Foundations of Yin Yoga Course (4/6)
with Simon

Foundations of Yin Yoga Course with Simon

6-Week Course starting Thursday 30th January at 6:00pm

Simon will introduce the Foundations of Yin Yoga over 6 weeks with the class transitioning to a regular weekly class. We will aim to run this Foundations of Yin Yoga course again later in 2025.

About Yin Yoga

Yin Yoga is a gentle and more passive (rather than active) style of yoga where poses are typically held for 3-5 minutes with the support of props (bolsters, blocks, blankets etc). The two main aims of Yin Yoga are to exercise connective tissue (ligaments and fascia via gentle lengthening poses which helps to mobilise and strengthen joints), and to activate the body's relaxation response enabling the body's inbuilt ability to heal and restore itself to be at its most efficient and effective. The key elements to practising Yin Yoga are entering the pose at the right depth so as to feel the right amount of sensation in the target area (more sensation is not better is Yin), committing to stillness (in the body first, then via regular calm breath, with the mind usually following) and staying in the pose for the requisite time. 

Yin Yoga is much less concerned about 'alignment' and how a pose looks, and much more concerned with how a pose feels in the target area. Yin Yoga can be a great balancing force to other Yoga styles that have a focus on strengthening and activating muscles. Yin Yoga is simple... but not necessarily easy. 

Origins of Yin Yoga

The concept of Yin and Yang comes from Chinese Daoist philosophy which has as a starting principle - nothing in the universe makes any sense on its own, everything is always relative to something else e.g. a star can only shine bright due to the contrasting dark sky. For this reason nothing can really be said to be absolutely Yin or Yang, a context is always required. As the Yin / Yang mandala depicts, there is Yin within Yang and vice versa, and they can both become the other. There are a number of characteristics of Yin and Yang, including Yang energy takes action to change things in the world (doing, pushing through, fitting more in, obsessive thinking). Yin energy accepts the world as it is and simply allows things to unfold without changing them (being, feeling, yielding). Neither are better or worse than the other. There are times when either could be the best course to take. "Traditional Chinese Medicine" (TCM) posits that when Yin and Yang are out of balance, we become sick. Yin Yoga aims to target the meridians (channels through which energy flows in the body) in TCM by using positional release targeting fascial networks.