The Yoga Engineer's Manual

An innovative yoga manual for teachers, trainers, and advanced students--craft a safer, more effective yoga practice informed by anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics.

Supplemented with more than 100 illustrations and photos, The Yoga Engineer's Manual makes yoga anatomy simple, clear, and accessible. With tips, tools, and practical advice for on-the-mat applications, this essential resource is written for yoga teachers and practitioners of all traditions. It also includes exercises, study guides, and flashcards for an interactive and continuous learning experience.

According to author and yoga teacher trainer Richelle Ricard, to experience the full benefits of yoga, success starts with understanding the body: its mechanics, physiology, and our own individual strengths and limitations. Too often, outdated yoga modalities and rote memorization fail trainers and students with a one-size-fits-all approach. Here, The Yoga Engineer's Manual introduces the methods, postures, asanas, and yoga-classroom skills that teachers need to confidently lead safe and effective classes that work for all students.

Ricard also offers a step-by-step, layer-by-layer examination of the body's connection between the physical and subtle energies activated through one's personal practice, and discusses dynamic breathing and its link to probing the profound depths of the Self. RICHELLE RICARD, LMT is a Licensed Massage Therapist, yoga teacher, and anatomy educator. Her career in the physical arts and sciences has spanned over 25 years and includes experience in business, sports medicine, education (bodywork, anatomy, and physiology), therapeutic and clinical massage, energy healing, yoga instruction, and movement assessment. She has been licensed in clinical massage since 2001 and completed her 200-hour yoga teaching certification through Yoga Works in 2007. Ricard has since taught over 2,400 hours of yoga classes and an additional 1,050 of anatomy-specific teacher trainings, workshops, and retreats. She continues to practice bodywork and energy medicine, teach yoga on many platforms, and teach anatomy and asana for a number of Teacher Training Programs worldwide. In 2008, she began teaching anatomy for the Seattle offering of Yoga Works' 200-hour Teacher Training, for which she wrote her own curriculum, and thus began a new career of educating yoga teachers and students in the functional aspects of human anatomy and physiology. Ricard has worked with studios large and small in Seattle, Federal Way, Tacoma, Bellingham, and Wenatchee, WA; Portland and Hood River, OR; Vancouver and Courtenay, BC, Canada; Austin, TX; Lake Tahoe, CA; and London, UK. This is her first book.