Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined provides a unique evidence-based exploration into the complexities of human movement and what a safe, effective yoga practice entails. The emphasis is taken off flexibility and centered around a narrative of body tissue adaptation. Conventional approaches to modern yoga are examined through a biomechanist's lens, highlighting emerging perspectives in both the rehabilitation and sport science literature. Artfully woven throughout the book is a sub-text that improves the reader's research literacy while making an impassioned plea for the role of research in the evolution of how teachers teach, and how practitioners practice. Yoga teachers and yoga practitioners alike will discern yoga asana for its role in one's musculoskeletal health. Yoga therapists and other allied healthcare providers can apply principles discussed to their respective professions. All readers will understand pose modifications in the context of load management, reducing fears of injury and discovering the robustness and resilience of the human body. Coverage includes - Biomechanics Basics; Force, Applied/Modified Loads, and Stress; Progressive Overload and Specificity; Conventional Stretching; Stretching and Performance; Eccentrics; Mechanical Properties of Connective Tissue; Tissue Behavior, Structure, and Composition; Tissue Adaptation, Capacity, and Tension; Exploration into Soft Tissue Injuries; Alignment and Posture Features include - Highlights meaningful, evidence-based applications and examples of yoga and/or stretching. Provides guidelines for non-researcher's critical interpretation of research, helping them to avoid making poor choices based in well-worn beliefs and hackneyed assumption. Pushes teachers to a deeper understanding of biomechanics, beyond simply memorizing anatomy, empowering them to make smart choices for instructing a variety of populations in both private and group class settings. Encourages variety in popular modern-day asana, using props and a keen eye, given our understanding of how the body's tissues adapt to applied loads. Educates yoga teachers to think beyond the scripted yoga education they received, stretching their minds to further understand and redefine stretching of the human body.
Jules Mitchell MS, CMT, ERYT500 is a Las Vegas based yoga educator, yoga teacher, and massage therapist. Her unique approach blends the tradition of yoga with her extensive study of biomechanics to help yoga teachers develop their craft, and empower them through education. It is her passion to share the most useful and applicable findings from exercise science with the yoga community, and to build confidence in students and teachers by giving them a well-grounded understanding of related research. She leads her own advanced teacher training, teaches workshops and immersion courses worldwide, and offers an ongoing selection of online education and mentoring programs. As an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University, she serves as a yoga consultant on various research studies measuring the effects of yoga therapy on special populations including pregnant women, women with depressive symptoms associated with perinatal loss, and patients with cancer. Her future research goals include studying the effects of asana on tissue adaptation, and bridging the gap between research in exercise science and the practice of yoga.
