- I am writing to you because I have a few questions. I am interested in becoming more involved with practicing and teaching
Yin Yoga. I recently came across your website and have purchased your books, and also have practiced some of the asanas on your website.
Yesterday I did a yoga class at my gym where I work and incorporated Yin Yoga to the class. It went very well and got great feed back. My question is that today I am extremely sore. Is this normal to feel soreness in the body. I started off in seated cross legged position to focus and get into the practice. From there I did butterfly and then half butterfly. I did banana asana I also did seated rotational twists. I ended the class in quadruped and did cat and cow. It was a 45 minute class i went to almost 60 minutes but today I am so sore. Is that normal. I feel like I had a great work out instead of a yoga practice. Please advise.
I am also considering, being I live In NYC, to take a Yin workshop at Integral Yoga Institute. Any feedback I would truly appreciate. I am very excited to be involved in your style of Yoga and I am already having members at my gym ask me to do more classes like I did yesterday. I also had a second class after my intro of Yin Yoga and I did a gentle Yoga class which I focused on standing asanas since most of the Yin asanas were seated. Thank you so much for your time any recommendations please advise. Thank you again. MaryJo.
First, let's talk about your soreness. You don't describe the type of soreness you experienced: was it muscular, like after a hard, yang workout? Was it pain in your joints? A dully achy feeling? Did you feel anything during the practice? And, where was the pain? Was it in the areas you worked in your yin yoga practice? The other things I would like to ask about is how long you held each posture, did you do any counterpostures or rest between different poses, and how long was your shavasana? Finally, it is not clear if this was a lead class, your own practice, or if you were the teacher, or a student. If you were the teacher, did you do all these poses with your students or did you get up and walk around to see how they were doing? The final information I would need to know is your overall condition: are you physically fit, active, young/old, have any medical conditions, etc.
From all the above, I hope you can see that I can't venture to offer you any advise. I don't know you, your body, your history, or how you did the practice, or what you were doing before or after the practice. If you are a student, the best thing to do is ask your teacher to watch you carefully during your practice. If you are a teacher, maybe you can ask another teacher to also watch your practice. Of course, if you are a teacher and are doing some of the practice with your students, there is always a heightened risk because you are not as "warmed up" or into the practice as they are. Teaching is not practice: you won't have time to get into and out of the postures like your students will and you won't be doing a shavasana with them. So, again - I am afraid I can't give you any advice based on what you have provided.
Secondly, regarding the Integral Yoga Institute: I do not know them. I know of them, but have no experience with their teaching, teachers or practice. Perhaps they can suggest names of people as references that you can check with?
I hope you do keep up with your yin yoga practice, but with full attention and intention so that you don't suffer the same soreness that you experienced. Ideally, one should not feel sore after any yoga practice.
Cheers
Bernie