Anatomy for Yoga by Paul Grilley is not a regular yoga dvd that we usually find everywhere. This yoga dvd is very conceptual, educational and useful practical information based on Paul’s personal experience as a yoga teacher. In short, this yoga dvd is a blend of anatomy, yoga and his experiences as a yoga teacher.
Who should use this yoga dvd: Yoga practitioners, yoga teachers and everyone who is interested in developing knowledge in yoga from anatomy point of view. I came across comments on this dvd that it is highly recommended for yoga teacher, but I think it is highly recommended for yoga students or practitioners too. Because as a student, I find very hard to bring myself into a particular posture while the same posture might look super simple for someone next to me. To frustrate me further, a newbie yoga student might turn himself in to a pretzel with ease. Situations like this make me wonder what is wrong with me. This is where Paul’s Anatomy of Yoga dvd answers all your questions.
About the teacher: Paul is a yoga teacher who specializes in Yin Yoga. He also learnt anatomy and studied Taoism for years. He travels around the world and conducts workshops on anatomy, chakra meditation and Yin Yoga teacher training.
Paul wrote a book ‘Yin Yoga’ and released 3 dvds so far – Anatomy for Yoga with Paul Grilley, Yin Yoga: The Foundations of a Quiet Practice and Chakra Theory and Meditation with Paul Grilley.
For more information, please visit his website at http://www.paulgrilley.com/
Review: The duration of the entire dvd is approx. 4 hrs.’ and I had to finish watching the dvd in 2 separate sessions due to time my personal time constraint. It would be naïve on our part if we assume that by watching this dvd is enough to know everything about anatomy of yoga. In my personal opinion, this anatomy dvd is a supplement in our learning.
Compression and tension is the core of this yoga dvd. Paul goes in great detail on getting basics of compression and tension.
Questions such as –
What is compression? What causes compression?
What is tension? What causes tension?
The difference between tension and compression.
Will be answered in the beginning before he goes into full anatomical explanation.
Paul takes time to explain each topic in detail with demonstrations at the end of the topic. Paul took right kind of people for demonstration to explain why certain people are more flexible and some are not. And at each topic he also mentions what kind of postures does particular joint in explanation is affected. The dvd begins with major joints of the body with live demonstrations and goes through series of major topics such as shoulder, femur etc., Paul also suggests some work around to go deep into a posture. Besides the dvd’s valuable content, what I like the most is the easiness and pace of the DVD, its calm and very easy to follow. See short clip from the dvd -
The dvd ends with Q&A session from the participants who took part in this dvd. There are few good questions and it is worth viewing this section of the dvd too.
Recommendation: Very recommended for everyone, this yoga video gives you some insights on compression, tension, flexibility and bone structures. This dvd will be very helpful if you want to deepen your yoga practice.