If you are an athlete, sore muscles, injuries, and over-extension of the body are part of your life. These injuries are inevitable, but we can always work towards minimizing their impact.
Here is an amazing blog that brings you a Yin Yoga practice. It is a gentle yet challenging Yoga practice. Yin yoga will help you understand and listen to your body, making you present mentally and physically. Yin Yoga is a grounded practice that includes poses that need to be held for 3-5 minutes. Athletes can work deeper on their muscles by practicing Yin Yoga. Also, they can transform the way their body moves.
Yin practice is exceptionally a perfect workout for athletes. What to know how? Read further!
How Will Yin Yoga Help You?
There are many ways in which Yin Yoga is perfect for you. Let us have a look.
1. Improved Flexibility
Yin Yoga practice helps you to target the connective tissues between the muscles. It aims to increase blood circulation in the joints, which improves flexibility as you stretch and exercise the bone and joint area. Also, if you are an athlete, it helps to improve your energy levels.
2. Practice Anywhere
Yin Yoga is the most hassle-free workout; you do not need any mat or an ambiance to perform it. One would be shocked to know that it can be done while watching tv, reading, or lying on a bed. Just have the urge to practice Yin Yoga, and you will nail it.
3. Embrace Yourself
The best thing you can do for yourself is to love yourself. Only you can love others when you have compassion and love for yourself. Self-love and care are generated when you go deep within and understand yourself. It will help you to recover and nourish and will take your fears away.
4. Kick the Stress
We live in a world full of stress, anxiety, issues, craziness, and whatnot. All this causes our minds to blow, but Yin Yoga comes to the rescue. It makes you stress-free by giving yourself plenty of time to do nothing other than just breathe.
5. Get Intimate
In the fast-paced world, we all need to pause our lives and pay heat to ourselves, listen to our bodies, practice gratitude, and bring ourselves closer to our authentic Yin Yoga practice gives you an intimate time with yourself. It gives you enough time to understand your feelings, emotions, and sensations.
6. Find Comfort
Practicing Yin Yoga helps to find comfort in not-so-comfortable things. It creates the calmness that gives us the perspective to think. When you are stuck mentally and the power to walk away is overwhelming, then practicing Yin Yoga teaches you to stay still and deal with it.
7. Release Toxins
Yin Yoga has certain poses that are highly challenging, but they can release extreme physical and emotional sensations. We store emotions in every part of our body which gets deepened into the tissues due to stress and anxiety. Thus while doing Yin Yoga helps to resurface deep memories and emotions.
8. Perfect Glow
Are you looking for that perfect glow? Then trying Yin Yoga will get you that glow. It takes you to absolute peace within yourself. Though you will feel hell tired after a beautiful Yin session, your mind and body will feel lighter and more transparent, making you glow.
Five Effective Yin Poses
Here is some must-try Yin Yoga poses for athletes:
Supine Twist
The supine twist is also known as the reclining twist. The pose is highly restorative for back muscles, spine, and abdominal muscles. You need to put both shoulders on the ground firmly, now twist from your mid-spine rather than your lower back. Hold the pose as long as you can, and you will feel the difference there and then.
The pose is very effective in solving gastric issues. It will help you to release the tension from your spine. And will help to restore equilibrium in the nervous system. Also, a supine twist helps cure sciatica.
Fire Log
It is also known as the square pose, stretching the outer hips intensely. You need to sit on the edge of a thickly folded blanket. Bend your knees and feet on the floor. You can continuously deepen the stretch by folding forward. The main advantage of firelog is that it stretches the hips and groins, which is effective in curing sciatica pain.
The pose is effective in regulating digestion and metabolism. It strengthens the groins, thighs, calves, and buttocks. This pose can also be done on the hands and forearms, depending on the level of flexibility.
Saddle Pose
A Saddle Pose targets the front thigh muscles, mainly the quadriceps muscles. The pose simultaneously works on the lower back, hips, and abdomen. The Saddle pose must be held for up to five minutes to access the deeper tissues.
Many people find the saddle pose difficult because they cannot internally rotate their femur well. The pose is effective for athletes and those who do a lot of standing and walking as the pose opens the sacrum-lumbar arch. It is an excellent stretch for getting into the hip space and the quadriceps.
Toe Squat
The Toe squat is an intense pose that stimulates and nourishes all the channels of the lower body. What you need to do is keep a blanket under your knees. Bring your feet together and sit unto heels. Now tuck the toes under and press them through the balls of the feet. Be in the position for 1-3 minutes.
The pose effectively nourishes and strengthens the ankles, feet, and toes. The toe squat works on the kidney and restores energy levels breaks down food, stimulates the liver, reduces frustration, and improves the ability to make decisions well.
Melting Heart
The pose is an excellent combination of opening up your heart and chest area. The pose is done by bringing your fours to a tabletop position and bending your upper and middle back. The position gives a subtle reverse to your body organs that pump them with new energy.
It would be a great asana if you had a long day sitting behind the desk or had a hectic gym day. The pose helps to open the shoulders and upper back. It also creates space around the organs in the belly and the heart. On the whole, it vitalizes the whole body.
The Bottom Line
Yin Yoga is an energetic style of yoga where you are conscious and working on your body’s connective tissues. The main aim behind Yin Yoga is to harmonize the flow of energy in one’s body. It is a modern and challenging style of yoga, and if done regularly can give you the gift of many benefits.
If you are an athlete or are into yoga, you must try Yin Yoga. Practicing Yin Yoga is a beautifully delicious practice that heals you from within. It helps you to know what your mind and body are telling you. Yin Yoga creates a beautiful balance of energy in you that calms your mind.
So, if you are living a stressful life, devote a few minutes to practicing Yin Yoga. Yin yoga will take you on a journey of healing!
