Trail Guide to the Body: How to locate the body's muscles, bones and more

by Andrew R. Biel, Robin Dorn (Illustrator)

This acclaimed book teaches readers to palpate the body's structures with ease and precision. The beautifully illustrated, user-friendly guide to the muscular and skeletal systems makes learning the necessary bodywork skills interesting, memorable and easy. With 420 pages and 1,100 illustrations, this 3rd edition covers more than 125 muscles, 206 bones, 30 ligaments and 110 bony landmarks. It provides an invaluable map of the body.
New to this edition:
Synergists: Muscles Working Together - 75 new illustrations showing the muscles that perform a movement "in action".
40 new illustrations showing ligaments and deeper structures of the joints.
Palpation information for 10 muscles new to Trail Guide.
Basic information for 25 additional muscles, most of which are unpalpable but fill out a reader's knowledge and understanding.
200 revised 2nd Edition illustrations
Palpatory Journal Page - encouraging readers to create their own "palpation diary" based on their hands-on experiences.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Reference, Science, Fitness, Medical, School

422 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Hi, my name is Andrew Biel. I'm the author of Trail Guide to the Body, the award-winning book that has taught thousands of healthcare providers about musculoskeletal anatomy and palpation.

Why "Trail Guide to the Body" as a title? In preparation for any journey, it helps that you know the lay of the land. I want the reader to be able to manually map, navigate and gain their bearings on the human body.

This journey started for me almost twenty years ago. In the middle of the night I woke up, pulled out a yellow pad of paper and scribbled "Road Map Human Body -- book that connects stuff together" and then fell back asleep.

After thousands of hours and more than 500,000 copies sold after that initial epiphany, the success of Trail Guide to the Body (and the other products my company Books of Discovery has published) has surprised no one more than me.

I'm still writing (while tending to goats and chickens) and enjoying the life I have with my wonderful wife, Lyn Gregory, and our daughter, Grace Amalia.

Reviews

[Katt]

This book has helped me through school & being a massage therapist. Wonderful book.

[Foxthyme]

This book is indispensable to me. I think I've looked up the ankle ligaments alone about a billion times as I have an ankle ligament mental block. If you want to know how to landmark and find all the muscles bones and fascia in the body, this book book takes you on the up close tour of the body.

[Farida El-gueretly]

I picked up this book because I was interested in better understanding skeletal and muscular systems and it's brilliant. For someone who knows the bare basics about the skeletal system, I found the illustrations on point, the descriptions and actual "trails" to discovering the human body to be fascinating. I think I will refer to this book quite often in the future as a reference for skeletal and muscular systems.

[Rospoicha]

a really useful book for massage students.
comprehensive
clear instructions and formatting make locating muscles easy.
weird premise--a "hike" through the body with different "trail guides" but beyond the schtick, it's really fascinating to start palpating yourself and others just following the steps outlined

[Susan]

heh, heh, heh...

[Moon Captain]

Have you ever had part of you hurt? have you ever touched a spot on your body and been like: "Oh my God what is that lump? Do I have cancer!? "

Please pick up a copy of this book. You can get a used one for just a couple dollars.

I read this whole thing and I'm going to keep it forever and reference it all the time! I am not a bodywork practitioner of any kind, just a person who is trapped in a body and suffering from it. I also am interested in understanding how things work. Honestly I think everyone should own this book, maybe they should be taught this book or at least the basics of it, and some other essential knowledge about how to live in a body, instead of PE class in school.

It doesn't really give instructions on how to palpate yourself but I'm sure you can piece it together. It has been my experience that there's not readily available knowledge on how to know your own anatomy, but this book is an excellent resource and I don't know any other that's comparable.

Once you know exactly what part of your body hurts and when and why, you can have much better luck getting medical care, because you will know the language.

[Jennifer Savage]

This book single-handedly got me through Kinesiology class for work. I recently picked it up and read it again.

[Viki]

Great book for learning anatomy and palpation. Great for bodyworkers and physical therapists and good for artists, as well.

[Lisa D]

I read this during my training in 2000

[Amelia]

Best anatomy book I have read so far. If you are in a movement or hands on field this book is awesome. I wish that we would have had this book in my college anatomy labs because it made it simple to locate and remember all of the muscles. I have a deeper understanding of skeletal and muscular anatomy then ever before. YES YES YES

[Ruth]

This was one of my textbooks in massage school. I had to repeat the class twice and then ended up failing the licensing excam, so I don't really have good memories of this book. Many other people got 100s on their exams, so I guess it was user error and not the book's fault. Also the teacher was a massive douche bro.

[Jeri Lane]

I'm a massage therapist, and this book is my constant reference point during my harder rehabilitative clientele base. Its so simple and informative. The pictures tell you everything you need to know. Great book for the shelf.

[Christina]

Loved it. The images were so helpful, it included extra information. Palpation directions to isolate the muscle. Movement diagrams. Great book to learn the muscles. I used this for my Massage school and I again used it to supplement my PTA anatomy book.

[Kellie]

Need this for anatomy

[Dale]

A very good book for anyone with an interest in the muscles of the body. Good illustrations, concise.

[Cheryl]

EXCELLENT book of anatomy and explanations for finding various muscles are clear to understand and easy to follow

[Robin]

Awsome pictures and discription.. This is a wonderful refernce book for anatomy and physiology.

[Laree Draper]

Fabulous, especially for those of us late to anatomy.

[Seraphina]

One of my most favorite books from massage school

[Faft]

great illustrations. is an awesome resource for studying anatomy. i wouldn't have wanted to do it without this book. the study guide also very good, but necessary.

[Janice]

I love this book! Reference it often.

[Kim]

Used to teach kinesiology out of this book. Awesome

[Valerie]

Really, really good

[Helen]

This may never come off my Currently Reading shelf. It is an invaluable resource

[Jay]

This book is incredible! An endless resource! It is also embodied anatomy, which makes space for our own different bodies and knowledges tied to them

[Rachel]

A wonderful and informative guide. Highly recommended.

[Justin]

Very good details. It is much easier to see the muscles and insertion points in this book than in similar works.

[Katie]

GREAT book.