What is Yin Yoga?

Yin yoga is based on the Taoist concept of yin and yang: the opposite and complementary principles in nature. While most of our yoga classes focus on yang – the changing and moving aspect – yin yoga focuses on the stable, unmoving aspect. In a yin class, you’ll experience passive floor poses that mainly work the lower portion of your body, including hips, pelvis, inner thighs, and lower spine.

Who is Yin Yoga Designed For?

This practice is well-suited for anyone who has an active lifestyle and is looking to add more calmness and quiet to their lives. It’s also great for anyone who struggles with anxiety or depression and is seeking recovery or healing.

Friends with hip or knee replacements: our restorative, gentle yoga classes may be better suited for you.

Why Practice Yin Yoga?

1. Increased Flexibility and Strength – You will actively stretch your body’s connective tissue, simultaneously striving to quiet your mind and settle into the pose. Yin yoga is where poses are held from 30 seconds up to five minutes, allowing time, breath, and gravity relax your body and deepen the pose. When you gently stretch connective tissue by holding it this long, your body will respond by making it a little longer and a little stronger, which is exactly the goal of exercise.

2. Increased Awareness and Self-Intimacy – We live in a world where we are overstimulated with technology, social activities, and other responsibilities, that we often end up never switching off at all. Any kind of dynamic yoga caters to this aspect of keeping ourselves busy. That’s why it’s a good idea to balance your vinyasa yoga with a vastly different form like yin.

Finding stillness for several minutes in a pose creates gaps where the mind is free to wander. Many of us try to stay far away from meditative gaps like this because they often bring up anxiety, boredom, or anything else we suppress during the busyness of life. As with any good form of meditation, yin yoga provides the space needed to address those emotions head on.

3. A Portable Practice – You can practice yin yoga almost anywhere! You don’t always need a mat. In fact, most poses can be held while sitting at your desk, watching TV, reading, or lying in bed.