Is Yin Yoga Right for You?

by Baxter

We recently received two questions regarding a style of yoga known as Yin Yoga, in which one assumes certain yoga poses, often done sitting or down on the floor, and passively holds the poses for 3-5 minutes.  An example of a pose done in the Yin way would be Sukasana (Seated Crossed Legs) with a forward fold, done passively for the allotted time. As a disclaimer, I have limited personal experience with Yin Yoga, but have done several two hours sessions over the years.

According to articles that can be found online at Yoga Journal Magazine, as well as the websites of two well-known teachers of Yin Yoga, Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley, Yin Yoga is more than just doing yoga asana a particular way. There is a focus on not just affecting the physical structure of the muscles, bones and connective tissue, but reportedly also influencing the energetics of the body via stimulation of certain Chinese meridians associated with the acupuncture/pressure systems. And there is an emphasis by some teachers also on working with the discomfort that arises in holding the poses longer, as a form of meditation. The concern both of our readers brought up had to do with how safe it might be to stretch the joint stabilizers known as the ligaments via this approach to yoga asana. One of the readers self-identified as being very flexible already, in her 50s, and noted that after a recent Yin workshop (which she found wonderful on many levels), she was left with joint pain for days after the practice and possibly some chronic pain. She specifically wondered if Yin style of practice is safe for students who are hypermobile and don’t really need more flexibility in their joints.

I wish this was an easy question to answer. I might start by saying that there is probably a style of yoga best suited for each of our unique body types, and conversely, there are some styles of yoga less beneficial for you. Secondly, I would recommend, as Paul Grilley does in one of his balanced articles on Yin style of practice, that you need to proceed slowly and with lots of attention, sometimes to subtle body signals, as you try out a new style of practice like Yin Yoga, if you have never done it before. With Yang styles of practice, which is just to say more active asana styles where you are more likely to be engaging muscle groups on both sides of joint that is moving, you will experience what is called your “active range of motion” of your joints, meaning that which you can create by contracting the muscles around the joint alone. However, this is not the “full” range of motion for most joints.

In anatomy circles, there is another term to describe this second stage of joint movement, “passive range of motion,” which usually involves gravity or some other part of the body taking you past the active range of motion place. An example would be lying on your back and using your muscles alone to bring your knees into your chest, like an upside down Child’s pose. This would be the active range of motion of your hip and knee joints in flexion (bending forward). Now, if you take your arms around your shins and pull with your arms (your “outside” force), your legs fold in deeper, thus taking you to your passive range of motion. The idea here is that this may be good for your overall flexibility and joint health, as some compression of the joints seems to be good for the cartilage of the joints as we discussed in our posts on osteoporosis and arthritis. When you flip over and do regular Child’s pose, you now have the full weight of the body pressing down on your hip and knee joints and this might get you even more deeply into the full range of motion of the joint. The question is how much is safe and where do things get potentially troublesome. The answer to that, again, is not easy.

Most sources I can find suggest that keeping your connective tissues—like the fascial containers around all of your muscles—mobile is a good idea. They also suggest that ligaments, the usually smaller bands of connective tissue that keep two bones in a joint close together are not designed to actually stretch much at all without the risk of injury, tearing and chronic looseness. Two things to watch out for if you try out Yin type classes: do I have persistent pain for more than a day or so after class?  And do my joints feel too loose, wobbly or unstable after such practices? If neither situation arises, this style of practice may be fine for you. If either does arise, maybe this practice is not for you. A combination of a Yin type practice with an active Yang style practice may work well for some. And if props take away some of the physical intensity of sensation when you are in Yin poses, this could possibly be a safer way for some to try the longer passive holds of Yin style without causing joint pain or overstretching of ligament. So do experiment a bit and see what you can discover to find the style that works best for you. 

Tension versus Compression: the Safety Line for Yoga

by Baxter

An essential ability to cultivate when adding yoga asana to your health regimen is the differentiation between sensations that are potentially good for you, such as the healthy stretch of a tight muscle, and those that are potentially injurious to you, such as overstretching a tendon or ligament, or compressing structures to the point of injury. We are going for the former and trying to avoid the later.

Two of these sensation creators, tension of a stretched muscle and compression of soft tissue or bony prominences, have been the subject of a quite fascinating yoga video by Paul Grilley, entitled “Anatomy of Yoga.”I viewed this DVD many years ago now, but this essential differentiation between feeling tension and compression and its importance to practicing safely has stayed with me. I’ll let Paul tell you more about it in this youtube video:

Experiencing tension or stretch sensation in a muscle is generally a desirable feeling to become familiar with, especially if it is experienced in the mid-portion of a muscle, farther away from the almost inelastic tendons and ligaments that tend to be located closer to the joints. A typical place to become familiar with this kind of body sensation is the hamstring muscle at the back of the upper legs. I chose this intentionally because it is an area that most students feel some sensation when in Downward-Facing Dog or Standing Forward Bend, just to name a few poses that stretch the hamstrings. As most of you know, the intensity of the stretch sensation can be quite strong, and yet it usually does not mean you are injuring yourself. 

The hamstrings are located on the posterior part of the hip joint, so when we are doing a stretch of this muscle group, the structures on the opposite side of the joint, here being the front of the hip joint, are brought into close proximity to one another in Standing Forward Bend. The closer the pelvic bone and the femur bone come together, the greater the chance for everything in between those two bones are to be compressed or smashed together. As far as differentiating between the sensations of stretch and compression, my personal experience is that they feel distinctly different.  Compression really does feel like things (muscles, skin, tendons, ligaments, fascia and bones) are getting smashed together. And sometimes it creates a kind of pinching sensation as well. This pinching sensation is one that I tend to back away from pretty quickly if it shows up in any yoga poses. And because compression could also put collapsing pressure on blood vessels and nerves, if you start to have an unusual pressure sensation in the joint, or start getting numbness and tingling downstream from the compressed area, that is another good indication to release out of the pose a bit.

The hip joint, especially the front of the hip, is one of the main areas to watch out for this.  Poses like Lunge pose and Pigeon pose are two regularly practiced poses where you’d want to be alert to unusual pressure, numbness or tingling kinds of feelings in the front leg. The good news is that if you do experience compression sensations, propping up just a bit higher could completely relieve the more worrisome kind of compression that could lead to injury. As an example, if you normally do Lunge pose with your palms flat on the floor, coming up onto your fingertips or, even better, onto a pair of blocks, might slightly open the front hip joint and relieve the compression. The same thing goes for Pigeon pose; by setting yourself up on folded blankets, with a block or a bolster under the front leg sitting bone, you can probably relieve compression in the front hip joint.

Lunge Pose using Fingertips

Other joints may be less likely to experience compression, but one that I watch out for is the front leg in Triangle pose (Trikonasana) and Pyramid pose (Parsvottanasana) at the back of the ankle joint. This is especially likely to pinch if the feet are too far apart. If the knees are generally healthy, compression of the back of the joint, such as in Child's pose, is not usually an issue for most students. 

Another place that painful compression is often experienced, especially by male students, is in the shoulder joint while doing Upward Bow pose (Urdva Dhanurasana).  Many men have limited flexion of the arm bone at the shoulder joint, and when they follow typical instructions to keep the elbows in while coming up into Upward Bow, they are unable to fully straighten the elbows, not because of elbow issues, but because the back of the shoulder joint experiences a painful compressive pinch.

It is important, as you master the basic yoga poses and begin to try out some of the more challenging poses, to take your time and notice where you feel sensation while in the postures. By once again focusing on mindfulness in your poses, you are more likely to notice poses that are not feeling “right” to you, so you can bring this to the attention of your teacher for recommendations on how to modify properly. Be patient with yourself, allow for slow steady progress in the mastery of your poses, and you will begin to discern the differences between tension in a muscle and compression around a joint.