Body · Reading
Muscles
Smooth, cardiac and skeletal muscle, and the key muscles of the neck, shoulders, hips and thighs.
Awaiting subject reviewWritten from our source material and not yet checked by a teacher of this practice. Read it as reference, and learn the practice from someone who teaches it.
Structural anatomy
Muscle comes in three kinds. Smooth muscle lines the organs and vessels and works without conscious control. Cardiac muscle is found only in the heart. Skeletal muscle attaches to bone through tendons and moves the body when we choose.
Skeletal muscles work in pairs: as one contracts, its partner lengthens. In practice, a few groups do much of the work. In the neck and shoulders, the trapezius and the deltoids. In the hips, the gluteal muscles, the hip flexors and the deep rotators such as the piriformis. In the thighs, the quadriceps in front and the hamstrings behind.
Diagram
Sources and tradition
- YOG Union App Content Map, 2 November 2026, pp. 11–12, anatomy cards