Find calm and depth by keeping the poses longer during a Yin Yoga sequence.
Based on the concept of Ying and Yang, Yin Yoga was founded in 1970 by Paulie Zink, a martial arts expert and Taoist yoga teacher. Yin Yoga has been designed to complement Yang’s practice of dynamic movements and standing postures while working on the body’s energy channels. This style of Yoga generally targets the connective tissues of the hips, pelvis, and spine.
What is Yin yoga?
By definition, Yin Yoga, also called yin restorative yoga, is a soothing yoga style in which you will perform passive postures for about 5 minutes to improve flexibility and restore connective tissue elasticity. The practice takes place in a high-temperature environment then talk about Yin Hot Yoga, a variation of Yin Yoga that aims for the muscles to absorb the weight of the pose much more than the deep tissues.
Taoist yoga in China also includes yin-style poses its “alchemy” system – practiced for the purpose of improving health and longevity-. Stretching techniques of this type have been practiced for centuries in China and Taiwan as part of Taoist yoga, sometimes known as Dao Yin. Taoist priests have been teaching Kung Fu for 2000 years with breathing techniques and long-lasting posture techniques to help students to fully develop their martial arts skills.
Yin Yoga is unique in that you are asked to relax in the posture, engage the muscle without forcing and visualize somehow the anatomy of the bones, fascia, and muscles.
Information about yin yoga
Yin yoga teaches you to listen to yourself. The reduced number of movements included in the session can bring silence to your practice. Long periods spent in a position, initially uncomfortable, teach you to “be” to accept the current state of things.
While yogis dive into their yin asanas, teachers often engage in monologues and stories from a variety of sources, depending on their choice. They will often explain the physiology and anatomy of postures, including invisible energy flows that carry energy through the body. They can tell traditional Buddhist or Hindu stories, recite poetry, sing songs or share their own experiences.
Just as we detect yin elements in the yang aspects, we also notice how yin becomes yang, and yang can be transformed into yin to establish a balance. These transformations can be slow and subtle or extremely fast. When we work long hours for several weeks or months in a row (a very yang lifestyle), our body can seek balance by making us suddenly sick to slow us down.
The yin and yang always coexist, it is the yin which passively observes the sensations that arise, but it is the yang’s job to make the necessary effort to maintain the posture.
For a balanced yoga practice, it is essential to include the Yang and Yin aspects, whether you are holding Yin or Yin Restorative yoga with Hatha or Vinyasa in your weekly program, or practicing Yin and Yang in the same sitting.
Among the benefits of Yin Yoga:
Calm and balance the mind and body
Regulate the energy in the body
Improve flexibility of the body, especially the joints and hips
Stress reduction
Greater endurance
Relax the fascia
Help with meditation
Yang best practice
Yin yoga Class at Om Yoga
