My two Bengal cats curled head to tail, making a yin yang shape.
Yin and yang come from Taoist philosophy. They're a pair of opposites that need each other. Yang is active, warm and moving. Yin is still, cool and steady. One doesn't make sense without the other.
Flow classes are yang. You move with the breath, you build heat, your muscles do the work.
Yin yoga is the other half. The shapes are on the floor, and you stay in each one for a few minutes with your muscles as relaxed as you can let them be. In Yin teaching, the muscles are thought of as yang and the connective tissue around the joints, the ligaments, tendons and fascia, as yin. The long, quiet holds are meant for that slower tissue.
The two were together from the start. In the late 1970s Paulie Zink, a martial artist and Taoist yoga teacher, was teaching long floor holds as part of a practice he called Yin and Yang yoga. Paul Grilley studied with him and developed his own style around the floor holds, and one of Grilley's students, Sarah Powers, suggested the name Yin Yoga. Yin is usually described as a complement to more active practice, not a replacement for it.
A Yin Yang class puts both halves back in one practice. I like it because it's a balance, movement and stillness, effort and ease. It's a well rounded practice.
A 75-minute Yin Yang class
On Saturday, November 15, I'm teaching a live Yin Yang practice on Insight Timer. We'll begin by moving with the breath and warming up the body, then slow down and finish with Yin, staying in each shape on the floor for a few minutes. It's longer than my regular classes to give space for everything. It's not rushed.
Saturday, November 15, 11:00 am Atlantic (10:00 am Eastern, 7:00 am Pacific, 3:00 pm UK, 4:00 pm Central Europe). 75 minutes, live on Insight Timer.
This one is a paid class. Your ticket includes the replay, so if the live time doesn't work where you are, you can practise with the recording whenever it suits you.
If something I say doesn't feel right for you, please don't do it. Always listen to your body first.
See you on the mat.
