When in a yin pose is there lengthening of muscles?

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Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

When in a yin pose is there lengthening of muscles?

Post by Bernie »

I was recently asked the following:
  • 1. I understand that the purpose in doing the yin poses and the length of time that you hold them is more for the joints. Check. When in a yin pose, for example Butterfly, there is still an opening up of the muscles – lengthening – while it is not the intention of the yin practice – do you still agree it happens? Or is this what I am missing? Is it NOT happening? I have posed this to the yin teacher that I have on staff who trained with Paul Grilley and I did not fully understand her... so I thought I’d email you.

    2. Also, I read that you should not hold YANG poses for long as this could cause strain... hmmm... I don’t disagree – I just want to understand. Are you saying that if you hold Warrior 2, for example, that you may strain the joints or the muscles and why? (Yes, I’m one of “those” who ask why? But it’s just out of wanting to understand).

    3. I have a student who understands what he reads so well... and he has been reading a lot of kinesiology/bio mechanics work and I find he won’t even hold child pose for more than 30 seconds now – but used to make sure he attended the weekly yin that we offered. I don’t want to address this with him until I have an understanding beyond what I currently have. (I did my 200hr with Shakti at Prana before I left in 2005).
1) Muscles are ~70% muscle cells and ~30% fascia. It is not possible to only target the cells and not affect the fascia. Stress is applied to both kinds of tissues. Many dancers have used yin-like postures to lengthen their muscles: think of ballerinas holding a leg on the bar, or sitting in splits for 20 minutes or longer. They are stressing the fascia of the muscles and elongating the whole area. So, in short - yin yoga can lengthen muscles too! I like to think of it as - yin for length and yang for strength. (Of course that is a big generalization but in general it is true.)

2) How are you defining a “yang pose”? If you mean holding a pose with muscles contracted for a long time (say 5 minutes) that is not the most effective or safe way to work muscle cells. I address this issue here and in my books. Muscles, being yang-like tissues love rhythmic and repetitive movement. This is how they get pumped up with blood. A constant contraction (called isometric contraction) can be good if held for a short while (think of chaturanga) but a NASA study has shown that constant use of this method of exercise actually decreases the number of muscle proteins (called myofibrils). So, I am not advocating long held “yang” stresses of muscles because of the effect on the joints but because this is not the best way to exercise muscles.

3) I am not sure what you are asking here: does you student refuse to stay in Child’s Pose for any specific reason? I know that several people were concerned about a report that claimed holding poses longer than ~15 seconds (called static stretching) gave no value to the body. However, that study was referring to something very specific (warming up before starting a sporting event.) I addressed this concern in another Forum thread, which you may find interesting.

I hope this helps
Cheers
Bernie
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