Lindsey
Yin Yoga – A Beginner’s Guide and Benefits of Doing It
Yin Yoga is ideal for beginners because this practice utilizes simple postures, which are accessible to all levels, and emphasizes the felt sensation in a posture, rather than how a pose looks externally.
Let’s break this down:
1.Simple Postures
There are around 30 Yin yoga postures that are all simple, and accessible to beginners. However, don’t confuse simple with ineffective. The numerous benefits from Yin Yoga postures come from the simplicity of staying in a single shape for around 5 minutes.
2. Target Area Sensation over Aesthetics
In other styles of yoga, there are precise alignments for each posture. However, in Yin, there is no precise alignment because the intention is to FEEL a sensation in the target area, rather than see a precise alignment externally.
There are multiple ways to healthily stress the target area, which is one of the reasons Yin yoga is so accessible for beginners, it’s not one size fits all!
Your posture might look very different from the person next to you, but you could be receiving the same healthy stress to the same target area— that’s the intention!
There are three main benefits that beginners can look forward to experiencing!
- Regulate and calm nervous system— this leaves you feeling calm, at peace and unstressed
- Restore the physical body through lubricating the joints, increasing mobilization and functional movement
- Support the energetic body through circulating qi (life force energy flow)
These benefits can be easily accessed through a short Yin Yoga practice. Here’s how:
To begin, come into the Yin yoga posture. Once you have arrived in the posture here’s what comes next!
- Find your edge — this is the place where there is sensation, without pain in the target area
- Stay still — stillness helps the deeper connective tissue release
- Time — time is the magic ingredient. It’s not actually about the “depth of the pose”, but the time in the pose that creates lasting change
Yin yoga is perfect for beginner yogis because you will start to experience the physical, mental, and energetic benefits right away!
On top of this, it’s accessible to all levels, as the emphasis is on simplicity and healthily stressing the target area, which can be done in all bodies, at all levels.
Starting with Yin is a natural entry point for practitioners and teachers alike! If you’d like to dive deeper, check out our Yin Yoga Teacher Training in India!
