• QUOTES:
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “Your yoga practice must always be a little more clever than your habits (tapas).”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “Without the breath it’s not Yoga.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff on teaching bandhas: “If you’re going to ask someone to engage a muscle, you better make sure they can release it first or it’s just tension on top of tension.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “It is far more powerful to engage someone in an inquiry than issue a series of instructions and corrections.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “There are correct ways to do techniques. There is no one right way to breathe.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “What we are after in our Yoga practice is freedom. One of the first things to get free from is the idea that there is a *right* way.”
  • 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: “Figuring out (swadhaya) what is negotiable (tapas) and what is not (ishvara pranidhana) – based on your anatomy – is the basis of Yoga practice.”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “The form of the practice should serve the function.”
  • 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: “The form of the practice should serve the function.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “It’s the simplest things we do that help people the most.” AND “If you can make even a tiny bit of change in something you do a lot of, that’s a lot of change.”
  • Leslie Kaminoff: “In yoga we’re not looking to add anything that is missing from the system. It’s to focus on what is still going right in the body and help unblock what is in the way.”
  • T.K.V. Desikachar: “Asana practice involves body exercises. When they are properly practiced, there must be alertness without tension and relaxation without dullness or heaviness.”

• 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 AND Gil’s in-person workshops
  • 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)
  • Yoga Alliance’s Yoga Talks with Leslie Kaminoff on Regulation
  • Jill Bolte Taylor’s “Powerful Stroke of Insight” TED Talk
  • Pilobolus dance company
• 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
    • Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery – 2nd Edition (Revised) by Eric Franklin
  • 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
    • Claude Marechal’s article describing some of the teaching of Professor Krishnamacharya: Teachings
    • 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
    • “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
    • First There is a Mountain: A Yoga Romance by Elizabeth Kadetsky
    • 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“
    • Leslie’s 2014 Elephant Journal post about his teacher’s hidden dementia: “My Teacher Is Gone.“

  • 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

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.