By Bernie Clark
February 20, 2023
Adapted from The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga, Second Edition by Bernie Clark
The first time I ever taught a yin yoga class in Vancouver, Canada, none of the students had ever heard of yin yoga. On the schedule, the class was simply listed as a 90-minute hatha yoga class. After a few minutes of meditation, we began with 40 minutes of yin followed by 30 minutes of a normal hatha practice and then shavasana. At the time I had not thought much about what to label this offering but in retrospect, it was the first time I taught a yin-yang fusion class. Since then, I have led many fusion classes, but with difference variations.
Basically, there are three approaches possible for yin-yang fusion classes:
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- Do the first half as a yin practice followed by the yang practice
- Do the first half as a yang practice followed by the yin practice
- Intermix 10~15 minute of yin practice with ~10 minutes or so of yang practice
None of the above are better than the other approaches, they are just different and achieve different goals.
Creep and counterposes
All yoga poses create a certain level of load in the tissues, which we can call stress. We all need stress in life, but too much of anything is not healthy. We need some stress, but then we need some rest to balance the stress and allow the body to recover and grow more resilient. Yin yoga teachers are well aware of the two major forms of stress that occurs in yoga practice: tension – a stress that tries to elongate tissues; and compression – a stress that tries to compress tissues. Bones and cartilage require compression on a regular basis to maintain health and density. Ligaments, tendons, fascia and muscles tend to grow stronger under tension. There are several ways we can apply tension to these tissues: short, sharp, strong forces or long, slow, lower forces. The former can be referred to as “yang exercise” and the latter as “yin exercise”.
Our tissues are viscoelastic, which means that, like toffee, they can slowly elongate over time when subjected to a long-held tensile stress.1 Once stretched, and right after the stress is removed, our tissues remain a little bit longer than they were originally. This lengthening is referred to as “creep”. In time—and it may take only a few minutes or up to several hours—this extra length will disappear, but how long that takes and how much creep occurs depends upon a number of factors: the temperature of the tissues; the length of time under stress; and the nature of the tissue.
Creep can occur through repetitive (cyclical) movements, through warming up exercises, through practicing yoga in a heated room, and through long-held static stress. In every case, the tissues that experienced creep will take time to recover their original stiffness and length. Static stress increases creep more quickly than cyclical stress. Thus, yin yoga is more effective at generating creep than more active yoga practices. Sarah Powers defined the fourth principle of yin yoga to be “coming out slowly.” There is a reason we feel so fragile after a yin pose: we have weakened and lengthened our fascia and joints. That can be a good thing, again tissues need stress to stay healthy, but we need to take care how we move while in this state.
Subjecting tissues to significant loads right after they have experienced a lot of creep is not a good idea. The tissues are weaker and their tolerance to dynamic stress is reduced. After significant creep has set in, even bearing the body’s own weight could cause damage for certain people. This means—don’t do heavy weight training or other muscularly demanding movements right after a long yin practice. Allow time for the tissues to regain their stiffness. One way to speed up the reduction of creep is to move the body in the opposite direction. That is the basis of most counterposes in yoga. For example, after a long period of spinal flexion, engage in mild spinal extensions. If you have been sitting for a long time, creating creep in the hips and lower back, get up and walk around for a few minutes. Simply standing can help tissues recover more quickly.
We can also reduce creep by mild strengthening exercises. Strength building, or yang exercise, generally tightens us up. Runners and hikers notice this: after their long runs or walks, they feel noticeably stiff. Body builders also know this. Thus, after some yin exercise, we can do some light strength building. For example: if you did a yin yoga flow targeting the spine, strengthen the spine with some core work that keeps the spine neutral.2 If you worked the hips and legs, do a little bit of standing yoga. Don’t go for big ranges of motion now; work on stability by engaging the muscles.
It is not a good idea to go right from your yin yoga practice to your sport. You may be too loose and fragile. Give yourself time to get rid of all your creep and regain the springiness in your fascia and muscles. (However, doing yin yoga right after your sports may be a good idea if you are feeling stiff.) If we have been doing a yang practice where we were strengthening an area, the counterposes will be different. Since strength building generally tightens up our tissues, we need to lengthen a little. Yin after yang can be just as good as yang after yin. This can be summarized as a little mantra for counterposes:
After stretching an area, strengthen it a bit.
After strengthening an area, stretch it a bit.
There is no one right prescription that works for every body. Although not every body will experience the same amount of creep and fragility, the general principles still make sense. Stress and creep are healthy for most people, but we can do too much. Give yourself time to recover before subjecting your body to dynamic, large stresses after you have been doing long-held static stresses. Do counter-movements to help speed up the recovery time. Do not rely only on a long shavasana; even a 20-minute shavasana may not be sufficient to remove all the creep that crept in during your practice.
Yin Yoga Before Yang Yoga or Yang Before Yin? Yes!
If you want to do an active (yang) practice and a yin practice together, it is possible to interlace the two styles, with 10–15 minutes of yin postures, followed by ~10 minutes of yang movements, followed by another session of yin, then yang again, alternating the styles. This is not to say that 45 minutes of yin followed by 45 minutes of yang is wrong; recall that this was the way I first started teaching yin yoga. There were a couple of reasons why I chose this approach: firstly, none of the students had even heard of yin yoga so I gave them an opening taste, but I still offered a familiar practice at the end, which is what most students tend to remember most. Secondly, the students were not yet warmed up so it was a good time to work the yin-like tissues.
Care should be taken to make sure that you don’t overstress the areas worked in the yin session when you do the yang practice. You may wish to work different parts. For example, if you worked the spine in your yin practice, do yang postures that do not require lots of flexion or twists of the spine but focus on the legs and hips. Standing postures may work well now, with a focus on ensuring the spine stays braced, neutral and strengthened.
You may decide to do your yang practice first. Personally, I find that after going for a run or playing a sport, I am nicely warmed up, but I am also quite stiff. It is not always the case that warmer tissues are looser. After a good workout the muscles that you have been contracting may stay in a slightly contracted state. Doing yin yoga then may be just what you need. But, sometimes after yang exercises the tissues are warmer, looser and longer. In this case, the warm muscles may reduce the amount of stress that soaks into the tendons and ligaments which are in series with the muscles, but they may allow more stress to enter the tissues in parallel to the muscles, such as the joint capsules.3 There is no right or wrong, there are just trade-offs and compromises. Try the alternatives for yourself and see which one works best for you. Depending upon your intention you may wish to do a yin practice after a yang practice, or do the yang after yin: both can work.
Creep doesn’t have to be creepy. We need to stress our tissues. While they are stressed, they undergo elongation and weakening. For most people, this is healthy and normal. When the stress ends, the tissues slowly revert to their original length and stiffness, and with a rest period, they should become healthier and stronger than before. However, right after the stress has ended, before the tissues have returned to normal, there is a danger period for some people in which the tissues can be overtaxed, even by normal, everyday activities. During this period, it is advisable not to demand a lot of these tissues. Fortunately, it is possible to shorten the time in which the tissues are potentially at risk: move gently in the opposite direction of the original stress and reduce the temperature of the tissues (coolness reduces creep). Yin yoga is especially good at generating creep, and we can sense the increased fragility of our tissues as we come out of these postures. Our own natural common sense will warn us not to move too strenuously or quickly. But this feeling of fragility may quickly go away, even though the tissues are not yet back to normal. Take care; be aware, and go gently into your next activities.
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[1] See this article for a more detailed look at viscoelasticity and yoga: https://yinyoga.com/a-viscoelastic-primer-for-yin-yogis/
[2] For examples of how to stiffen the core while the spine is in neutral, check out the McGill Big Three: https://yinyoga.com/low-back-disorders/
[3] See this article the differences between parallel and serial tissues and how to stress them effectively: https://yinyoga.com/serial-parallel/