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A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
Of my maybe dozen books on anatomy, this is the masterpiece: Atlas of Human Anatomy by Frank Netter. How any one human could do all these exquisite drawings in a lifetime is beyond me. The drawings of the hand are spectacular. There is no descriptive text, so I don’t know if this is the perfect text for helping with self-diagnosis, but this is a reference book anyone interested in the human body should have. I have an older 4th edition, but they recently released the 5th.
The Anatomical Chart Series by Peter Bachin and Ernest Beck is a flip-page guide that includes excellent anatomical charts. It appears to be out-of-print but you can find it used.
The Human Body by Ruth & Bertel Bruun is a great and colorful children’s anatomy book. You can find it used for around $3. — Lloyd Kahn
Anatomy Trains is a map of our musculoskeletal anatomy. It’s intended for hands-on and movement bodyworkers but is a great read for anyone interested in structure, whole-systems thinking, and brilliant design. I realized after doing Pilates for a while that I had no idea about anatomical structure and why Pilates was effective. While advocating no particular body/mind discipline, Anatomy Trains allowed me to understand why Pilates works. That was eight years ago; my understanding continues to expand over time.
Author Tom Myers asks a grand question: what would happen if we take a different cut at understanding the muscles and tendons? Instead of cutting against the grain at the ends, what happens when you follow the grain past the individual muscles and tendons and see how long the lines of tension go? Tom creates a set of rules and then starts mapping.
An anatomy expert could research and apply those rules themselves; I just followed along. The results are pretty cool: a map of about a dozen or so long lines of tension in our bodies. Most of them are longer than we are tall; some are almost twice as long. Some lines are roughly linear and some spiral around our torso and leg bones. Some lines are near the skin while some are next to the bones. Tom created a new term for these lines: myofascial meridians. Nobody has ever done this before, but the lines are real: Myers has gone into the lab multiple times with teams of students to dissect these long lines of tension in cadavers.
Myers studied under two remarkable body/mind instructors: Moshe Feldenkrais and Ida Rolf. He also studied under Buckminster Fuller, the great whole-systems engineer of the 20th century. The first chapter of the book, The World According to Fascia, provides a lot of background information for the mappings in the remainder of the book. Myers notes that there are three fractal/pervasive networks in our body: circulatory/chemical, nervous/electrical, and structural/spatial. He notes the elusiveness of the structural network: while we’ve had clear models of the first two for hundreds of years, our fine-grained structural network is still quite elusive. This is whole-systems thinking at its finest: lots of ideas how natural tech connects from the nano-scale to full-size human beings.
Like the great science book Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, this book can be read at many different levels. The first way is just to look at the maps and the supporting drawings and charts. A second way is to read the various side discussions and notes. A third way is to plough straight through the rather dense text. I’ve never read AT from cover to cover, but I’ve gone through most of it and read almost all of the side discussions.
My one criticism of the book: its full title, Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists, is enough to scare off those not in the industry. It is a wonderful and friendly book, but books like this must have a formidable title to be sold to medical/health professionals. The ideas it discusses are right on the edge of our understanding of biological systems, but there is not a milligram of woo-woo. — Phil Earnhardt
Humans are not assembled out of parts like a car or a computer. "Body as machine' is a useful metaphor, but like any poetic trope, it does not tell the whole story. In our modern perception of human movement anatomy, however, we are in danger of making this metaphor into the be all and end all. In actual fact, our bodies are conceived as a whole, and grow, live, and die as a whole- but our mind is a knife.
I have an inexpensive (and unfortunately no longer available) 30-inch visible man sitting on my desk. Putting it together was an education; I couldn’t believe how much stuff we have crammed into our insides. Everyday the man-model reminds me of the wonder of our temporary home. To go deeper into the full catalog of human meat, you need the Anatomical Chart Company, which carries replicas of most human body parts. Eyes, guts, brains, etc. in three dimensions. They aren’t cheap, but they are detailed. I am looking for a spot in my studio to park their budget life-sized skeleton. It focuses one’s productivity. — KK
Budget Bucky Skeleton
This economical, life-size articulated adult plastic model is our most popular school-level skeleton. It's ideal for teaching the basics of anatomy when intricate textural nuances of the bone are not required. Articulated joints allow for movement. The arms and legs are removable for study. Features nerve branches, vertebral artery and herniated lumbar disc. Skull includes movable jaw, cut calvarium, suture lines, and 3 removable lower teeth. Includes rolling stand and the PortAPack Systems Set of 5 laminated 8-1/2" x 11" charts covering the Muscular, Skeletal, Nervous, Circulatory, and Digestive Systems. Also includes extra hardware for emergency repairs. Size: 5' 6" tall. Weight: 23 lbs.
Human Muscle & Skeleton Anatomy Model
A ton of anatomical detail in a tiny package, this 8 inch human skeleton and musculature anatomical model contains 46 detachable parts and display stand. This puzzle-like anatomy model also includes an illustrated assembly guide and description of the human anatomy along with some fun Q&A to test your knowledge. The hand painted parts are medical education quality.
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
11/21/17
