Yin yoga classes might look easy, for some boring but in fact , Yin Yoga is very deep, quite and healing practice.
You won’t get a burn lots of calories while practising yin yoga as you would with more dynamic styles, like Vinyasa or Ashtanga. Indeed, you might wonder what yin yoga practitioners get out of holding the same pose for up to twenty minutes!
And if such practitioners hardly move at all during their sessions, why would there be a sequence of movements to optimise its beneficial effects?
If you have any experience practising yoga, you must know that its benefits are mostly internal. Yin Yoga will give your body that time to restore and rejuvenate physicaly and same time you will train the body for meditation and stillness.
If you are like me, loving Ashtanga Yoga or Vinyasa Yoga, the YANG style of yoga, you might consider to train your body for stillness, so when you aproch a more advance yoga posture, your mind is ready, quite and focused.
This type of yoga targets deep tissues such as joints, ligaments and fascia – the wafer-thin sheath around each of your muscles, for example.
Many of yin yoga’s poses (asana) focus on those tissues surrounding your joints – in your hips, for example, and around your spine and especially the sacrum.
I like to practice and teach Yin Yoga considering Traditionaly Chinese medicine with body meridians You don’t have to be advanced in age or recovering from a traumatic injury to benefit from yin yoga; in fact, practising yin yoga before you notice any loss of flexibility would be ideal!
During the practice you can use or not props , like blocks , bolsters or straps, because you need to feel confortable during the practice .
Few simple rules for Yin Yoga :
* In Yin Yoga we relax the muscles ! In YANG Yoga style like Vinyasa Yoga , Ashtanga Yoga we activate the muscles but in YIN , when we relax the muscles.
* Yin Yoga is not about heavy postures, and muscles are relaxed. We cannot get into a deeper posture strait away because the muscle can be cold and this is way, we need to pay attention and find a limit. Listen to the body and respect its requests,
We don’t use our body to get into a pose – we use the pose to get into the body “
There is no need to try to achieve or to look into certain way. When we practice Yin Yoga, we need to stay focused on the sensations promoted by the pose.
* Sometimes between 2 minutes to 5 or even more, depending on student level of practice and intention. During a Yin practice, we intent to pool chi (energy) in the bones and joints, which requires that we diminish movement and settle into the pose.
The lengthen of time we hold our postures will develop quality of surrender and awareness, a willingness to feel a greater tolerance for uncomfortable experiences. Sometimes after a good Yin Yoga session you may find that a feeling commonly develops that is similar to the effect of a long acupuncture session.
* Be sure to exit each posture with care. There will likely be a sense of fragility in the area of the body that received the gentle stress of the Yin Postures. Move slowly and mindfully as you transition out of the pose.
Please also note that every body is different and all exercise and stretching routines should be individualized to your own body.
Yin Yoga Sequence shoud incorporate just few posture, sometime doing less posture and holding longer time will bring quality of the sequence.
A short example of a sequence in Yin Yoga for lower body meridians a great and simple Hip-Focused Yin Yoga Sequence - 45 to 50 min sequence.
1- Starting in any confortable position for a few minutes, to anker the mind and body into the practice. It may mean legs crossing or virasana (hero pose); it may mean sitting on top of a block or folded blanket(s) or in a chair. Choose a position in which you can completely relax and release muscular tension. If any of these asanas prove too strenuous for you, ease back to the point that you feel your body stretching but it is not painful to do so.
3 min will be a good time to reflect before we start the class.
2- Shoelace (four or five-minute hold on each side) - bring modification like half shoe lace , or use props.
Become passive in your stretch, allowing your muscles and connective tissue to surrender to the yin (the soft, lunar) energy of your body and your practice. You may stay as you are, or if it feels appropriate, you can lead with your heart (maintaining an elongated spine) as you fold forward over your legs. This will encourage to open the outside of the hips and stimulates the Gallbladder and Urinary bladder meridians.
Hold 3 minutes each side with a few moments stilness between switch sides.
(Come gentle out from the pose and remail still for about a few seconds)
3 - Caterpillar pose
Most people will benefit from sitting on a folded blanket or cushion for this pose.
Hold the pose for 3 to 5 minutes. You are looking for sensations along the spine and/or in the hamstrings. Stimulates the kidneys and adrenal glands, massages the digestive organs through breath and compression, stimulates the Urinary Bladder meridians along the spine.
(Come gentle out from the pose and remail still for about a few seconds)
4- Dragon pose
Hold for 3 minutes each side, as the sensations in this pose can get intense.
Placing a block vertically under the front thigh or hip for support, may allow you to relax more deeply.
Place a blanket under your back knee in case of discomfort. Use blocks .
Can help ease Sciatica and increases hip mobility and stretches the hip flexors and quadriceps.
Stimulates Liver, Spleen, Kidney, Stomach and Gallbladder meridians.
(Come gentle out from the pose and remail still for about a few seconds)
5 - Yin yoga dragonfly posture or straddle pose is a forward fold with the legs wide.
From a seated position a forward fold, a side bend or a twist can be practiced.
A yin yoga dragonfly pose targets the backs of the thighs (hamstrings), hips, inner groin, and inner knees. Hold 5 minutes , so you need to be confortable into this pose in order to maintain stillness.
Beneficial for menstrual pains.
Stimulates kidneys, ovaries, adrenal and prostate glands.
Stimulates the Urinary Bladder meridian along the spine.
Stimulates the Kidney and Liver meridians if a stretch is felt along the inner thighs.
(Come gentle out from the pose and remail still for about a few seconds)
6 -Twisting at the end of the practice helps to restore equilibrium in the nervous system and release tension in the spine.
Can relieve sciatica.
Massages the stomach and cures gastritis.
Hold 4 minutes each side.
(Come gentle out from the pose and remail still for about a few seconds)
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