Glossary
Yin yoga
Pronunciation: YIN YOH-gaหยินโยคะ
Yin yoga is a slow style in which mostly seated or lying postures are held passively for three to five minutes to load connective tissue rather than muscle.
Yin yoga takes its name from the Chinese idea of yin as the still, cool, receptive half of a pair, and its method follows: you take a shape, let the muscles go slack, and stay there for three to five minutes. There are only a few dozen postures, nearly all of them on the floor, and props do most of the holding. The target is connective tissue — fascia, ligaments, joint capsules — which responds to long, gentle, sustained load rather than to repetition.
What it is for is range of motion in places that strength training and flowing classes do not reach, particularly hips, lower back and shoulders. There is a second effect that people come back for: holding stillness for five minutes with nothing to do is uncomfortable in an interesting way, and it trains the ability to stay with a sensation instead of escaping it.
In a KEO session, yin shapes appear in the quiet second half of garden and sound sessions — a long supported forward fold or a reclining twist held while the bowls play. If you want the full slow format rather than a few shapes inside a mixed class, the weekend workshops are where it gets the time it needs.