5 Reasons to Try Yin Yoga

Yin yoga is a style of yoga that’s different from what you are probably used to. Rather than flowing through a series of poses and keeping the body moving, yin focuses on keeping the body still for several minutes at a time. This allows a pose to work its way through the muscles to create more length, flexibility, and mobility. Keep reading to learn more about this unique form of yoga, and the benefits that it can provide.

1. It Can Help Relieve Stress

Yin yoga training at every level aims to help you quiet your mind so that you can focus without distraction on what you are doing. For this reason, it is a great practice when you need to get away from it all and clear your thoughts for a while. After you get yourself into a pose, you can simply breathe and focus on your breath, keeping your body still and calm. By the time you are done with your session, you will feel less stressed, more relaxed, and more at ease.

2. It Can Improve Range of Motion

Another one of the many reasons why people practice yin yoga is to improve their range of motion. By maintaining a pose for several minutes at a time, you begin to tap into the connective tissue that becomes tight as a result of leading a mostly sedentary lifestyle. If you feel stiff or your muscles have become tense, this style of yoga can help you get back the range of motion that you have lost.

3. It Doubles as Meditation

If you are hoping to get more meditation into your daily life but you don’t seem to have the time to dedicate to it, why not incorporate it into your yoga practice? With yin yoga, you experience deep stillness, which gives you the opportunity to meditate at the same time. Once you are set in a pose, you can begin focusing your mind on what’s going on in your body, noticing any sensations that arise. Or, as mentioned above, you can focus on your breath. You could even meditate while in a pose by repeating a mantra to yourself.

4. It Helps You Heal

Yin yoga is a gentle form of yoga that can provide a nice break from your usual workout routine, especially if you typically do more powerful yoga flows, cardio routines, and/or strength training. This practice is meant to give you the chance to slow down and stretch out the muscles, and doing so can help promote healing.

5. It Helps You Improve the Rest of Your Practice

When you perform yin yoga poses, you’re doing a lot of the same poses that you might perform in a regular yoga class, but you’re spending more time in each pose. This gives you the chance to really learn a pose and go deeper into it, and that can help improve the rest of your practice too.

Now that you know about a few of the many benefits that you can derive from practicing yin yoga, why not try it? Once you start to reap the benefits, you’ll never want to stop doing it.