Straps in Yin? Yes or no??

Please use this forum to ask any questions you may have about yoga in general or Yin Yoga in particular, or to discuss anything you have discovered that may be of general interest. Note, spam will be removed and the user deleted, and this includes putting website in your posting that are purely commercial.
Post Reply
Karmagirl
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 11:16 am

Straps in Yin? Yes or no??

Post by Karmagirl »

I have a couple people who ask and sometimes use straps in my Yin class. I prefer they didn't because to me using a strap is muscling into the pose rather then just letting the body soften and fold naturally into it. For example in half butterfly my student places the strap around her foot and then pulls herself closer to her leg. I love props and explain to them that props are awesome for assisting in poses to allow the muscles to relax and release tension. I know in this pose we are not working the upper body but is it still ok to keep the strain on the arms to get more of a stretch out of the legs? Thanks in advance!
Bernie
Posts: 1293
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

muscular engagement while in yin yoga poses

Post by Bernie »

To strap or not to strap - that is the question: sounds a bit like a debate over corporal punishment to misbehaving school children. Most people would agree that straps are not necessary in our schools and in Yin Yoga.

However! There may be some times when a strap can be very useful. The key is to remember what your intention is for the pose. For example: many beginners have a great deal of difficulty reaching their toes in a seated forward fold, like Caterpillar. A strap can effectively "lengthen" their arms, allowing them to hold their feet and stay deeper in the pose, with legs a bit straighter. The intention here may be to stress the hamstrings and a strap will help with that. However, if the intention was to stress the ligaments along the spine, then the action of pulling on a strap will engage the back muscles and reduce the stress going to the deeper connective tissues. In that case, it would be better not to use a strap and keep the knees bent (a lot) so that the stress could go into the rounded spine.

Remind your students that once you engage the muscles to stay in a posture then the stress is no longer getting to the targeted tissues, but rather is being taken up by the muscles. That's great in a yang class, but here, in Yin Yoga, we are trying to go past the muscles into the deeper tissues and that requires us to relax the muscles. If the muscles being engaged are not in the area you are targeting, however, it may be okay to engage them to help you stay in the posture. But! Engaging muscles for 3 ~ 5 minutes is not fun and not really appropriate, so if students have to use straps, ask them to soften their grip after a couple of minutes or come out early.

Sometimes using a strap doesn't require much or any muscular effort. Consider the reclining, legs up in the air pose, which can be a great alternative to Caterpillar for students with lower back issues and who are advised not to round the spine. They can lie on their backs, have a folded blanket under their sacrum, and let their legs dangle up in the air, held there by a strap. This doesn't require much effort and it is mostly the arm muscles doing the work, not the legs.

So, as always, there is no one dogmatic right answer: remember the intention behind the pose and see if you can relax the muscles in the targeted area. But sometimes people are so stiff that they can't get any sensation unless they use a strap. So be it.

Cheers
Bernie

ps - for your Butterfly girl, perhaps much more effective for her would be to place a sandbag along her upper spine, to weigh her down, rather than a strap. Pushing from behind (via the sand bag) is much better than pulling from in front (via the muscles.)
Post Reply