Yin
Do less, more slowly, and with less will. Qualities of Yin are feminine, passive or receptive, night, cold, slow, soft.
Slow and Meditative
Hold each pose for 3-5 minutes and maintain an inward focus (to the physical sensations and to the movements of your mind).
Flexibility and Mobility
Yin Yoga accesses deeper tissues and focuses mainly on the joints, such as the hips, back, sacrum, or shoulders. It’s beneficial because your body will be capable of a variety of movements and the risk of injuries decreases.
Connective Tissue
Instead of the muscles, Yin Yoga targets connective tissues such as the fascia, ligaments, joints, and bones.
Fascia Release
Fascia is a network of connective tissue, the biological fabric that holds us together. Fascia requires at least 2 minutes of continuous stretching to actually affect its elasticity.
Breathwork & Mindfulness
While holding intense postures for a considerable length of time, you will "breathe through" the discomfort and train your patience.
Yin Yoga is a really slow-paced type of yoga class that consists of seated and supine poses and is made up of passive rather than active exercises. What does this mean in practice? Imagine a relaxing and meditative sequence where we hold each pose for 3-5 minutes or even longer. The point of the poses is to relax as much as possible and passively let gravity do its job.
Are you ready to step out of the “more and faster” mentality?
The yin yoga approach originates in the Chinese yin and yang philosophy. According to this, the phenomena of the world are basically determined by two qualities, yin, and yang, where yin carries qualities such as masculine, active, daytime, hot, fast, hard, etc. Yin is the opposite, that is, it embodies qualities such as feminine, passive or receptive, night, cold, slow, soft, and so on. Yoga is more prevalent in today’s Western world in a “yang” style, meaning in yoga studios we can see mostly physically strenuous classes focusing on muscles. Yin yoga, on the other hand, targets connective tissues such as the fascia, ligaments, joints, and bones.
One of its main advantages is the lengthening of the connective tissue by holding the postures for longer than usual. Due to inactivity, connective tissue becomes less flexible, leading to pain and stiffness. Since fascia requires at least 2 minutes of continuous stretching to actually affect its elasticity, long-held poses of yin yoga are one of the most effective ways to improve flexibility and release sore points. In the practice of yin yoga, we access deeper tissues and focus mainly on the joints, such as the hips, back, sacrum, or shoulders.
Flexible fascia and mobile joints result in a greater range of motion and allow you to move more freely and easily.
The slow and meditative nature of the classes allows you to focus inward and tune in to your mind and physical sensations. Long-held poses can be challenging both mentally and often physically, so yin yoga teaches you how to breathe through discomfort, or how to be patient when there is no activity to distract your mind so your thoughts are wandering or you are frustrated.
Are you interested? Feel free to ask any questions, I’m happy to hear about you and assist you on your unique well-being path.
