Where to Start
Just the other day I reached a milestone by posting Yin yoga class recording #366 to the On Demand library of this website. My girlfriend, and other friends said, “That’s great, but it’s overwhelming. Who knows where to start?” Even as the classes are grouped into month-long categories, with individual sessions being organized under specific lunar phases, they’re right. Who can make sense of all that?
But What’s the Big Deal with Yin Yoga Anyway?
Well, it’s a long hold practice, rooted in stillness. A bit of an oxymoron, right? Still exercise. As it happens though, it’s an ideal complement to rhythmic and repetitive activities and sports. “Oh, like a Restorative class?” Oh, no.
Well, the duration of the Yin yoga postures is long like a Restorative class, but the similarity ends there. Yin yoga loads tissues. Restorative? Not so much. The loading matters.
And, Christopher’s Yin Yoga is organized in a way that promotes variety within context of the sameness of long hold postures. It’s said, variety is the spice of life, and variety is the essence of the training principle Periodization. Planned variation. This keeps the organism fresh, growing, and healthy. That is a big deal.
The Long and the Short of It
Postural duration is context dependent. Even the short three-minute holds of the Heaven classes are long, compared to a Vinyasa flow, a Hatha, or a Bikram class. But that same duration is short relative to the much longer eight-minute holds of the Earth classes of Christopher’s Yin yoga. (I specify Christopher’s Yin Yoga since I don’t know of anyone else who organizes classes in this way.) The postures of those classes in between the extremes of Heaven and Earth are in the five-minute range. All together this produces an undulation in duration within the general context of long holds, and all the while stressing the Yin tissues specifically.
Duration is one of the ways to “communicate” with the Yin tissues. Certain sensory receptors respond to the extended durations of applied loads and cue the smooth muscle within the Yin tissues to release. And that is deep relaxation!
Yin Tissues
Yin tissues, by the way, are the fascia, ligaments, joint capsules, and even the joints themselves, as well as the extracellular matrix, or ground substance (the fluid filling the areas where everything else isn’t). This communication causes certain effects beyond the relaxation of smooth muscle cells.
Stress
The stress of the postures over time produces hyaluronan, which attracts and holds water, hydrating & lubricating tissues and joints. The stress of the postures over time generates bioelectric charge (by way of mechanical pressure), which is protective of freshly produced collagen fibers. The stress of the postures over time stimulates new collagen growth, and favorably orients these tissues through their organized use. And, the stress of the postures over time promotes conscious control of unconscious processes, such as relaxation (inherent in parasympathetic nervous system dominance) precisely through time in the shapes, and through a reduced, nasal breathing pattern. Yin breathing.
Yin Breathing
The act of breathing is useful in and of itself, and is a worthy practice of its own. Reduced breathing causes carbon dioxide and nitric oxide to pool, which is healthful. Both gasses are broncho-dilators, and vaso-dilators that provide for easier breathing, greater blood flow, and efficient oxygen exchange (Bohr effect). The relatively recent study of nitric oxide has found it to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral effects. And again CO2 provides for better oxygenation, overall.
The general Yin breathing pattern — an inhale over 4 seconds, an exhale over 6 seconds — is inherently relaxing, and more so with the accumulation of CO2 (although at first a reduced breath may not be particularly comfortable). Reduced breathing is a practice that’s far more valuable than you might imagine, and worth the effort to master. This is a regular part of Christopher’s Yin Yoga.
Okay, but What About Class Selection?
Truly, whatever class you do will be helpful, whether hip-centric or back-centric. Usually there’s overlap since it’s hard to fold or bend without affecting both hips and back (the body’s core). Simply stressing the tissues of the body’s core over time is the key. Of course, since long holds are at times challenging, an Earth class of five, eight-minute postures might not be the most encouraging starting point for a newcomer.
So, at first, maybe skip the very long holds of the Earth classes. On the flip-side, the Heaven class postures are in the three-minute range, so while possibly a physically challenging sequence, the individual shapes are not held all that long. Well, not from a Yin perspective, anyway. From a Hatha perspective three minute holds might seem like a lifetime. In any event, three minutes is shorter than eight, and only eighteen Yin breath cycles.
Postures of the remaining classes — Fire, Water, Thunder, Lake, Wind, Mountain — usually number around eight and each is held for about five minutes. Any one of these five-minute classes is a good starting point since the sequence is normally less arduous than the Heaven classes.
Just so you know, three minutes is about the minimum for Yin effectiveness. It takes that long to get the attention of the previously mentioned sensory receptors. Beyond that lies even more profound effectiveness.
I should point out that the other classes between Heaven and Earth usually offer postures of about five minutes which suits their hour-long format. The Fire and Water classes of the Quarter Moons — cardinal points in the lunar cycle — alternate between folds, bends, and twists. This offers respite from one position (fold, bend, twist) by going into another. You can understand this as a counter-pose. The intermediate-phase classes instead follow a fold-fold-fold, bend-bend-bend, twist-twist progression that results in extended the time in each general position (although providing variation, posture to posture). It’s subtle, but you can see by this how classes vary from session to session.
It’s Yin Afterall
Always remember that you can come out of a posture if it becomes too intense. There’s no gold star for straining though a whole class or even a single shape. You should feel it, and it shouldn’t be easy, per se, but it’s still Yin. Save the effort for your Hatha classes. So, when needed come out of whatever shape is feeling like too much and find a neutral pose (lying supine, for instance) until you’re ready to return to the original posture.
Rx
So, in getting started, aside from the longest of holds (Earth classes), simply choose any class. Let the experience be whatever it is.
The Experience
You should feel the postures when doing them, as the idea is to stress the tissues. You might feel achey and fragile after some of the postures. That’s a result of successfully reaching into and communicating with the Yin tissues. Some days will be better than others, in part due to the viscosity of the ground substance. When it thins out Yin tissues can and do slide past each other more easily. Mechanical stress thins this substance and allows for easier and deeper postures, sometimes startlingly so. (It’s quite interesting to witness — as you’re lying in, say, a twist — when all of a sudden you just go way deeper!) The ground substance can also be affected, one way or another, chemically, which can be connected to mood / mental state. Just another experience to notice.
Patience Is a Practice
Yin is a practice of patience, and awareness, and both improve over time. Curiously, other seemingly unrelated aspects of life tend to improve, too, if not directly through then alongside a Yin yoga practice. After a while, over a number of classes, you’ll see and feel more than you might imagine.
A Panacea?
All that said, is Yin yoga a cure-all, or a panacea? Maybe not. But it is essential.
What I can say is that in over 40 years of fitness coaching weight lifting does seem to be something of a panacea, offering strength, stamina, flexibility, favorable health stats, and perhaps most importantly a good figure / physique. Flexibility isn’t usually associated with weight lifting, but by using full ranges of motion you can maintain, or even extend your joint actions. Yin yoga doesn’t address anything but flexibility and favorable health stats, so no panacea.
But, Yin yoga reaches tissues in a way that weight lifting cannot, as outlined earlier. So the two modes of exercise together, weight lifting and Yin yoga, approach a very real fountain of youth. But, there’s one more element: fluency and fluidity of movement.
Add in a circular martial art like Kung Fu, or a Hatha yoga flow and you’re golden.
But I Play Sports!
Well, what about swimming, biking, running? Tennis, golf, volleyball, etc? Go on and play your sports, and do your Yin yoga. Since Yin yoga complements all of the rhythmic, repetitive activities with stillness, and may just mitigate many of the common ailments / injuries connected to various sports, it can be considered pre-habilitative. (It’s been my experience, my observation that that’s exactly the case.) Yin yoga stimulates — it doesn’t stretch — the Yin tissues in a way nothing else can, especially at the ends of the target joints’ ranges of motion. So, in that sense, yes, Yin yoga is, if not a panacea, at least an elemental facet of fitness and health. In fact, you’re operating at a deficit fitness-wise, if you’re not doing Yin yoga.
The Individual
The individual practitioner is an important variable in the fitness equation, too. By giving yourself to the practice a world of opportunity opens, on many levels. Easier for some than others to commit, that is.
While I cannot prescribe anything for anything specifically, I can say that all sorts of conditions improve for whatever reason by doing Yin yoga, weight lifting, and Kung Fu or Hatha yoga together. It’s not quite the same with individual sports, however, however “healthy” they may be touted. Sport injuries are common.
Balance
In many cases it takes Yin yoga to balance the equation. A regular practice of slow, deep, fascial stimulation offsets the continual muscular rhythm and repetition of popular athletic activities. It’s a dynamic that is recognized in the Taiji, the Yin / Yang symbol, and there’s nothing esoteric about it. It’s the natural order. Cycles of life playing out in the day-to-day, in fitness and sport. Without any fuss or fanfare, Nature asserts (Yang) and retreats (Yin). You can do the same, finding balance within yourself, within your environment. By making Yin yoga a part of daily life, with consistency, and without expectation, it all happens as a matter of course.
A Full Year of Yin Yoga
Here, on my website there are now some 366 different Yin yoga classes. At a class per day that’s a whole year’s worth of Yin yoga, even in a Leap Year! But you don’t necessarily need daily classes. Three per week are sufficient, and maybe as few as two. Just follow the lunar cycle, doing a class on each of its eight phases. You can dip a toe in by starting with a Thunder class, or dive into the deep end with an Earth class.
FWIW, while the postural sequences are all comparable over the lunations, my teaching is more verbose in the earlier classes. You may prefer one or the other.
One more point, it’s best to do the Yin classes after your more active sports — especially if they are ballistic in nature —, not before. Stressing the joints and surrounding tissues leaves the joints temporarily less stable, so giving the visco-elastic tissues time to retract is prudent. Maybe do your Yin yoga in the evenings, at the close of your day.
If you’ve made it this far and still have appetite for more there is a fair amount of additional info on this website, and in my two books: A Righteous Stretch, and Fitness Straight Up.
So, How Do You Choose?
Just pick a class, any class…