David Keil was introduced to yoga in 1989 by his Tai Chi Chuan teacher. Both the Tai Chi and Yoga practice at the ripe age of 17 began his research into his own mind-body connections. His search continued through massage therapy where he discovered many insights and affirmations of what he had been exploring and finding on his own through his practices. One of the most important elements was the specific understanding of the musculoskeletal system and how fascinating, beautiful, and amazing the body is on the scientific level, and how that directly played into and off of his understanding of the human body. He was given names and explanations for some of the things he had been experiencing and feeling.
As an instructor of Kinesiology (the study of movement and musculoskeletal anatomy) at Miami’s Educating Hands School of Massage from 1999-2003, David developed a fun, informal, and informative style of teaching. By repeatedly teaching incoming students who had no prior understanding of anatomy, David was confronted with the problem of making such a complex and beautiful system accessible and understandable to the average person.
David brings his unique style and ability to make things simple to the yoga world. Because of his passion and desire to share the human body with everyone, he delivers this complex and sometimes frustrating topic in a way that is very accessible and understandable to yoga practitioners.
Over the years, David has used his skills as a Neuromuscular Therapist to help people reduce their chronic pain patterns. He often brings this information into his workshop,s where students are regularly uncovering painful patterns or injuries in their bodies.
David created his Yoga Anatomy website to help deliver his knowledge to yoga students and teachers. This website is about delivering anatomy to the yoga community in a simple and understandable way. It has always been about you, the reader, understanding the complexity and diversity of our humanness as well as our anatomy.
We often interact with anatomy in two key places. The first is relative to injury, either in a preventative way or after some type of injury has occurred. The second is often when we want to do a particular asana, but can’t, and want to know why. In other words, you’re looking for the technique or anatomical restriction that limits your ability to do a pose.
From this, we often want “the answer” to the problem or the injury. Unfortunately, there is often no single answer or simple solution. It is not my desire to simplify the anatomy or the yoga itself – that would be an injustice to the complexity and diversity of who we are physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
This website is about you learning to see and think about anatomy in a new and different way. One that honors its complexity but at the same time delivers it to you in a way that you can understand and use the information.
Yoga Space Academy has been using David’s 30-hour Anatomy Training for the last 8 years and found it to be an excellent teaching tool with very positive feedback from students. You can revisit the course whenever you wish, and it helps answer common questions that many students will ask when you are teaching them.
Check out David’s fantastic website here