Yoga Anatomy Images & How Muscles Work

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You know those yoga anatomy images you see where the muscles are shown in two different colors - one color is supposed to be “contracting” and the other color is “stretching”?

These pictures would have you believe that “contracting” & “stretching” are opposites - and that shortened muscles are contracting & lengthened muscles are relaxing.

Know what I mean?

I feel like I see these types of images in yoga books & on blogs all over, but did you know that our body doesn’t work like these pictures claim?

Muscles can actually contract through their entire range - when they’re short, mid-range, and long. Just because a muscle is in a lengthened state doesn’t mean it’s not working!

As our body moves into various yoga asanas, some muscles shorten while others lengthen - but ALL of the muscles on all sides of the moving joints are working, regardless of what length they’re at.

Instead of worrying too much about which muscles are “on” or “off” in our poses (or “contracting” and “stretching” as the yoga anatomy images label it), it’s more accurate to think of them all as “on”, because that’s how we move - through co-contractions.

Aaaand I don’t know why this picture I found of wheel (urdhva dhanurasana) doesn’t seem to depict the person with their palms flat on the floor. Maybe he’s supposed to be doing wrist lifts in wheel? (Which actually sounds cool and I want to try it!)