• QUOTES:
  • Amy Matthews, paraphrasing Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen: “Alignment is a clear pathway of weight passing through balanced joint spaces.”
  • Amy Matthews, paraphrasing Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen: “Healthy movement is well-distributed: a little bit of movement from a lot of places.”
  • Conversely, Leslie Kaminoff says “Unhealthy movement is too much movement coming from too few places repeated too many times (repetitive stress).”
  • Leslie Kaminoff/Amy Matthews mash-up: “It is far more powerful to engage someone in an inquiry than issue a series of instructions and corrections.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “There is no such thing as an asana without the person making the shape. You can’t abstract asana outside of the person doing it.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “Asanas don’t have alignment, people have alignment.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “Yoga is a power tool and you don’t want to misuse a power tool. If you use that tool neurotically, you may become a powerful neurotic.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “Yoga is not about doing the asanas; it’s about undoing what’s in the way of the asanas. Similarly, when you learn a new way to breathe you have to remove the obstacles created by how you are used to breathing.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “Figuring out (swadhaya) what is negotiable (tapas) and what is not (ishvara pranidhana) – based on your anatomy – is the basis of Yoga practice.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “There are correct ways to do techniques. There is no one right way to breathe.”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “Without the breath it’s not Yoga.”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “Yoga is alertness without tension; relaxation without dullness.”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “Your yoga practice must always be a little more clever than your habits (tapas).”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “Whenever you are in doubt, it is best to pause. Few things are so pressing that they cannot wait for a moment of breath.”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “Sometimes you need to give people 90% of what they want so you can slip in 10% of what they need.”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “The recognition of confusion is a form of clarity.”

• WATCH/LISTEN:
  • Prana chant video
  • The Warrior Series: Upwardly Mobile video and article on Yoga Journal website
  • Tom Myers’ Deep Front Line dissection video
  • Gil Hedley’s YouTube channel
  • Breath-Centered Yoga with Leslie Kaminoff (DVD from Amazon)
  • Freeing the Breath: Health, Relaxation, and Clarity Through Better Breathing with Leslie Kaminoff (audio CD from Amazon)
  • Yoga Anatomy YouTube channel
  • Jessica Wolf’s Art of Breathing DVD (from Amazon)
  • Jill Bolte Taylor’s powerful “Stroke of Insight” TED Talk
  • Yoga Alliance’s Yoga Talks with Leslie Kaminoff on Regulation
  • Songs To Shiva (music CD) by Vyaas Houston
• RECOMMENDED READING:
  • ANATOMY:
    • Yoga Anatomy, 2nd edition
    • Yoga Journal article: Anatomy 101: Understanding Your Tailbone by Amy Matthews and Leslie Kaminoff
    • More Leslie Kaminoff content on Yoga Journal
    • Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists by Thomas W. Myers
  • HISTORY / BIOGRAPHY / PHILOSOPHY:
    • Sri T. Krishnamacharya’s history of classical alignment in the Yoga Makaranda, part I (PDF) and Yoga Makaranda, part II (PDF)
    • Religiousness in Yoga: Lectures on Theory and Practice by T.K.V.Desikachar
    • Health, Healing, and Beyond: Yoga and the Living Tradition of T. Krishnamacharya by T.K.V. Desikachar and R.H. Cravens
    • Yoga Yajnavalkya (PDF) or book, by A. G. Mohan
    • Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham
    • The “Yoga Sutra of Patanjali”: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books) by David Gordon White
    • Benjamin Lorr’s Hell-Bent: Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Competitive Yoga
    • “First There is a Mountain: A Yoga Romance” by Elizabeth Kadetsky
    • “Seizing the Whip: B. K. S. Iyengar and the Making of Modern Yoga” by Eric John Shaw, California Institute of Integral Studies, Asian and Comparative Studies
    • Leslie’s original post on providing certificates. DOWNLOAD YOUR OWN CERTIFICATE HERE
    • Yoga Alliance “Statement on Yoga Therapy”
    • Leslie’s blog post from 2008: “I’m Not a Yoga Therapist Anymore“
  • SCIENCE / PAIN / MEDICINE:
    • John E. Sarno’s Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
    • Spine research on Chirogeek.com
    • Paul Grilley’s Bone Photo Gallery
  • YOGA PRACTICE:
    • The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice by T.K.V. Desikachar
    • Yoga for Wellness: Healing with the Timeless Teachings of Viniyoga by Gary Kraftsow
    • “Thermometer” bandhas exploration:
      
    • Intelligent Yoga: Re-educating Mind and Body by Peter Blackaby
    • The Case for Anarchy in Yoga Class interview with Leslie by Anna Dubrovsky

Leslie performing kapalabhati on a bathroom scale

Leslie Kaminoff performs kapalabhati on a bathroom scale, illustrating Sir Isaac Newton’s law: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Should We Keep Mula Bandha All The Time?

Have you heard advice about maintaining mula bandha all the time? Have you heard advice about maintaining any body position all the time? Join Leslie and students as they examine well-meaning advice, habits, and practices you can follow to honor the balance into your system.

Soma / Psyche – Introduction to a Talk by Frances Sommer Anderson

What is Flexibility, and How Much Do We Really Need?

Do you do yoga to live a better life, or do you live to do better yoga? Your answer may surprise you, and it will help you learn where to set healthy limits in your own practice.

Honesty in Yoga Credentialing

If you’re ready for a learning experience that will make you a more sought-after teacher, re-charge your personal practice, and change the way you think about yoga, breath, and movement, join our online community.