Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery


Eric Franklin - 1996
    The book's 195 illustrations will help you visualize the images and exercises and show you how to use them in a variety of contexts.Part I of Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery discusses the origins and uses of imagery and includes 36 exercises that demonstrate dynamic alignment in practice. You'll explore the importance of posture and dynamic alignment and discover how to use imagery to affect body movement.Part II explains the biomechanical and anatomical principles behind complex imagery and illustrates 52 exercises to bring these principles to life. You'll learn how to use basic physics to create a strong yet fluid balance in your muscles and joints.Part III provides 250 anatomical imagery exercises to help you fine-tune alignments and increase body awareness. The exercises focus on different regions of the body--the pelvis, hips, knees, lower legs, spine, shoulders, arms, hands, head, and neck--as well as on breathing. You can select specific images to address individual needs or follow the sequence presented in the book.And Part IV provides 23 holistic exercises to sculpt and improve alignment in various positions--standing, supine, and sitting. These exercises will help you establish a body image that facilitates dynamic alignment and releases excess tension.By practicing the techniques described in Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, you'll tap into the power of imagery and create better movement.

Yoga Mat Companion 3: Back Bends & Twists


Ray Long - 2010
    Orthopedic surgeon Ray Long has created a scientific approach to understanding the practice of hatha yoga: through full-colour, three-dimensional illustrations of major muscles, tendons, and ligaments, he describes the correct positioning of hatha yoga poses (asanas) and their benefits. Specific anatomical descriptions highlight which muscles to activate in each pose, bringing the experience of the pose to new sensory heights. A novel approach to learning yoga poses: each of the four mat companions focuses on one type of asanae: standing poses, forward bends and hip openers, back bends and twists, and arm balances and inversions. The illustrations and descriptions describe the major movements that enable the poses, how to deepen the posture, and sequences of muscle activation. The concealed wire-bound pages make the books perfect mat resources during practice. book preview

Dance Anatomy


Jacqui Haas - 2010
    Featuring over 200 full-color illustrations, Dance Anatomy visually depicts the unique relationship between muscle development and aesthetic movement as never before.Dance Anatomy features 82 of the most effective dance, movement, and performance exercises, each designed to promote perfect alignment, improved placement, proper breathing, and prevention of common injuries. In stunning detail, the accompanying illustration captures the dancer in motion and highlights the active muscles associated with each movement.You'll learn how to modify exercises to target specific areas to enhance flexibility and reduce muscle tension. You'll also learn to put it all together to personalize a program based on your style of dance, level of expertise, and individual needs and goals.Whether you seek to optimize performance, add a new movement to your repertoire, or minimize muscle fatigue, stress, and injury, Dance Anatomy is your perfect partner.

The Potent Self: A Guide to Spontaneity


Moshé Feldenkrais - 1985
    This monumental, foundational book fully explains the theory behind the author's revolutionary techniques for improving the functions of the human motor system.

Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance


Eric N. Franklin - 1996
    More than 160 illustrations highlight images and exercises you can put to use immediately in your movements and choreography.Part I explores using imagery with improvisation. You'll find 195 exercises centered on the body's basic movement images. These improvisational exercises will encourage you to explore new inner landscapes to create and communicate different movement qualities.Part II provides 314 imagery exercises you can immediately use to improve technique. The book also provides guidelines for applying imagery within the dance class repertoire:- Floorwork movements- Standing, walking, running- Ballet barre exercises- Swings, arches, spirals- Upper-body gestures- Turns and pirouettes- Jumping- PartneringPart III provides imagery tools to enhance or prepare for a performance. You'll learn how to use imagery to convey information about steps and to clarify the intent and content of a movement. In addition, you'll find 40 imagery exercises that focus on active imagination and symbolism, the performance environment, and the audience in the creative process.Part IV presents 34 exercises to help restore and regenerate the body through guided imagery used with massage and touch. The book details the ideokinetic constructive rest position and Sweigard's nine lines of action.With Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance, you'll discover how to use the power of your imagination to enhance performances.

The Meaning of Tango: The History and Steps of the Argentinian Dance


Christine Denniston - 2007
    The Meaning of Tango traces the development of the dance, from its birth in poverty-stricken Buenos Aires, through the craze of the early 20th century, right up to its recent revival today thanks to Broadway shows such as Tango Argentino. It also explains the techniques behind the dance and shows why mastering the tango is more like learning a language than a routine. For beginners or experts, dancers or armchair fans, this wonderful book is the perfect partner for enjoying the world's favorite dance.

Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool


Ronald M. Holmes - 1989
    New chapters cover criminal behavior theories and psychological profiling; autoerotic deaths, and occult crimes, plus two new chapters detailing infamous unsolved crimes/criminals: Jack the Ripper and the Jon Benet Ramsey case. The authors′ continuing research and activities in the field result in a multitude of new case studies for this book, often included as boxed inserts.

Sweat Your Prayers


Gabrielle Roth - 1997
    Shows how to use five rhythmic, ritualistic motion routines to release the soul's energies, clear the mind, and help one realize the potential of the self.

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma


Peter A. Levine - 1997
    It views the human animal as a unique being, endowed with an instinctual capacity. It asks and answers an intriguing question: why are animals in the wild, though threatened routinely, rarely traumatized? By understanding the dynamics that make wild animals virtually immune to traumatic symptoms, the mystery of human trauma is revealed.Waking the Tiger normalizes the symptoms of trauma and the steps needed to heal them. People are often traumatized by seemingly ordinary experiences. The reader is taken on a guided tour of the subtle, yet powerful impulses that govern our responses to overwhelming life events. To do this, it employs a series of exercises that help us focus on bodily sensations. Through heightened awareness of these sensations trauma can be healed.

The Anatomy Coloring Book


Wynn Kapit - 2001
    Organized according to body systems, each of the 170 plates featured in this book includes an ingenious color-key system where anatomical terminology is linked to detailed illustrations of the structures of the body. Often imitated, never duplicated. New! Lay-flat binding makes coloring easier. New! 8 plates have been added: Accessory Structures of the Skin, Temporomandibular Joint, Upper Limb: Shoulder (Glenohumeral) Joint, Upper Limb: Elbow Joints, Lower Limb: Male and female Pelves, Lower Limb: Sacroiliac and Hip Joints, Lower Limb: Knee Joints, Somatic Visceral Receptors. New! 7 additional sections: Skeletal and Articular Systems, Skeletal Muscular System, Central Nervous System, Central Nervous System: Cavities and Coverings, Peripheral Nervous System, Autonomic Nervous System, Human Development.

Social Work Macro Practice


F. Ellen Netting - 1993
    'Social Work Macro Practice' focuses on work with organizations and communities, including planned change approaches and implementation.

Move Your DNA Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement


Katy Bowman - 2014
    It examines the differences between the movements in a typical hunter - gatherer's life and the movements in our own. It shows the many problems with using exercise like movement vitamins instead of addressing the deeper issue of a poor movement diet. Bet of all, Move Your DNA contains the corrective exercises, habit modifications, and simple lifestyle changes we need to make in order to free ourselves from disease and discover our naturally healthy, reflex driven selves. From couch potatoes to professional athletes, new parents to seniors, readers will love Katy's humorous, passionate, and above all science based guide to restoring your body and reclaiming your life.

1,001 Pearls of Yoga Wisdom: Take Your Practice Beyond the Mat


Liz Lark - 2008
    Drawing from such classical texts as the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, as well as modern Indian and Western teachers, this treasure trove of yoga knowledge defines key terms and highlights important themes. It's also a helpful supplement to yoga classes, offering asanas, meditations, breathingexercises, mantras, and mudras for every occasion and skill level. Just the right size to pop into a yoga bag, here's a guide to the practical and philosophical aspects of yoga that complements any spiritual practice.

The Psoas Book


Liz Koch - 1997
    Easy to read, The Psoas Book focuses on the psoas (so-as), the core muscle of the human body, and is an essential read for anyone interested in health, wellness, and movement.The Psoas Book is a great resource for the layperson and offers simple self-help approaches for eliminating low back, knee, pelvic, and hip tension. For the professional, it is a one-of-a-kind educational resource, and is a required read at numerous university dance and movement education programmes, massage schools as well as yoga, Pilates, and fitness training programmes. Purchased for over 30 years by laypersons and professionals alike, the new 30th anniversary revised edition of The Psoas Book is also a must read for anyone interested in sports, martial arts, somatic education, psychology, voice, nursing, birth, labour, and child development.

The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better


Sandra Blakeslee - 2007
    Why do you still feel fat after losing weight? What makes video games so addictive? How can “practicing” your favorite sport in your imagination improve your game? The answers can be found in body maps.Just as road maps represent interconnections across the landscape, your many body maps represent all aspects of your bodily self, inside and out. In concert, they create your physical and emotional awareness and your sense of being a whole, feeling self in a larger social world.Moreover, your body maps are profoundly elastic. Your self doesn’t begin and end with your physical body but extends into the space around you. This space morphs every time you put on or take off clothes, ride a bike, or wield a tool. When you drive a car, your personal body space grows to envelop it. When you play a video game, your body maps automatically track and emulate the actions of your character onscreen. When you watch a scary movie, your body maps put dread in your stomach and send chills down your spine. If your body maps fall out of sync, you may have an out-of-body experience or see auras around other people.The Body Has a Mind of Its Own explains how you can tap into the power of body maps to do almost anything better–whether it is playing tennis, strumming a guitar, riding a horse, dancing a waltz, empathizing with a friend, raising children, or coping with stress. The story of body maps goes even further, providing a fresh look at the causes of anorexia, bulimia, obsessive plastic surgery, and the notorious golfer’s curse “the yips.” It lends insights into culture, language, music, parenting, emotions, chronic pain, and more. Filled with illustrations, wonderful anecdotes, and even parlor tricks that you can use to reconfigure your body sense, The Body Has a Mind of Its Own will change the way you think–about the way you think.“The Blakeslees have taken the latest and most exciting finds from brain research and have made them accessible. This is how science writing should always be.”–Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D., author of The Ethical Brain“Through a stream of fascinating and entertaining examples, Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee illustrate how our perception of ourselves, and indeed the world, is not fixed but is surprisingly fluid and easily modified. They have created the best book ever written about how our sense of ‘self’ emerges from the motley collection of neurons we call the brain.”–Jeff Hawkins, co-author of On Intelligence “The Blakeslees have taken the latest and most exciting finds from brain research and have made them accessible. This is how science writing should always be.”–Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D., author of The Ethical Brain“A marvelous book. In the last ten years there has been a paradigm shift in understanding the brain and how its various specialized regions respond to environmental challenges. In addition to providing a brilliant overview of recent revolutionary discoveries on body image and brain plasticity, the book is sprinkled with numerous insights.”–V. S. Ramachandran, M.D., director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego