Buy Spiral Bound

Prof Dr. Andry Vleeming

World Congress on low back and pelvic girdle pain

"I really enjoyed reading this book. It offers good reading and especially beautiful images to support very well-researched views, presented in a conversational tone that I know readers in fascia will not want to miss. Well done!”

Jules Mitchell

Author, Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined

"Every student of anatomy eventually discovers the story lies in the inclusion of other disciplines: biomechanics, embryology, evolution, phenomenology, to name a few. Karen artfully blends these branches of knowledge with the subtle body to introduce an expansive way of thinking about anatomy. Her work is a journey into the experience of moving, breathing, and being."

Yashodha Govindaraju

yoga practitioner

“Karen approaches the interweaving of gross and subtle in a captivating way, highlighting the connections between ideas with such curiosity and openness. It has and will continue to change the way I look at movement.”

Mercedes (Didi) von Deck, MD

Orthopaedic surgeon, Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery

Ashtanga Yoga Teacher (Director of Down Under Yoga Mysore Ashtanga Program)

Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner

"Karen Kirkness has created a trailblazing paradigm of human anatomy that explains why yoga has such profound impact on body, mind and spirit.  She provides a brilliant new model of anatomy that will transform how you experience and view yourself.  Reading this book will absolutely elevate your yoga practice.  By clarifying the mysteries of how changing the shapes and movements of the physical body fine tunes our energies, Kirkness offers an approach that will provide practitioners a way to better harness the benefits of yoga practice and gives all those who specialize in teaching human movement a framework to offer instruction that really works."

Graham Scarr

Author of Biotensegrity: The Structural Basis of Life
tensegrityinbiology.co.uk

"This book will shake you to the core. It is about anatomy and yoga but not in the way we usually think about them. This is no fusty list of time-honoured descriptions and impossible poses but a deep insight into the living body and how it moves the way it does. As an experienced teacher/practitioner of both anatomy and yoga, Karen challenges traditional thinking, introduces new ideas and integrates her subjects into a seamless whole. She pulls them apart before blending a story that comes out of her own life philosophy and will enthral the reader with its details.

Yoga postures are examined in relation to the historical narrative and anatomy that underlies them, and are beautifully illustrated with Karen’s own photos and drawings. Along the way, she pulls in embryology, natural geometry, biotensegrity and more, all of which can be explored even further with the online version. Spirals are a fundamental motif in nature and make this book an important resource for every practitioner, no matter what their speciality. It is sprinkled with humour that jumps out at the reader in surprising moments of revelation and is full of “witchy, antipatriarchal, and nerdy rebellion…” What could be a better place to start from?"

Dena Kingsberg

International speaker, author and Yoga Educator.
Ashtanga yoga Nilayam Mysore India.

"The practice of yoga begins with a conscious and experiential relationship with the body both structurally and energetically, ultimately exposing our nature as ever-changing, organic, rhythmical, structured yet fluid, interconnected and spiral bound. Karen Kirkness brings yoga anatomy to life by focusing on rhythmic cascades of rotation at all size scales (starting with the embryo). This beautifully presented book offers insights that are born of discovery through experience, demonstrating that our bodies are inter- and intra- connected via the couplings found throughout Nature. Both fascinating and digestible this book is an invaluable learning tool."

Mark Flannigan

Neuromuscular Therapist 
Exercise Scientist 

“All I can say is...Its excellent!! In today's world of scientific advancements, paradigm shifts and changes to underlying assumptions, Karen’s clarity and questioning of the current biomechanical model resonates loudly. This is not just a yoga book but a clearly referenced anatomical journal of movement, which has now become my go-to book for all things fascia, embryology and their spiral connection. 

In simple terms...After 30 years of involvement in exercise and movement anatomy ...This book answers questions that I didn't know had to be asked..!” 

Elise Hill

Ayurvedic Counsellor

"Spiral Bound is not a mere translation of ancient ayurvedic concepts into modern anatomical terminology, but a pioneering exploration of the relationship between subtle & gross that makes for essential reading by anatomists, ayurvedic practitioners and yoga teachers alike." 

Janet Philp

Anatomy Fundamentals @anatomyfoundations

"It has been a joy to follow Karen on her mission to spiral together established anatomy and the understanding of the subtle body.  It will produce a better understanding of functional anatomy for everyone involved with the human form.  The book is written in a colloquial language that pulls you in and explains complicated concepts in bite sized pieces."

Aimee Alexandra Schmidt 

Cranio-Sacral Therapist, Pilates Practitioner & Yoga Teacher

"Karen is a phenomenal anatomy and yoga teacher. Her in-depth understanding of anatomical structures and her passion for the innate intelligence of the human body makes her a constant source of inspiration in my anatomy studies. Her work is particularly suited for anyone interested in putting the nuances of anatomy into motion thus enabling them to weave her teachings into their practice. Highly recommended!"

Nadine Watton

Co-director of Meadowlark Yoga YTT programme

"In the ten years I have been working with Karen as fellow teachers and teacher trainers in yoga, we have explored asana and philosophy at every level of detail for our manuals  We continue to strive to raise our game to learn more and deliver rich, coherent content to our trainees and students.

Karen’s work and teaching has taken the study of anatomical function to a whole new level for me. Our conversations come to life on these pages and this is a pure delight. The discussion of the Five Filaments movement rubric in it’s simple, elegant form is perfection – the way it is broken down into simple, practical language is so useful. A gift for yoga teachers and movement therapists to cue rotation in movement for every level of experience."

Ana Outsubo

MPT
São Paulo, Brazil

“Sensitively written, with an admirable understanding of movement and body.

This book provides clarity, it is insightful and engaging. Well done Karen!”

Wilbour Kelsick

Maxfit Movement Institute

"My goal as a clinician is to promote the well-being of my clients, not merely to service their performance needs as athletes. In order to see the bigger picture, I have to appreciate that 21st Century anatomy is at the junction of soft matter physics and physiology, biochemistry and biotensegrity. We also need to understand how we evolved; where did we come from, how did we come into being from one cell? Thus we can reformat our ideas of stretching, stiffness, tightness, and flexibility, reconsidering their purpose and practical application in movement and therapy. This book does all that and more. Karen’s style of presentation in this context speaks to you, not AT you, serving nourishing information in a palatable manner that is both easy to navigate and leaves you wanting more." 

Kate Towers

www.katetowersyoga.com

"Understanding the concept of spirality has been nothing short of a game changer both for my practice and for my teaching. It has been a highlight of my learning to discover Karen’s workshops and anatomy nerd-outs: tapping into her wealth of knowledge with creative and intuitive explorations of the body."

Trina Altman, B.A., NCPT, E-RYT 500, YACEP

Author of Yoga Deconstructed®: Movement science principles for teaching

"Karen’s book provides an updated approach to understanding anatomy as it applies to yoga through the lens of biotensegrity and holistic human movement. It creates the groundwork for using rotation and spiraling movements within your yoga teaching and practice and moves beyond linear asana. Spiral Bound is a must read for all yoga teachers!"

Jodie Reynolds

www.yogijodie.com

"Not going to beat around the bush, traditional anatomy isn’t accessible and to be fair can be boring. Karen goes about it in a completely different way, she shows us how it all works in the most innovative way using tactile props and imagery that grab your imagination and bring anatomy to life and when she gets you moving oh boy you learn all about what you haven’t been using. She does all this while peppering the learning with terminology and anatomical knowledge that will then actually stick in to your brain and give you a great well rounded knowledge of the human body and how it works in movement."

Sally Parkes, BSc SYT

Pregnancy & Yoga Teacher Trainer

"Karen Kirkness is a visionary who cleverly draws together the many concepts of both the gross and subtle forms that resides within ourselves and indeed the universe, thus making our understanding of them possible by collating and writing in such a user-friendly way, that this potentially complex subject becomes comprehensible. I therefore truly feel that Karen's work is the missing link in the way anatomy is traditionally taught, and her book is an absolute must for anyone working within the world of holistic movement." 

Joe Robinson

Director: Mana Fitness Byron Bay & Byron Bay Fitness Retreats

"My life’s work has been to encourage my clients to think of the body as an intricate, integrated machine that requires variable doses of stress across multiple lines and every plane. Whether fitness or yoga-based, our movement practice should mimic how we respond to life's demands: permit over-compensation through adequate recovery. This book transcends the status quo for yogis. It takes the fabric of traditional yoga and delicately weaves the latest research and techniques into its seam. Regressing our development right back to the embryonic stages clearly shows how our capacity for movement evolves, highlighting our potential and our restrictions for optimisation in movement. A must-read for the next generation yogi."

Dr. Sarah Ellis Duvall, PT, DPT, CPT, CNC

"Safe programs for women during the pregnancy and postpartum phase are needed now more than ever as practising yoga during this time period becomes more and more popular. Karen is a trainee in my Pregnancy and Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist course, which is designed to equip teachers with tools to shift the emphasis from "stretching" to supporting women's health by developing stability, balance, and an awareness of what's actually happening with their alignment. Karen's book brings a focus to the natural constraints of the human body and how we can use movement to support, rather than disrupt, these rotational patterns. I would highly recommend Spiral Bound to anyone in the pregnancy and postpartum community as a big picture anatomy reference for their professional practice."

Helen Eadie

heleneadieyoga.com

"Karen Kirkness is a visionary who cleverly draws together the many concepts of both the gross and subtle forms that resides within ourselves and indeed the universe, thus making our understanding of them possible by collating and writing in such a user-friendly way, that this potentially complex subject becomes comprehensible. I therefore truly feel that Karen's work is the missing link in the way anatomy is traditionally taught, and her book is an absolute must for anyone working within the world of holistic movement." 

Kostyantyn Yaremenko

Costa Yoga

"Karen is one of few yoga teachers whose experience impressed me, both in terms of the amount of knowledge and the number of years she spent studying and teaching yoga. Undoubtedly, one of the strongest and most distinctive aspects of Karen is her anatomical background and an explanation of yoga practices from this point of view.

Her approach to the study of anatomy for yoga was an unforgettable experience! It is an interactive drawing of muscles and bones right on each other bodies. Biotensegrity models perfectly help to understand the biomechanics of human body movements in asanas. This is absolutely a very modern, integral approach to teach yoga."

Eyal Lederman

Author of The Myth of Core Stability 

"Beautifully presented, a great demonstration of the link between 'art' and science."