Yin Yoga works with the body in a completely different way from every other style of yoga.
So most styles of yoga,
Even if you think about restorative or hatha or vinyasa or any combination of those,
The way that they work with the body to create mobility within is by working with the muscles.
Where Yin Yoga is a practice that is designed to work with,
Instead of the muscles,
The connective tissue or the fascia.
So within our body,
We of course have muscles,
Muscles have this casing.
It's almost like what is described to me is like a piece of saran wrap or almost like a zip lock bag in a way around our muscles.
And the muscle moves within the fascia.
It can kind of move and glide a bit.
Within kind of the fascia and the muscles.
We also have a lot of fascia around our joints.
So the reason that yin yoga is different is that it works with the fascia instead of the muscles.
And what does that mean?
That means that when you're practicing yin yoga,
You're working on creating mobility in the connective tissue and the fascia and not the muscle itself.
And so if you are thinking about the fascia and the muscle moves within the fascia,
If the fascia is incredibly tense,
And all you're doing is focusing on the muscle,
You're going to hit a space in which you're not going to be able to find any more mobility because the fascia is just too tight.
And so we need to work on allowing our muscles and also helping our fascia to become a bit more open and a bit more malleable.
How do we do that?
We do that with the practice of yin yoga.
So traditionally,
Yin yoga is done in a slightly cool room.
So you want to keep your muscles cold so that the work gets kicked into the connective tissue.
Once you start to move your body and warm it up,
And your internal body temperature raises even by just like a degree or so,
It'll start to kick the work into the muscles instead of the fascia.
So,
Yin yoga is done in a cool room,
Traditionally,
And it consists of long holds.
So,
Long holds,
I'm thinking of like a fire log pose,
For example,
Which is a very common yin yoga hip opener.
Where I'm working is also sometimes called a double pigeon.
I'm working on stacking my knees over my ankles,
But I'll be sitting here in this position anywhere from four to eight minutes.
And when you do long holds on cold muscles in a cold room,
What it does is it gets into the connective tissue and the fascia,
Which is so essential to our mobility.
And that is how yin yoga works with the body differently than any other type of yoga and why it's so good for your connective tissue and your fascia.
So if you have tried yin yoga before and you really enjoyed it but you weren't how it was different now you know and if you haven't tried yin yoga before I really think that you should do that just to feel how different it can be in the body.
