Be Y’inspired
(Yes, puns are necessary).
Yin yoga is fast becoming a regular name in the contemporary yoga world, along side Bikram, Vinyasa and Ashtanga. So let’s delve in to see what it may have to offer regular yoga goers and athletes alike.
The roots of Yin
Yin yoga, came to us through perhaps an unusual source, modern martial arts. An American martial arts instructor, Paul Zink, used a combination of yoga poses and martial arts together and found they complimented each other to improve flexibility as well as strength in the art, called taoist yoga. His students Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers really resonated with the practice and seen the immense benefits to students, and so went on to develop a purely yoga based practice, what we now offer as Yin yoga. It utilises many traditional yoga poses so still has links to traditional hatha yoga, but it uses them slightly differently, with small variations, the focus is tweaked and the poses are long held, allowing us to marinade in the postures for enough time and breaths to feel the fascia, and our own resistance, release.
If you know what fascia is you can skip to the next part. Fascia is basically the webbing that holds our entire system of muscles, bones, ligaments, organs, vessels, nerves .. together. It is like our unperceived shell, connected, woven and intertwined through every inch of our body and our nervous system. It gives us our shape. It is connected like a chain, through our entire system. Fascia, like muscle, can become dysfunctional, one link out of whack can have knock on effect further down the chain, referring pain or tension through the body. Fascia can be effected positively through Yin yoga, to release and re-align.
What to expect in a class
Classes usually only consist of a minimal amount of actual poses, so unlike most modern takes on traditional yoga which sees us “power” or “flow” through a set of sequences with speed, Yin is a much slower pace. Part of the challenge for most of us of a Western mindset is simply allowing ourselves to come to this state of heightened stillness, staying in the pose with full awareness of all the sensations the body throws at us for the duration of the held posture. The poses again may only be held for 90 seconds or up to 5 minutes depending on the pose and your experience, but the effect on your body and mind can be profound.
Having explained the idea, I will emphasise that although in theory the practice sounds very similar to say restorative yoga where we hold poses for longer periods, the practice is very different, in restorative we are aiming to rest, restore and enjoy being supported by various props in an almost lazy yoga way. Yin is an altogether different beast. We work on the ligaments, fascia and staying with some uncomfortable bodily sensations and emotional ones too. You may actually feel slightly fragile and delicate for a minute after a long held pose but with an experienced instructors guidance and care you will feel an immense release of constriction, tightness and a yielding of the body to the moment. This makes it excellent for the purpose of martial arts or for those who work out and find while they have excellent strength and endurance they may feel flexibility and ease of movement could improve. It also suits those who may enjoy a good meditation practice or a regular yoga routine, the ability to stay with what is happening and not take our attention away from the sensations in the body is a huge aspect of the challenge of Yin, and its benefit of course. It is not for the faint hearted but it is so very worth the effort!
Yin Yoga is simple, but simple does not mean easy.”
Bernie Clarke – book ‘Yinsights’
Where to find a class
Yin Yoga classes are thankfully becoming more freely available.
In Wexford you can catch a class with Tania at Ashgrove yoga
Sarah Dunlea Yoga also treats her students to some Yin on her regular mini retreats. Keep an eye on her facebook page for these at various locations in Wexford.
Yoga by Vickileigh run a weekly class in Gorey town on Tuesdays at 8.15 details here.