STEP OFF THE TREADMILL OF LIFEUnlike the popular and active

yang-like practices, Yin yoga offers a much deeper access to the body and

targets the connective tissue that surrounds the joints and increases its

elasticity. While initially this style of yoga may seem passive, Yin can be quite

challenging due to the long duration of the poses. Tej Rae tries it out

YinyogaY oga, for most of my life, was hot. Steaming with ujayyi breath, perspiring-onto-the-mat yoga. If you think this is an exaggeration, try a Friday morning Vinyasa class in Media City, where the air-conditioning is purposely switched off. If I set aside time for yoga, I wanted it to burn. There was nothing slow about yoga, I assured the runners and gym bunnies who were thinking of trying it out.

Twenty years later, my aching wrists are not so sure. Sometimes, I just want to relax. Or, to be as honest as Paul Grilley, Yin founder and teacher: I’m getting old.

44 | yogalife | N OV E M B E R 2014

Yin yoga “balances the body, mind, and spirit,” says Florida-based teacher and Yin practitioner Yogi Nora. “And it makes me so much stronger.” Most of the poses are done with your body on the ground, seated or on the back. In a Yin class, you aim to emulate a hammock, in all its droopy, laid-back glory, staying in various positions for five minutes or longer.

In contrast to energy-infused Yang, Yin is the dark, cooler half of the black and white whirlpool that appeared on bags and shoes and T-shirts in the ‘70s and onwards. A call to the world of shadow and rest. “[It’s] a practice that gives us permission to step off the treadmill of life,” describes Penny Love, a Dubai-based Yin teacher.

When I tried Yin in the garden, my husband and children became confused. They were used to watching Vinyasa, with its flowing transitions and bird-like binds and scissor-y arm balances. This time, it appeared I was just lying about. Yin yoga is not for show-offs.

But what they didn’t know was I was struggling — to hold the lizard for five minutes instead of five breaths. This difference can be compared to eating one raw apple or having an entire meal of raw foods. It’s a game changer. Tingling and shaking, I had plenty of time to listen to my right hip, which was shouting, “Retreat and desist!” I could hardly make it through the entire five minutes at first.

The after-effect, I noticed, was unlike the surge of Vinyasa where more flowing yoga fills me with energy. There was a lull after Yin, that of a starless sky, an emptying out.

THREE YIN FOUNDERS AND THEIR YOUTUBE PERSONASYin emerged in the late 1980s, when Paulie Zink held ‘Yin and Yang’ yoga classes. A Taoist martial arts teacher who was trained by a Chinese Taoist and Kung Fu master, Paulie modified traditional Hatha yoga and added visualisations and sound effects. With his half-moon of a mustache and black buttoned-down shirt, he tells us on YouTube that we are all ‘bags of water’.

His disciple, another Paul, timed the poses and added Chinese acupuncture principles with Tantric teachings from India. Paul Grilley focuses on anato-my, and his investigations into fascia, our connective tissue, earned him an honorary PhD. Yin is really Hatha yoga, Grilley admits honestly, but Hatha has become such a broad term that Yin helps to define it more precisely: a restorative practice where posi-tions are held for five minutes or more.

A clear, confident speaker, the bald and beefy Grilley is as likely to conduct his YouTube lectures in front of a flipchart as with a classroom of demonstrators.

Yin’s current incarnation can be credited to Sarah Powers, who dropped the Yang to give the practice its name, and now leads Yin teacher train-ings around the globe, with Buddhism, Taoism and Transpersonal Psychology added to the mix. Her work with Grilley with its focus on fascia gave her the ability to sit for meditation without having her legs fall asleep. “My body’s feeling like it’s releasing from the core, juicing in a way that it wasn’t when I was only doing Vinyasa,” she said in a Yoga Journal interview, her manner of speech so Yin-nish and snail-like as to put the listener into a trance.

Yin is the dark, cooler half of the black and white

whirlpool

YIN YANGIn Chinese philosophy, the yin yang symbolises the duality and interdependency of the natural world. Things that are yang are moving, changing and vigorous. In contrast, things that are yin are still, static and calm.

N OV E M B E R 2014 | yogalife | 45

pose

IT’S ALL ABOUT CONNECTIVE TISSUEFascia naturally shortens to its minimum length if it is not stretched, but becomes longer and stronger when certain positions are held for a length of time. Paul Grilley compares Yin to wear-ing orthodontic braces: if you gently stress your teeth over long periods of time, they will eventu-ally shift their position. Conversely, if you wiggle your teeth too vigorously, they will fall out. Some of us might hesitate to delve into our connec-tive tissue, which is most concentrated around joints and usually as-sociated with a sprained ankle or twisted knee, but Yin stretches are gentle and safe.

“It is not muscular strength that gives us the feeling of ease and lightness in the body;

it is the flexibility of the joints, of the connective tissue,” Paul Grilley explains in his book Yin Yoga: Outline of a Quiet Practice. Again, the image of a hammock becomes useful, as something worthy of imitation. Unless we allow the overlying mus-cles to hang, sag, dip, the connective tissue won’t receive the proper stimulation.

Yin yoga poses have English names, not Sanskrit ones, to disassociate them from similar poses in yang practices like Vinyasa. So, it’s ‘sad-dle’ instead of Supta Virasana, and ‘butterfly’ instead of Baddha Konasana. By calling positions by different names, Yin teachers hope to circum-vent the urge to strive, when yogis push their bodies instead of letting go.

DO, OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO TRYHolding a pose for somewhere between three minutes and eternity, which is what it feels like, requires a mental approach wholly different in quality to flow yoga, where you can just get lost in movement. You can’t be a ‘gunner’ in these poses, inching your head closer to your leg in a forward bend, or you will cause yourself pain. “Yin is a deep strengthener to all of the invisible stuff,”

teaches Yogi Nora, who starts every morning with a long Yin sequence before a more vigorous practice. “Yin also makes you flexible enough to advance in Ashtanga or Vinyasa practice.”

Yin is a visceral way to experiment with acceptance, patience, allowing what IS to be. Our monkey-minds will do anything to distract us, take us out of the moment,

off the mat, away from what might be a grow-ing discomfort in our joints. Yin gives us practice in ignoring the mind’s leaps and tumbles. Giving in takes on a new meaning, because it’s the only way for the body to open and let us stretch more deeply, with sharp, pain-ful reminders from our bodies when we stray from this.

“I’ve reached some pretty intense places,” relates Yogi Nora in a previous YogaLife inter-view, “It’s so intense. If I died right now, I’d be OK. I’d feel like something really prominent hap-pened in my life.”

Yin yoga “balances the body, mind, and spirit,” says Florida-based

teacher and Yin practitioner Yogi Nora. “And it makes me so

much stronger”

YOGI NORA STARTS EVERY MORNING WITH

YIN YOGA

46 | yogalife | N OV E M B E R 2014

pose

FIVE YIN FAVOURITESBelow, Yin practitioners Penny Love and Yogi Nora share their favourite poses. Some Yin is better than no Yin, so if you find you can’t make it to class, try to do three poses at least twice per week, advises Dubai-based Penny Love. (You can even do these while watching TV, Penny suggests.)

1. BUTTERFLY: Stretches the lower back and inner thighs.Sit with the soles of the feet together with the feet not too close to the groin, then start to lean towards the feet, coming forward with a rounded spine.

2. SADDLE: Stretches the ankles, knees, thighs and opens the sacral lumbar arch.Sit on your heels, knees slightly wider than hip distance. Slowly lean back towards the floor. Use a bolster if the quads feel tight, especially in an early morning practice.

3. DRAGONFLY: Stretches the back of the thighs, lower spine and the groin.Sit with the legs wide apart in a straddle position, and then start to lean forward, taking the hands to the floor and allowing the spine to round. Allow your quads to relax completely.

4. SLEEPING SWAN: Stretches and opens the hips.Bend one knee while extending the other leg behind you. To protect the front knee, keep the front foot flexed before coming forward. Keep your arms straight, or come on to the elbows. If it is uncomfortable to lie on the ground, use a bolster placed lengthwise under the chest.

5. SUPPINE TWIST: Stretches, rotates, and releases tension around the spine.Lie on your back with your arms straight out at shoulder height, bend your left knee and draw it towards your chest. Draw your left leg across your body to the right and let it descend towards the floor. Gently draw your left shoulder towards the floor as well. Experiment by moving the knee closer to your feet or your head, extending your left arm overhead, and turning your head to either side.

YIN CLASSES IN DUBAIStudio Location TeacherZen Yoga Emirates Hills Penny LoveZen Yoga Media City Liz TerryFields of Yoga Umm Suqeim 1 Julie Campos FarmerEco Yoga Sanctuary Jumeirah Dessi Kassab

Butterfly, Stretches the lower

back and inner thighs{ {

N OV E M B E R 2014 | yogalife | 47