Hypermobility on the Yoga Mat: A Guide to Hypermobility-Aware Yoga Teaching and Practice

by Jess Glenny, Jules Mitchell (Foreword by)

Overview

This book is an exploration of the neglected area of yoga and hypermobility. Hypermobile people are generally over-represented in yoga classes, yet often go unrecognised and receive little guidance about how to practise in hypermobility-friendly ways. Many yoga teachers have received little or no training about how to work with this vulnerable population.

The book considers what hypermobility is and offers teachers general guidelines as well as specific practical techniques for including hypermobile students safely and effectively in classes. For hypermobile students themselves there are lots of suggestions for making a yoga practice helpful and beneficial.

Also including information about co-existing conditions, the intersection of hypermobility with neurodiversity, and much more, Hypermobility on the Yoga Mat is the go-to resource for both hypermobile yoga practitioners and yoga teachers encountering hypermobile students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781787754669
Publisher:	Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Publication date:	02/18/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Jess Glenny is a Yoga Register Teacher (Elder) and a C-IAYT yoga therapist. She has been practising yoga with hEDS since 1981, and for many years has specialised in working with hypermobility.
Jess Glenny is a Yoga Register Teacher (Elder) and C-IAYT yoga therapist. She mentors yoga teachers one-to-one and runs mentor groups for yoga teachers. She lives in London, UK.
Jules Mitchell MS, CMT, ERYT500 is a Las Vegas based yoga educator, yoga teacher, and massage therapist. Her unique approach blends the tradition of yoga with her extensive study of biomechanics to help yoga teachers develop their craft, and empower them through education. It is her passion to share the most useful and applicable findings from exercise science with the yoga community, and to build confidence in students and teachers by giving them a well-grounded understanding of related research. She leads her own advanced teacher training, teaches workshops and immersion courses worldwide, and offers an ongoing selection of online education and mentoring programs. As an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University, she serves as a yoga consultant on various research studies measuring the effects of yoga therapy on special populations including pregnant women, women with depressive symptoms associated with perinatal loss, and patients with cancer. Her future research goals include studying the effects of asana on tissue adaptation, and bridging the gap between research in exercise science and the practice of yoga.

Table of Contents

Foreword Jules Mitchell 8

Acknowledgements 10

Notes on the text 12

Introduction 13

1 What Is Hypermobility? 17

2 Teaching Yoga to Hypermobile Students 87

3 Hypermobility-Aware Asana: the Practicals 127

4 Working with Commonly Co-occurring Conditions 213

5 Yin and Restorative Yoga 263

6 Hypermobile Children and Yoga 285

7 Practising Yoga with Hypermobility 303

Resources 355

Endnotes 358

Index 377

Editorial Reviews

As someone with Ehlers Danlos, I found the information in Jess's book invaluable. If you are a person who is hyper mobile and starting to explore yoga as tool for better health, I would strongly suggest you read Jess's book first. I only wish this book had been available when I started my yoga journey.

Mick Lawton

This is a book I will recommend to ALL my yoga and dance students and fellow teachers, whether hypermobile or not; Jess' approach combines insightful somatic perspectives with rigorous yet easy to understand scientific knowledge and methodology. Traditions in yoga are respected, whilst individual solutions to a healthy and enjoyable practice are presented in a way that is sustainable, enabling and forward moving.

Jess' knowledge of hypermobility and yoga is second to none, her book needs to be in EVERY yoga and dance teacher's library.

Susanne Lahusen

Jess Glenny has produced an invaluable guidebook for the Hypermobile community. Her uniquely intersectional and thorough research offers useful tips, validating information and a wealth of resources for use - on and off the mat! Highly recommended for hypermobile yoga practitioners, teachers and bodyworkers.

Georgina Obaye Evans

Another useful book from Jess, not just for yoga teachers, but for anyone working with or living with hypermobility. The book carefully lays out both the science and the anecdotal experiences of a hypermobile body, and links this to a number of key related conditions, from POTS to autism. An important read, especially in conjunction with her previous book - The Yoga Teacher Mentor.

Theo Wildcroft

Hypermobility on the Mat is a wonderful resource for yoga teachers and students alike. Jess uses her lived experience of hypermobility, her expertise as a yoga teacher in order to shed light on this fascinating and under-researched area. Written in both a scholarly and accessible way I would recommend this be on every teacher training's book list.

Dr Abby Hoffmann