Yin & Menstrual Cycle

Check out this topic for women who are pregnant, trying to get pregnant or who just had a baby or for any other issues related to sexuality for men or women.
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yaelflusberg
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Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 4:25 am
Location: Washington, DC

Yin & Menstrual Cycle

Post by yaelflusberg »

I had a first-time Yin student from Japan in class today who took to Yin Yoga like a newly prosthelytized convert and was immediately making fabulous leaps between Yin and all sorts of natural cycles -- and we landed on the the monthly ovarian cycle for a good long while -- i.e., follicular, ovulation, luteal and menstruation. Honestly, other than what might be helpful to practice during ovulation or menstruation, I hadn't thought about the other two pieces to the cycle. Would love to hear any and all thoughts and ideas about Yin/the best kinds of sequences of combos of Yin/Yang for these parts of the monthly cycle. Thanks!
Bernie
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Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Post by Bernie »

Interesting topic. I can't speak from any personal experience on this matter, but the idea of the body experiencing cycles seems right. We have daily cycles, monthly ones and even yearly ones. Should we do yin during the yin phases of these cycles? Or maybe, for balance we should seek yang--when winter is upon us, do we need more yin? Maybe that's the best time for a nice, juicy yang practice: hot yoga! On the other hand, winter is a time to rest, so maybe it is perfect to do yin then.

How to know? Experience, I suppose. Try a little and see how you feel. I suspect everyone will require their own unique prescription.

Cheers
Bernie
yaelflusberg
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2015 4:25 am
Location: Washington, DC

Post by yaelflusberg »

Right, it makes intuitive sense to me that we have daily, monthly, and seasonal phases of all sorts and that yin-yang applies to all of these. Very cool to dig into that. Bernie, I love your try-it-for-yourself approach (what I suggested) but just in case others have any different ideas.......Cheers back!
Bernie
Posts: 1292
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 2:25 am
Location: Vancouver

Re: Yin & Menstrual Cycle

Post by Bernie »

Another aspect to consider: the work of Catarina Fede (see her research paper Hormone Receptor Expression in Human Fascial Tissue) shows that fascia has receptors for estrogen and relaxin. So, in the time around ovulation, women may be more flexible than normal. Maybe this is a time to not try to go for maximum flexibility?

Cheers
Bernie

Abstract
Many epidemiologic, clinical, and experimental findings point to sex differences in myofascial pain in view of the fact that adult women tend to have more myofascial problems with respect to men. It is possible that one of the stimuli to sensitization of fascial nociceptors could come from hormonal factors such as estrogen and relaxin, that are involved in extracellular matrix and collagen remodeling and thus contribute to functions of myofascial tissue. Immunohistochemical and molecular investigations (real-time PCR analysis) of relaxin receptor 1 (RXFP1) and estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα) localization were carried out on samples of human fascia collected from 8 volunteers patients during orthopedic surgery (all females, between 42 and 70 yrs, divided into pre- and post-menopausal groups), and in fibroblasts isolated from deep fascia, to examine both protein and RNA expression levels. We can assume that the two sex hormone receptors analyzed are expressed in all the human fascial districts examined and in fascial fibroblasts culture cells, to a lesser degree in the post-menopausal with respect to the pre-menopausal women. Hormone receptor expression was concentrated in the fibroblasts, and RXFP1 was also evident in blood vessels and nerves. Our results are the first demonstrating that the fibroblasts located within different districts of the muscular fasciae express sex hormone receptors and can help to explain the link between hormonal factors and myofascial pain. It is known, in fact, that estrogen and relaxin play a key role in extracellular matrix remodeling by inhibiting fibrosis and inflammatory activities, both important factors affecting fascial stiffness and sensitization of fascial nociceptors.
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