What’s all the fuss about Yin Yoga?

You may have heard of Yin Yoga, but are not entirely sure what it is? Or you’ve been to a class and want to understand more about what Yin Yoga is. Then this blog is for you!

Firstly a bit of Yoga history to put Yin Yoga into context….

Yoga has moved from an eastern wisdom tradition from the Asian Subcontinent and spread around the world and over the centuries it has morphed and reinvented itself. Especially in the last 50 years, there’s been a proliferation of styles of Yoga. 

Yin Yoga was ‘established’ in the 1990’s by Paul Grilley who created a full class of Yin postures. However the essence of Yin and the Yin postures you see in classes today are still rooted in the more ancient Yoga and Daoism traditions. 

Many of the Yin postures are similar to those you may find in other Yoga classes, but you may find they have different names in a Yin class, for example what you may know as Pigeon pose is called Swan in Yin. And more importantly it’s how we hold the postures and for how long we hold them that is vastly different. And this comes down to the Why behind Yin Yoga.

So what is the Why behind Yin Yoga….

Let’s look at the physical aspect first.

In a typical Yoga class, we’re activating our muscles, we’re building strength in the muscles or we’re lengthening the muscles. Muscles have a higher fluid content and like repetition and load, they are elastic. These muscles can be termed our Yang tissues.

In a Yin Yoga class, we’re trying to switch off the muscles, instead we’re working to strengthen and lengthen our Connective Tissues, for simplicity I’ll list these as; ligaments, tendons, fascia, and bones/joints. These are our Yin tissues. These tissues have a lower fluid content and are not elastic. They are called ‘plastic’. They like to be moved slowly, they need time to lengthen and strengthen. 

Our muscles will always try to do all the work to protect the more plastic tissues. So we need to work on switching the muscles off so we can let the work get into the Connective Tissues. 

So in Yin Yoga, we get ourselves into a posture, we use props to make ourselves comfortable with some sensation in the target area. Then we come to stillness. We relax into it. By relaxing into the posture and coming to stillness we can switch off the muscles and take the sensation into the deeper Connective Tissues. 

Through this stillness and resting into sensation, we play with our edge. We may come out of stillness after a minute as the body has released an edge so we can move further into sensation, and come back to stillness.

But why do we care about working our Connective Tissues? All tissues in the body need to be strong to fulfill their functions well. If we don’t use a tissue it atrophies (i.e. it degrades). And as we age our plastic tissues will shorten and stiffen. By working our Connective Tissues we help to slow the age effect and also prevent our tissues degrading. Sign me up for that!

Now to consider the mental health aspect.

There’s stillness in the body, the sensation in the target area, and then there’s the mind. These longer holds resting in sensation, can really amplify the mind. We rest our attention on the target area of sensation or the breath. We observe the thoughts and accept them as thoughts. We come into the present, we slow our breath, we practice mindfulness in the poses. 

Mindfulness and a focus on the slowing of the breath has been shown to switch on our parasympathetic nervous system to get out of the fight or flight stress response, to reduce inflammation, to improve digestion and our immune systems. 

Many Yogi’s come to Yin Yoga to help calm the body and the mind. For those who find it hard to sit still and not do, do, do, Yin Yoga can be the perfect challenge to let go of the doing and work on our Yin sides.

I believe all Yoga can be a powerful tool for mental health, by bringing us into our bodies and out of our heads, a moving meditation. But Yin Yoga has more of a focus on stillness and observing the mind for longer concentrated periods of time. This can be very powerful, but also should not be underestimated. I’ve witnessed shifts in people from a Yin Yoga class as they let go of an emotion or memory that was stored in the body and mind, this may come out as tears or joy or a serene calmness. 

There’s one final aspect for the Why behind Yin Yoga. And it’s all about our energy channels, meridians and chakras. This area is a vast topic and I can’t do it justice in a couple of paragraphs, so look out for a future blog on this area. But to give you a taste…. 

These energy channels run all over our bodies. If you’ve ever had acupuncture or reflexology you’ll know that pressure on one area of the body can affect other areas of the body. In Yin Yoga we look to either provide tension or compression to target areas of the body to achieve the physical benefits to the Connective Tissues but also to the energy channels that run through that area. 

In Yin Yoga, we often structure the classes to work on various meridians to help move energy and revitalise target areas in the body. For example, a series of postures may be structured to help move energy along the liver and kidney meridians to help detox the body. We may also work with the seasons and elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, Earth) which associate with organs and emotions.

In conclusion, Yin Yoga is a popular and fast growing form of Yoga. It has many benefits across physical, mental and energetic levels. 

I want to leave you with one final thought. 

Yin Yoga is amazing, and if you haven’t tried it then give it a go. But life is not all Yin or Yang, we need a balance. So add Yin Yoga into your regular Yoga practice and together you’ll see some amazing shifts in your body, mind and life.