You don’t need to leave the house to practice yoga, you can have all the benefits of soothing yin postures within the comfort of your own room!
Yin yoga is a calming practice that helps to release deep stored patterns of tension that are being held in our connective tissue (the matrix that wraps around all the muscles and bones to hold us in our structure). It’s the perfect way to wind down after a busy day at uni or help take the mental lid off the pressure cooker of exam stress that we are harbouring.
What is yin yoga?
Yin has a few components to it that make this style so rejuvenating and relaxing.
Time
To be able to access the deeper tissues of the body and allow them to reset we hold the yin shapes longer than most other styles of yoga. You can use the timer on your phone or a meditation app like insight timer to keep track of your holds. These deeper tissues like our fascia, ligaments, tendons and bones are not as elastic as our muscles that have a quick response time to being stretched and contracted – so as we give them time to release its important to remember that the postures might intensify with time, you don’t always need to start out in a shape with lots of sensation of stretch.
Support
In yin the postures are often supported to allow the muscles to relax so that you can access these more subtle tissues of your body. Supporting the body in these shapes can also help you from going too deep into a shape which can compromise the stability of your structure or be physically too intense to hold for the longer periods of time we need in the yin practice.
We will show you here how to use pillows, towels, books and blankets from around your house to support you through these shapes.
Stillness
One of the main focuses of the yin practice is to set the body up so it is comfortable and supported to hold the shape for a few minutes so that you can rest in complete stillness there and then within the stillness begin to access the ability to observe yourself and your thoughts. The use of an inner method or a meditation technique are often used to help guide your body and eventually your mind into stillness.
What you need
You can try all of these postures out at home using pillows, blankets or towels and thick books to help support you in these shapes. So gather the goods from around the apartment, put some smooth tunes on and get ready for your new at home zen zone.
Yin Postures
#1 Legs up the Wall
Props needed – wall space – optional cushion/pillow or thick book.
To come into the posture:
Sit side on to the wall and as you lay back spin your legs up the wall so they are supported.
Have your pillows nearby so you can slide them underneath your hips or your head for more support.
Hold: 3 -10 minutes
#2 Forward fold
Props needed – pillows, blanket/towel
To come into the posture
Sit down and extend your legs out in front of you, you can fold a blanket underneath your hips if you are tight through the lower back or backs of the legs.
Options to place a pillow underneath slightly bent knees to take some of the stretch out of the backs of the legs.
Fold forward over your legs, taking a folded underneath your chest or belly for support. Your head can turn to one side.
Hold: 3-8 minutes
#3 Broken Wing
To come into the posture
- Lay down on your belly
- Take one of your arms out in line with your shoulder and bend at the elbow to make a 90 degree angle
3. Place the same cheek on the floor as the arm you extended out (look away from your bend arm)
4. Using the other arm, place it on the ground next to your nipple and gentle push into the floor to roll some weight to the shoulder that you are opening.
Hold: 2-5 minutes
#4 Lunge
Props: Blanket/towel, Pillow, Blocks/thick books
To come into the posture:
- Take a lunge with one foot forward, roughly stacking the knee over angle.
- Option to pad the back knee with a blanket, towel or pillow.
- Rest your hands either on your front thigh, on your hips, on the ground or supported with thick books underneath your hands so that the ground is closer and the stretch is less intense.
Hold: 1.5 – 5 minutes
#5 Supported Chest Opener
Props: Two pillows behind heart – option for book underneath the pillows for a deeper opening
To come into the posture
Set your pillows up so that they will lay width ways across the back of your chest, sit down in front of the pillows, with feet on the floor and knees bent slowly lower yourself down over the pillows so that the head is resting gently on the floor.
You can then allow your legs to straighten or take any variation that feels ok in your body.
Hold: 3-7 minutes
#6 Wide Leg forward fold
Props: Pillows, blanket/towel
To come into the posture
Sit down and extend your legs out in front of you, taking the legs apart from one another as far as feels comfortable (remember the sensation will get stronger as you hold the shape). Once your legs are apart in a V shape you can fold a blanket underneath your hips if you are tight through the lower back or place a rolled up towel or blanket underneath your knees to release some of the tension behind the legs – hint we are trying to target the inner thighs not the hamstrings.
Fold forward over your legs, taking a folded blanket underneath your chest or belly for support. Your head can turn to one side.
Hold: 3-8 minutes
#7 Corpse Pose – Supported Rest
Props: Pillows, blankets/towel
Sometimes called corpse pose or pentacle pose in yin this is the final posture in which we lay out on our back and support the body as much as possible. You can put a pillow under your head or your knees, a blanket over your body, even a piece of fabric over the eyes so that all the external input to the body can switch off completely and the body can restore. This is the most important shape, it lets the skeletal structure reset after all the different shapes so make sure you give yourself a juicy few minutes here – you deserve it!
Now that you have experienced how rejuvenated and recharged yin leaves you feeling, try to fit in a few shapes before bed at night to help you wind down and sleep better or schedule time once a week to let yours be refreshed by the joy of retreating inwards or doing a little less.
