To fully develop your yoga poses, a
good understanding of the alignment
of the bones is useful. Sometimes it
helps to visualize yourself in your
skeletal form, without muscle, tendons,
ligaments...

A good yoga teacher can
be helpful with proper alignment too.



From... Donna Farhi's book
Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit.
"When we align ourselves in a yoga asana
we find a harmonious relationship between
the parts of the body so that force can
be conducted into, through, and beyond
the body into space. As force sequences
through the body it opens the spaces
between joints, elongates muscles, and
clears a pathway for energy to flow freely."

"Alignment is not, as is commonly thought,
a static position that we hold. Nor is
alignment limited to straight and linear
relationships. Rather, aligning the body
is an art composed of two steps. The first
step in aligning ourselves is to find a
cooperative relationship between the parts
of the body. This can be as simple as
rotating the foot in the same direction
as the knee. When we find this cooperative
relationship, the parts of the body are
in agreement with one another about the
action to be performed. The foot agrees
with the knee and therefore they can now
move in unified action. The arrangement
of the structure determines where force
can and cannot flow."