Yin Yoga Self-Practice

There were no classes for the past few days with Azmi away, so self-practice is the option to maintain a constant practice.   However, it is not easy to do a self-practice as it takes a lot of discipline and there are always many excuses about not being to find time to do the self-practice. But in actual fact, we only need to do a 10 to 15 minutes practice daily to reap the benefits.

Often most of us would think that we will need to do a yang practice for the self-practice but have you considered doing a yin practice instead.   A yin self-practice has its benefits especially if you have been doing a lot of yang classes.   A yin practice allows us to focus on those tight spots in our body and there are many yin poses that help to stretch out those tight muscles.   And if I am feeling lazy, I can do the poses lying on my back and still get the satisfaction that I have done a self-practice.  In yin yoga, the pose is held from 3 to 5 minutes to stretch the connective tissues in our body.

The following are some of the yin poses that I have been doing in my yin self-practice where the target areas are my tight shoulders, hamstrings and hips.

Anahatsana (Melthing Heart Pose)

Dragon Pose

Reclining hand to toe pose

Sleeping Swan

Saddle

Happy Baby

Before ending the practice with Savasana, I do Viparita Karani (Legs Up the Wall pose) which is a restorative pose and a gentle way to do an inversion pose.

Below is a video from Yogatic where a few yin yoga poses are demonstrated.