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 March 2003 questions are posted below. ( View Archive )

Test yourself, March, 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 second 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 second 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 three
Foundation of the body - 15 minutes
Hip bones, sacrum, and the pelvic bowl
Sacroiliac joints and spine
Hip joints and their prime movers
Quadriceps femoris muscle
Hamstrings
Spine and abdominal wall
Cavities and internal organs
Intra-abdominal and intrathoracic pressure
Supine leglifts, yoga sit-ups, sitting boats, and peacock - 10 minutes
Pelvis and anatomical perineum - 10 minutes
Pelvic bowl, anatomical perineum, and pelvic diaphragm
Abdominopelvic practices - 10 minutes
Ashwini mudra and mula bandha
Agni sara, uddiyana bandha, and nauli
Contraindications and benefits

Second 45 minutes on chapter four
Anatomy - 25 minutes
Introduction to posture
Skeletal system, axial and appendicular skeleton
Spine, with anterior and posterior functional units, and deep back muscles
Symmetry and asymmetry
Postures - 20 minutes
Basics of standing postures
Four simple stretches
Backward bending
Forward bending
Side bending
What makes postures difficult?
Triangles
Balancing postures