Reviews The concepts Bernie presents will someday be standard in yoga teaching programs: tension, compression, skeletal variation, passive and active ranges of motion, asymmetry and proportion. Bernie''s magnum opus clearly illustrates the practical impact of these ideas for all yoga teachers and students. Paul Grilley author of Yin Yoga: Outline of a Quiet Practice Having been a tremendous fan of Bernie Clark''s two previous books ( Your Body, Your Yoga and Your Spine, Your Yoga ), I was ready to dive into this third book. I could not put it down. The unifying theme across these works is that each person is an individual. Posture and movement technique migrates stress from one body part or tissue to the next. Stress is essential to stimulate optimal health, but it must be in the right amount. Too little allows a weak system, but too much stress creates cumulative micro-damage and, eventually, pain and injury.

The key to health is to manage this tipping point. Bernie shows the differences in people, and how to modify each exercise for each area of the body to stimulate robustness rather than pain. His guidance on self-assessment allows the reader to converge on what is best for them. After all, yoga is not a competition but was intended to provide a path to optimal health. Your Upper Body, Your Yoga completes the trilogy guiding the yoga practitioner to resilience with wisdom. Stuart McGill, PhD Professor Emeritus and author of Back Mechanic Another great book from Bernie Clark, full of detail and insight not found in other yoga books. The perfect completion to an outstanding trilogy. Stu Girling, author Illustrated Yoga Anatomy Bernie Clark has done it again! Like its predecessors ( Your Body, Your Yoga and Your Spine, Your Yoga ) Your Upper Body, Your Yoga is an invaluable resource for yoga teachers of all styles, and an empowering reference for practitioners who are interested in learning more about their bodies and how to make yoga work for them .

It''s chock-full of anatomical insights and well rooted in evidence-based research but written in Clark''s usual affable tone. It''s not at all overly academic, and the user-friendly way it''s organized makes it far from overwhelming. As a long-time yoga practitioner who is not a "natural backbender," who has often recoiled from upper body-focused yoga classes, and who struggles with arm-binding postures, reading this ignited a fresh interest in exploring poses that I''d previously neglected in fresh ways that honor my unique anatomy. If your practice or teaching is feeling frustrating or stale, this (and Clark''s other books) might be just what you need to get excited about yoga again. I know I''m inspired! Kat (Heagberg) Rebar author of Yoga Where You Are and editor of Yoga International Reading Bernie''s books, and in this instance, the third instalment of his magnificent Your Body, Your Yoga trilogy, is an exercise in vigorous head nodding. By this I mean, I find myself in such excited agreement and approval that my head is constantly bobbing up and down as I read! I have become a bobble-head for Bernie. This attention to one''s own individuality, and the call for teachers to attend to the individuals before them, is the crux of the message, explored with expansive detail and practically applied to yoga practice. And although this is explicitly a book for yogis, its contents cover a great scope of information that is universally applicable to the general use and functioning of the human form, useful to anyone who cares to understand and enhance their movement.

Congratulations again, Bernie, on another compendium of shared information and applied wisdom. We are truly in your debt for providing us with this deep resource. Gil Hedley, PhD, Director Integral Anatomy Productions, LLC Bernie has a nimble way of clarifying the functional anatomy of the upper body in a way that reads like a novel. I was fascinated and inspired with the useful tools and was reminded why we continue to work and learn from the body. The inclusive and clear illustrations are enormously helpful to new and seasoned students alike. I often felt compelled to move and test-pilot the clever tests and movement suggestions and could see students enjoying themselves in learning to practice safely and become more aware and adaptable teachers. Beth Spindler C-IAYT, E-RYT 500 yoga therapist, teacher, writer author of Yoga Therapy for Fear Bernie Clark is an anatomy medicine man expertly weaving together the often undervalued links between bones, muscles, fascia, neurodynamics and meridians into a compassionate look at how each person''s alignment must be made personal when practicing postures. No yoga or functional anatomy library should be without Your Upper Body, Your Yoga .

It is another essential text for yoga teachers and practitioners of any and all influences. Sarah Powers author of Insight Yoga and Lit from Within This book is a must-read for any kinaesthetic professional! Bernie has managed to streamline a very complex subject to one that is accessible to anyone, regardless of their knowledge of anatomy. Your Upper Body, Your Yoga is supported by an incredible amount of research and showcases a treasure trove of scientific and statistical data in a way that is easy to understand and digest. This book is a true gift to millions of yoga and movement practitioners seeking to study human anatomy and variations. Jo Phee Senior Yoga Teacher Trainer Bernie Clark''s Your Upper Body, Your Yoga completes an epic masterpiece in the world of yogasana and places him among the modern "greats" of this ancient practice. Clark upended my understanding of yoga when I came across his first volume about five years ago. He showed me that many of the cues that I and others parroted from generations of teachers before us were unnecessary, simply wrong or downright dangerous! He has been a major inspiration in my teaching and helped prompt my own humbler work on a related subject. Rob Walker, Director of the Alberta Yoga College author of The New Yoga: From Cult and Dogma to Science and Sanity Be warned: If you learned dogmatic rules of "universal alignment" in a training or class, you will soon encounter the evidence and logic for why those axiomatic "rules" just aren''t so.

But fear not, Bernie communicates the Gospel of Human Variation with the patience, intelligence and clarity of your favorite professor. Read and integrate everything this man has written. Your body and your students'' bodies will thank you. Josh Summers, co-author of The Po.