clarity about muscles in yin

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kumarisky
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2014 10:45 am
Location: Tucson, US

clarity about muscles in yin

Post by kumarisky »

Hi Bernie :)
Can you help me fully understand what is actually happening with our muscles while we hold a yin pose? I understand that if we are still the stress goes to the connective tissues we are targeting-but what actually IS happening with the muscles then-they are getting stretched, right? It's not like they go dormant because we are doing yin...is the answer nothing changes with the muscles?!
Thank you!
Bernie
Posts: 1292
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Re: clarity about muscles in yin

Post by Bernie »

Can I help you "fully" understand what is happening to our muscles during a yin yoga posture? Probably not :wink:. It depends on so many things. But if you want to dive deeper into the science of muscle stretching, I would suggest you read these two articles in the YinSights Newsletters:

What are the yin tissues?
A Yin Yoga Perspective On Serial And Parallel Tissues

As you will see, the muscles experience tension along with other tissues because they are in series with the tendons and ligaments. How much tension the muscle experiences depends upon whether they are warm or cool and relaxed or engaged. But we can never completely eliminate stress in the muscles, nor do we need to. I hope the above articles will explain more "fully" for you.

Cheers
Bernie
kumarisky
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2014 10:45 am
Location: Tucson, US

Re: clarity about muscles in yin

Post by kumarisky »

Thank you very much for your clarifying response! :)
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