Hi,
Just a query. I have a longstanding yin practice and have been flexibility training for the last 2 years or so. I have been reviewing the literature on skeletal variation, work of Bernie and Paul Grilley. Clearly skeletal variation is a factor all teachers and practitioners must be aware of and I have thoroughly resonated with the writings of both Paul and Bernie.
However as I have been more exposed to flexibility modalities I find the terms tension and compression are posing a lot of questions for me. I would be interested in other teacher's understanding of the following.
For example some flexibility training programs would say that full split is achievable for the majority of people after a 2 year consistent active flexibility training program. Thoughts?
I myself felt I had a good understanding in my own body of tension and compression yet I have been surprised by the increased range of motion I have gained through using active flexibility methods. If I am someone with a longstanding yoga practice and I misjudged how I had not hit the bones so to speak is there a risk of, in a sense, selling students short by getting students to rely on their subjective experience of compression or to put it another way how do we quantify that window between tension and compression for students? It appears that using the language and teaching students to understand and feel tension and compression is of course valuable but they are still highly subjective terms of reference that may not reflect their ultimate physical capacity of the individual. Also I presume it's also necessary to talk about other variables that would impact end range such as nervous system interference.
I understand completely that end range flexibility is not the express goal of yin. However I think as a professional it's important to be aware of other disciplines in the field. Some students are interested in these concepts, train in other disciplines and want to know where yin sits on the spectrum of flexibility training.
Thanking in advance for the elucidation! Eimear