Asana, Ashtanga Yoga, Astanga, Dynamic Yoga, Yin Yoga and Pilates in Manchester: Yin Yoga

Yoga and Pilates in Manchester with Mathew Godebski

Yin Yoga

A Quiet Practice

The art of deep body relaxation was developed by Paul Grilley and emphasizes stillness, release and awareness. Postures are held longer and without effort.
See www.paulgrilley.com
The main differences between a Yin and a Yang Yoga practice are that Yin postures should be done with the muscles relaxed and be held for a long time. This is because connective tissue does not stretch like muscle and will not respond well to brief stresses. In addition, Yin Yoga better prepares people for meditation.

The Yin is a lovely style of yoga which I find particularly effective. Postures are held passively for upto several minutes. The body is supported and tension allowed to release. The style is very good for working on the hips, back-bends, forward-bends and twists. This is a calming, meditative, nurturing but none-the-less challenging practice.

Yin Yoga is also a very complementary form of yoga for martial artists. Yin Yoga is an extrememly valuable way to increase flexibility and so is an ideal form of stretching for martial artists, runners and cyclists.

Yin Yoga directly complements yang or dynamic yoga practices such as Ashtanga Yoga and Iyengar Yoga.

Also, if you have an injury and connot continue with your usual practice then Yin Yoga is a style of yoga can usually be practiced safely while recuperating. For example, an intermediate ashtanga yoga practitioner with a shoulder or wrist injury can easily practice Yin Yoga until recovered sufficiently to continue with a strong Ashtanga practice.

Here are a few examples of Yin Yoga postures:

Current Yin Yoga timetable is here

Please bring a couple of props such as blankets, cushions, yoga blocks to the Yin Yoga class.
These are used to provide support as you release and let go and allow your body to open out.
It will usually take you one or two sessions to work out how best to use props for your own body.
In the Yin Yoga class it's ok to wear socks and/or an extra layer or clothing.

Click here for Yin Yoga Gallery

Order from amazon.co.uk:	Order from theyogashop.co.uk	Order from amazon.co.uk:
	Yin Yoga: The Foundations of a Quiet Practice DVD
Yin Yoga book by Paul Grilley - this is the standard text on Yin Yoga	Yin Yoga DVD by Paul Grilley

Article related to Yin Yoga...

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The following article was published on the Yoga Journal website. It is reproduced here in its entirety with the kind permission of Paul Grilley.

Taoist Analysis: Learning Yin and Yang

A basic understanding of Taoist philosophy can help us grasp how yoga affects the crucial tissues of the body, including muscles, bones, and connective tissue. This primer explains how to categorize those tissues as Yin or Yang.

By Paul Grilley

	Figure 1 Paul and Skeleton View in Detail

There is so much to say about the human body. For example, the thirtieth edition of Gray's Anatomy runs to nearly 1700 pages--and that is just a description of body parts! Textbooks on physiology easily go into the thousands of pages. But what is most immediately relevant to Hatha Yoga practitioners is a simple question: "How does my body move?" or, even more precisely, "Why does my body not move the way I want it to?"

The answer to this question begins with our joints. Although there are many tissues that form a joint--bone, muscle, tendon, ligament, synovial fluid, cartilage, fat, and sacks of fluid called bursae--it will be sufficient for our purpose to consider three of them here: muscle, connective tissue and bone. Each of these tissues has different elastic qualities and each responds differently to the stresses placed upon them by yoga postures. By learning to feel the differences between these three tissues, yogis can save themselves a great deal of frustration and possible injury.

Taoist Philosophy

Before embarking on the analysis of joint movement, let's take several steps back and reacquaint ourselves with the ancient Taoist conceptions of Yin and Yang. The concepts of Yin and Yang are tremendously helpful in clarifying not just how the tissues of the human body work but virtually every sphere of human thought and activity. If we take the time to learn the broader implications of Taoist thought, then we will be able to extend our explorations into pranayama and meditation using similar terms and ideas. In fact, we shall see that everything in the universe can be discussed in terms of Yin and Yang. And by making it a habit to describe things this way, we will learn to look past quick and easy, black and white answers and begin to see the interrelatedness of all things, even things seemingly opposite one another.

Empty or Full?

Taoism shares the same fundamental insight as Buddhism and Vedanta when it comes to analyzing the "things" of the Universe. This insight is that nothing exists in and of itself. A tree, for example, can't exist by itself. It needs air from the sky and water from the earth and light and heat from the sun. A tree could not exist without an earth to root in. The earth could not exist without a sun to draw life from. The sun could not exist without a space to be in. Nothing that exists is completely independent of everything else--not a tree, not a stone, and definitely not a human being.

Although Buddhists and Vedantists share the same insight about the interrelatedness of all things, they come to opposite conclusions in their conceptions of ultimate nature of all them. Buddhists say, "No things exist." Vedantists say, "All things are really just the One Thing."

The Buddhist says, "No 'things' exist because if we try to remove their coverings of earth, air, water, and light there is nothing left." The Vedantist says, "All 'things' are really just the 'One Thing' because all things arise from and dissolve into every other thing."

The conclusion of the Buddhist is "All things are Empty or Sunya." The conclusion of the Vedantist is "All things are Full or Purna."

But the Taoists say, "All things are 'Empty' and 'Full'."

Taoists say, "All 'things' exist as a contrast of opposites. We call these opposites Yin and Yang. We cannot conceive of these opposites independent of each other." A Taoist asks the question, "Which is more fundamental to create a room: the walls or the space inside?" Surely both the solid walls and the empty space are equally necessary to form a room. They define each other. Without walls, the space inside is part of all space and cannot be distinguished. Without the space inside, it would make no sense to call what remains walls because it would just be a solid block.

Taoists say that opposites define each other. The very words we use to describe things have no meaning without their opposites. The meaning of words like "big," "bright," and "hot" are defined by their opposites of "small," "dark," and "cold." Taoists refer to these opposing qualities as Yin and Yang. Here are a few examples of Yin and Yang:

The Yang of an object is everything perceived by the senses.
The Yin of an object is everything the hidden from the senses.
Yang things are bright, warm, soft, moving and changing.
Yin things are dark, cold, hard, solid and unchanging.
The epitome of Yang is a warm, bright, open hilltop.
The epitome of Yin is a cool, dark, hidden cave.
The sunny side of a hill is Yang, the shaded side is Yin.
Anything closer to Heaven is Yang.
Anything closer to Earth is Yin.

Everything is Relative

When we use the terms Yin and Yang, we must bear in mind that they are relative terms, not absolutes. We could say the walls of our room are Yin because they are solid and the space inside is Yang because it is empty. But we could also say the walls are Yang because they are directly perceived and the space is Yin because we cannot directly perceive it. Context is everything when using the words Yin and Yang.

When we use the terms Yin and Yang to describe how our bodies move, the context is the elasticity of the joints. Each of the three tissues Yogis need to consider when bending their joints varies in their elasticity. Each of them responds to the stress of Yoga postures differently. To teach and practice safely and effectively, we must to learn to exercise Yin tissues in a Yin way and Yang tissues in a Yang way. Bones are Yin, muscles are Yang and connective tissue lies between the two extremes. Understanding these differences is the foundation for the journey into anatomy that we will be taking over the coming year.

In the summer of 1979 Paul Grilley was inspired to study yoga after reading Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. After two years study of anatomy with Dr. Garry Parker, he relocated from his home in Columbia Falls, Montana to Los Angeles to continue his studies at UCLA. During his thirteen years as a yoga teacher in Los Angeles, Paul studied Taoist yoga with martial arts champion Paulie Zink. He also had the opportunity to study with Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama in Japan, as well as host seminars with him in the United States. He currently teaches yoga and anatomy worldwide and lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife Suzee.