A Guide to Yin Yoga
The practice of yin yoga is completely different than any other type of yoga and is one of the fastest growing style. Why? I think its a pandemic effect.
Since Covid and the lockdowns, most yoga practitioners have gone ‘less yang’ with their practice. There is an overall demand to slow down in yoga which is to be embraced. We ‘ve been doing so much before Covid and now we realise that we can do less to be more, and this is exactly what yoga is meant to teach us.
Because yin yoga wasn’t created as a dogmatic style of yoga, there are many misconceptions about the practice and lots of inaccurate information online. In this article, my aim is to debunk some of those misconceptions and hopefully provide you with a clear picture of what yin yoga is.
The biggest misconception is that yin yoga is an ancient style of yoga from China. Though yin yoga finds its roots in the ancient Chinese taoist traditions, the history of yin yoga couldn’t be more contemporary.
The history of yin yoga
The history of yin yoga started in the late 70’s with martial artist Paulie Zink in Montana/USA.
Paulie Zink, also known as the “Monkey Kungfu” was inspired by ancient kungfu stretching technique which were held for a long time. He first introduced the stretching martial arts technique combined with element of hatha yoga to a western audience in the 1970’s and called the practice taoist yin. The taoist yin practice of Paulie was taught along a taoist yang practice.
Among his students was Paul Grilley who was impressed by Paulie’s flexibility and had a desire to sit more comfortably in meditation. After spending time learning from Paulie, Paul started combining Zink’s taoist yin into a practice of his own.
One of Paul Grilley students was Sarah Power, she pointed out that since Paul was only teaching parts of the yin tao and not the yang tao of Paulie, he should call it yin yoga.
From then onward (late 80s), yin yoga started to spread in the yoga community.
The 3 main principles of yin yoga
Yin yoga is quietening practice that cultivates a deep sense of self-awareness through the release of mind and body stresses. We mainly practice sitting postures which are held between 2 and 10 mins (usually 3 to 5 min) allowing the students to relax in the position.
The first principle is to find your edge in the poses (the amber zone). When you practice without support, this means until your body naturally stops in the posture and gravity isn’t pulling you further. You may also find your edge supported by blocks or bolster depending on the position and on your body’s flexibility.
Once you find your position, the next step is to relax the muscles allowing the stretch to take place in the deeper tissues. Unlike all other yoga practice were we use muscles and bandhas, here in yin yoga the muscles are coming against the practice. To stretch the connective tissues the muscles need to be relaxed.
Is pigeon pose (eka pada rajakapotasana) a yin or yang pose? It can be either, depending on the energy we bring to the shape. This is why in yin yoga poses are given different names to remind us to approach the posture differently so pigeon pose becomes a sleeping swan.
The second principle is stillness or aiming to stay still with an acceptable level of discomfort. This means to avoid fidgeting and/or looking around but instead allow for the body and the mind to get use to the shape.
There are exceptions to this. The first one is pain, as we stay in the posture for few minutes if you do start feeling pain over discomfort then you should adjust the position slightly. Also with time, we may move as you dive a little deeper in the position if we are unsupported.
The third principle is time as we stay usually between 3-5min in the same position to allow to sink in and stretch our deeper tissues.
After each position we come back to the body’s natural shape by laying down for a min or two. We pause to enable the bold to circulate in the body and nourish the parts of the body that were stressed during the pose. We call this a rebound.
Benefits of yin Yoga
On a physical level, yin yoga stretches the connective tissues (think facia, tendons, joints) allowing us to have a better range of motion to complete our more dynamic yoga practices and/or sited meditation.
On an mental and emotional level, the practice allows the body to drop down into the parasympathetic nervous system. Yin yoga is therefore deeply healing and nourishing because it teaches us to slow down. It relaxes the nervous system and encourages us to be mindful.
Yin Yoga and meditation
Not only Yin yoga prepares you for meditation by opening the body and calming the mind – it also offers lots of opportunity to meditate during the practice. Yin yoga is a meditative practice in itself as we tune inward to witness the sensations, emotions and thoughts arising during the poses.
The objective of yoga is to limit the fluctuations of the mind as per the second yoga sutra : Chitta Vritti Nirodha. (Chitta is the mind, vritti means the fluctuation and Nirodha means the quietening of). Despite yin yoga’s contemporary lineage we can argue that the intention of practicing yin yoga nowadays is possibly closer to the original intent of a yoga asana practice – aka a serie of postures meant to train us to sit still for meditation.
Common misconceptions about yin yoga
I have heard many times that yin yoga is an easy form of yoga for the unfits, old and lazy – lol.
Yin yoga is accessible to all but can be a very challenging form of physical practice as it requires stillness and introspection. Each pose is held between 2 to 10mins unlike just 5 breaths. As a result, sensations and emotions arise and the challenge for the practitioner is to manage them while staying in the pause. Yin offers us the opportunity to listen to what’s arising in body and mind, and to let those energies dissipate.
Through yin’s gentle movement, profound stillness, or both, we release trapped energy to the surface, then set it free.
Another misconception is that yin yoga is a form of restorative yoga, this is a tricky one because a lot of instructors and studios are confused as well!
As on of my yin yoga teachers Ram Jain puts it : “Yin is all about stretching and applying gentle stress to certain tissues. Restorative Yoga is all about supporting your body, allowing it to relax and heal”.
While both practices are similar, restorative yoga was built upon the teaching of BKS Iyengar by Yoga Journal editor Judith Lasater in the 1970s. The primary focus of restorative yoga is to assist in the recovery form illness or injury. The idea is to restore the body, for this a lot more props to support the body is used than in yin yoga (it’s a practice from an Iyengar student after all!).
In restorative yoga the number of attendees should be small so that each person can receive detailed attention depending on the injury or body condition.
While in yin yoga we seek the amber zone, aka a sensation of stretch that may be slightly uncomfortable but not painful in restorative we want to be fully supported to rest.
Yin Yoga versus Warm or Hot yin Yoga
Traditionally the recommendation is for the body to be cold when practicing Yin yoga. We do not need to warm up the muscles as they should stay passive.
When we practice yin yoga in a hot or warm environment, the muscles get warm and they tend to get stretched as well - as a result they take part of the load off the joints. In other words, warm or hot yin will stretch less the connective tissues but it will also lengthen the muscles. The heat makes for a more intense practice allowing you to go deeper in the poses which also require more caution.
Please make sure to not push yourself over the edge and stay in your amber zone! Only you will know so do listen to your body and make the effort to be very much in touch with yourself.
This is why I love the heat for this practice, it pushes you to check in with yourself and makes yin yoga even more of a meditative practice. The opportunity to practice mindfulness during the poses is enhanced - it calms the mind and allows us to practice presence.
Take a Warm yin Yoga class with me at TriYoga
When I suggested to introduce warm yin yoga classes at Triyoga I knew it would work but I didn’t anticipate it would be my most attended classes.
My warm yin yoga classes are a marriage between yin yoga, mindfulness and meditation. My goal for this classes is to help students raise their sense of self awareness by using the witness. The room is heated at 30 degree and I use ambient lights, essential oils and various instruments (singing bowls) to create a relaxing environment for you to practice and recharge.
Join me for warm yin at Triyoga Chelsea :
Thursday 7:30pm - Warm Yin 60mins
Sunday 6:30pm - Warm Yin 75mins
I also have a pre recorded yin class of 45min which can be rented here
With love, Sarah x
References
https://yinyoga.com/hot-yin/
https://www.arhantayoga.org/blog/yin-yoga-vs-restorative-yoga/
https://triyoga.co.uk/blog/podcasts/paul-grilley-yin-yoga-podcast/
https://www.pauliezink.com
https://yinyoga.com/resources-links/