The Yin Of Yoga

LONGER-HOLD POSES FOR OPTIMAL JOINT HEALTH

- Terry Cockburn

It is no secret that yoga is a fantastic complement to trail running and ideal for overall physical and emotional well-being. The popular, active forms of yoga—Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Bikram, Flow/Core—are effective ways to build strength, balance, range of motion and cardiovascular conditioning. A key component to optimal running is maintaining balance, and that requires a multi-dimensional approach to training.

Yin Yoga is considered the other half of a yoga practice. This style targets the denser connective tissue, particularly within the joints, which other styles of yoga or exercise can’t adequately address. Practicing Yin Yoga requires an alternate approach, one where striving and effort are released and the body is invited to relax.

Benefits of the Practice

By coming into poses that keep the muscles relatively inactive, gravity and time are skillfully used to place stress upon the plastic-like tissue within the joint capsules, the dense connective tissue, ligaments, tendons and bones.

“[With many sports injuries], the problem is most often neither in the musculature nor the skeleton,” says Dr. Robert Schleip, director of the Fascia Research Project at Ulm University, Germany, and research director of the European Rolfing Association. “Instead, it is the structure of the connective tissue—ligaments, tendons, joint capsules, etc.—that may have been loaded beyond its prepared capacity.”

So, working in this way greatly benefits the health of the joints by reducing fixation, maintaining functional mobility, preventing degeneration and increasing hydration.

Beyond the Physical

Yin Yoga is deceptively challenging as remaining still for longer periods of time while holding the poses is not easy— particularly for runners, who might argue it’s simply not in their DNA.