Exploring yoga – Yin Yoga

Hello all.  This is the second part of my Exploring Yoga post.  Today I decided to try out Yin Yoga.  I actually didn’t even know what Yin Yoga was before I signed up, but I was interested in trying out something new.  Last night I did my research on Yin Yoga.  I wanted to make sure I knew a little bit about the practice, in order to get the most out of the class.  I found all the information from various articles on YinYoga.com.

What is Yin Yoga?
Yin yoga targets the connective tissues of our bodies.  The poses in Yin Yoga are held for a long duration of time in order to allow the muscles to separate and stretch the tissues.

Why is it called “Yin” Yoga?
The balance point is called the “dao.”  This is the center of all of our events.  When we leave our center, we experience aspects of the yin and yang.  The yin and yang are the two facets of existence, yet one can not exist without the other.  Yin can be thought of as a dark, cold, passive, solid, area; whereas yang is light, hot, active, and hallow.  Active asana workouts (such as power yoga) is very yang, because it strengthens our muscles.  However, asana workouts contain some yin activities, such as watching our breath.

How is Yin Yoga different than Yang Yoga?
Yang yoga targets the muscles.  The tissues of the body require gentler pressures applied for a longer duration, in order to create space and strength in the joints– this is yin yoga.  Yin yoga also does not have as many poses per class.  The three principles of yin yoga are: (1) come into the pose, (2) resolve to remain still in pose, (3) hold pose.

My experience with Yin Yoga
When I first came into the room, there was just the instructor and myself.  She was very inviting and interested in my dance injuries.  I told her that I pulled my hamstrings a few years ago and that I needed to learn some poses to help heal myself.  She was very informative and actually was a dance minor with pulled hamstrings too!  It was great to find someone who knew exactly what I was going through.

Luckily enough, my old room-mate and I were the only people in the class– which felt like a private session!  Our instructor provided us with yoga blocks and blankets, and begun the class by telling us a little bit about Yin Yoga.  We did about 8 poses in an hour; thus holding each pose for approximately 5 minutes.  Coming out of the poses made my legs feel a little tense and weak, but overall the experience was great!  I felt very stretched afterwards.

At the end of the class, shavasana was very calming.  She chanted mantras and kept reminding us that if our minds drifted away that it was no big deal.  We just had to remember to focus it back.  She used the metaphor of training our minds like we would a puppy. 

The one thing I liked best about the Yin Yoga class was the calmness of it all.  Although the studio was set on a major street with cars driving by, it did not seem as distracting as it could have been.  I think that the fact our instructor kept reminding us to focus our minds and release all the other troubles in our lives, made the experience very enjoyable.  It was nice to take the time to stretch into the poses, instead of rushing through the asanas in a typical Vinyasa flow class.

Our instructor also mentioned the importance of accepting our bodies for how they are in the present moment, and to not beat ourselves up about how far we can get in the poses.  A full blog post about acceptance will be this week!