10 questions will be posted on the Test Yourself page. The following month the questions will then be posted here along with the answers and explanations.

Answers to the February 2003 questions are posted below. ( View Archive )

Test yourself, February, 2003, with answers

You are scheduled to teach an all-day (six hours total) lecture and practicum on yoga and anatomy to 30 hatha yoga teachers using Anatomy of Hatha Yoga as a textbook. The assignment: Outline the first one of four, 1½ hour sessions (which run 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, 4:00 to 5:30 PM, and 7:30 to 9:00 PM) covering at least a few representative postures and topics from each chapter. You can assume that everyone has a book in front of them, that no one has studied it critically, and that five of the 30 teachers have a biomedical background. Please design your course as a whole (and this first session) so that it does not bore the five students with some background in biology and that at the same time does not leave the remaining 25 students frustrated and lost.

Answer:

First 45 minutes on Chapter One
How muscles operate the body - 15 minutes
Define muscle, tendon, ligament
Origins and insertions
Agonists and antagonists
Body parts: arm, forearm, thigh, and leg
Movements around joints
Concentric shortening and eccentric lengthening
Isotonic and isometric activity
Muscular activity in a lunging posture
Operation of the nervous system - 15 minutes
Sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons
Flaccid and spastic paralysis
Reflexes: myotatic stretch reflex, clasp-knife reflex, and flexion reflexes
Vestibular system, sight, and touch
Connective tissues and postures - 15 minutes
Connective tissue constraints: bone, cartilage, tendons, ligaments
Joints, fasciae, loose connective tissue and ground substance
Stretching bellies of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves
Role of the nervous system in stretch
Three postures: corpse, prone boat, and hamstrings-quadriceps thigh pull

Second 45 minutes on Chapter Two
10 minutes, for:
Design of the respiratory system
Intercostal muscles, abdominal muscles, and respiratory diaphragm
How breathing affects posture
Somatic and autonomic systems
15 minutes for:
Physiology: lung volumes, capacities, and anatomic dead space
Alveolar and minute ventilation
Atmospheric, alveolar, and blood gases
Hypoventilation and hyperventilation
15 minutes for:
Thoracic breathing, empowered and constricted
Paradoxical breathing
Supine abdominal breathing
Abdominal breathing in sitting postures
Bellows and kapalabhati
Diaphragmatic breathing
Diaphragmatic breathing in sitting postures, including even breathing
5 minutes for:
Cautions: A traditional warning
Summary diagrams