Your breath is your barometer of being. Whether you’re up-tight or chilled-out, tired or energised, just a minute of watching the breath will tell you all you need to know. We all have this ability but so often we’re looking out instead of in.
There’s an analogy of a boat being tossed about on the surface of the water – weathering storms and everything life’s got to throw at it. Look under the water, follow the boat’s chain down to the bottom of the ocean, and there’s the anchor – strong, unwavering and steady. Our breath is the anchor.
If you practice looking inward and watching the breath when the sea is calm, in challenging times you can call upon it to provide resilience.
Yin yoga is an excellent practice for many types of people – from those who struggle to find time to do anything, to those who run, cycle and do more active types of fitness. We all need to take time to be still, quiet and more contemplative. Yin yoga provides this.
Here are six reasons why yin yoga is great companion to sport and fitness:
1. Stretching to create space
Most people know that having a stretch before and after exercise is good. A freer range of movement allows the body to find the most efficient path and use less energy.
When we sit or lie in a yin pose, we create space in our bodies, in our minds, and in our day-to-day lives. On a physical level, the connective tissue surrounding our joints starts to become more malleable, improving our flexibility.
When you ask someone to sit down and be with themselves they go, “I can’t. I don’t have time for that.” Now you and I may realize that there actually is a problem. Most people don’t think there is a problem.
We run our kids in the same way—and it’s destroying them. The soccer practice and the music lesson and three hours of TV and homework—it goes on from the minute they get up until they go to sleep. They never have an opportunity to experience silence. Psychological development requires periods of solitude.
Anthropological psychology—studying other cultures, as well as our own—shows that when children do not have completely unstructured time, when there are no parental expectations looming over them, they actually can’t develop normally.
Most injuries are from overuse. Imbalances in your body can cause inflammation and excessive wear on tissue. A regular yoga practice brings your body back into symmetrical alignment and corrects flexibility and strength imbalances.
You may have heard of the terms ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ from Chinese Taoist thinking. Yang is about movement, creating energy and heat in the body. Yin is about finding stillness, being calm and cooling the body. HIIT sessions, running and cycling are all yang activity. Focusing just on the yang can lead to fatigue and burn out.
Having both allows the body to come into balance and stay in optimum condition.
4. The power of the breath
People think that yoga is about contorting the body but it’s actually a breathing practice.
Your breath provides you with energy and power to carry on and reach the finish line. Yoga teacher Donna Farhi explains all:
Doctor and triathlete John Hellemans recommends that the best breathing for top athletic performance is deep diaphragmatic breathing… Dr Hellemans also notes the importance of getting into a rhythmic flow with your breathing and synchronizing your breathing with your movement.
You can do that by taking a breath when you plant your foot during a stride or when pedalling on a cycle. Find a rhythm and speed of movement that allows you to work within the confines of your breath capacity so that you are not building up an oxygen deficit.
Donna Farhi, The Breathing Book
5. Staying power
In yin yoga we spend around five minutes in each pose (all are seated or lying down). This builds mental stamina. I’ve heard a yin practice being compared to a marathon.
This stillness allows us to become more in tune with our body, and naturally you’ll find that you start to watch your mind. We notice our thoughts – whether they’re positive or negative, linked to the past or the future, and whether they’re recurring. It allows us to connect within.
6. Accepting rather than competing
Yoga teaches that there’s more to life than going faster or further. It’s about accepting where you are today – not comparing yourself to before you had that hip/knee replacement, or thinking about how much fitter you were ten years ago. If we’re able to accept our bodies as they are today, we’ll be happier individuals.
And over the duration of a yin pose, your body will open and you’ll naturally go deeper. No pushing, no judgement, just accepting.
You can now practice a 25 minute yin class with me on YouTube as part of Fluxus Fitness’ Great in 8.
As I practice, the frogs look on.
Serene, calm, untouched by the events unfolding around them.
I inhale deeply.
A cacophony of birds announce the dawn.
They chirp, squawk and caw.
I exhale completely.
Noted irritation at hovering mosquitoes hoping for a juicy breakfast.
Constant cicadas (or maybe crickets?) chirrup.
I inhale deeply.
A palm frond clatters down to earth.
Plump raindrops rhythmically patter onto fat waxy leaves.
I exhale completely.
The 6:45 Hikkaduwa to Colombo rumbles through sounding its horn, scattering barking street dogs.
Pythons and people remain unscathed – this time.
I inhale deeply.
The trees sway and the monkeys play.
The coconut cutter shimmies closer.
And the frogs look on.
This is my friend Sherylee’s place to practice.
And wherever I lay my mat is my home.
Thank you Sherylee for a wonderful few days of chats, dogs and hospitality. Sending you lots of love and blessings.
Just an everyday occurrence on Redbourn High Street – Simon Barnes runs The Hub. On Wednesday evenings he can be found on a yoga mat.
I’ve started teaching a yin yoga class for cyclists, runners and other athletes. At the first class there were nine people. Women were outnumbered two to one – a rare thing in the world of yoga! The majority were new to the practice. It felt great to be sharing yoga with so many newbies.
If you’re thinking about coming along – or you’d like to find a class near you – here are my reasons why yin yoga is great for cyclists and sports people.
I’m focusing on cyclists as the class is run with The Hub, a cyclists’ cafe in Redbourn, Herts, but it can equally apply to runners, swimmers and any other endurance athletes.
1. Injury prevention
A handful of athletes may get acute injuries – broken bones and such like – but most injuries are from overuse. It’s the repetitive nature of endurance sports.
Imbalances in your body can cause inflammation and excessive wear on tissue. A regular yoga practice brings your body back into symmetrical alignment and corrects flexibility and strength imbalances. You’ll be able to compete for longer. Take Ryan Giggs for example. He credits yoga for the longevity of his football career.
2. Stretching out
Most athletes know that having a stretch before and after exercise is good. If there’s a freer range of movement, your body can find the most efficient path and use the least energy.
Also, cycling long distances with the body fixed in one position takes its toll. Spines become rounded, shoulders hunch and the connective tissue around your hips tightens. Yin yoga counters these positions – offering backbends to open and lengthen your spine and improve posture. We’ll also work on postures to improve the flexibility in your hips and your lower back.
3. Yin vs yang
You may have heard of the terms ‘yin’ and ‘yang’. They come from Taoist thinking. Yang relates to movement, creating energy and heat in the body. Yin is about finding stillness, being calm and cooling the body.
You need both to come into balance and stay in optimum condition.
Cycling is yang activity but if you only ever focus on the yang, your body can suffer from fatigue and burn out. Yin yoga provides the balance.
4. The power of the breath
Your breath gives you energy and power to carry on and complete the race – even when you think you’re done in. Yoga teaches breathing techniques to allow you to inhale more and encourage more gaseous exchange in your lungs – sending more oxygen to your internal organs.
If you find yourself struggling to pedal up a never-ending hill with the wind in your face, focus on your breath. Time your breath with your pedal strokes and you’ll be up it in no time.
Doctor and triathlete John Hellemans recommends that the best breathing for top athletic performance is deep diaphragmatic breathing… Dr Hellemans also notes the importance of getting into a rhythmic flow with your breathing and synchronizing your breathing with your movement.
You can do that by taking a breath when you plant your foot during a stride or when pedalling on a cycle. Find a rhythm and speed of movement that allows you to work within the confines of your breath capacity so that you are not building up an oxygen deficit.
In yin yoga we aim to spend a minimum of five minutes in each pose (all are seated or lying down). This builds mental stamina. You breathe and you get through it – whether it’s the final minute in a yin pose or the final few miles of a race.
Of course, you can always ease off and make adjustments to your pose, but you become more aware of what’s going on inside and more in tune with your body. Surely that’s no bad thing for an athlete.
6. “I’m going to win!”
Endurance athletes like to win. It’s all about the competition – with each other and with yourself – trying to improve your personal best.
Yoga teaches you that there’s more to life than going faster or further. It’s not about looking around the room to see who’s struggling to touch their toes and whether you’re doing ‘better’ than them.
It’s about accepting where you are today – not comparing yourself to before you had that hip/knee replacement, or thinking about how fast you were ten years ago. Gushy and naff as it sounds, if we’re able to accept our bodies as they are today, we’ll be happier individuals.
So there’s my six reasons. If you’re in Hertfordshire, feel free to come along to the class on a Wednesday evening in Redbourn. You’ll be made to feel very welcome and you don’t need to be flexible in the slightest. In fact, the less bendy you are, the more you’ll fit in.
As well as teaching yoga in the evenings, I have a day job working for the Government – well, up until the end of next week anyway. After then I’m heading to Thailand, Sri Lanka and India to do some more yoga training for a few months. I would much rather write about that but all in good time…
Stressed Eric can’t handle the stress and his throbbing vein bursts out of his temple and wraps around his neck. He dies. Image courtesy of Dark Jak.
Normally my practice allows me to stay pretty level headed and able to deal with stress (I think. Others may disagree…) but work’s been busier than usual and I have actually felt like I’m living through an episode of The Thick of It. We’re short-staffed to the point where yesterday there were two of us instead of the normal six and I’m counting down the days until I leave. It came to a head yesterday morning when my inbox was filling up before my eyes and I had to action almost every email as there was no-one else there to share the burden. Waves of panic were coursing through me and I could feel my head throbbing à la Stressed Eric.
I thought to myself, “if I don’t step away from my computer, I think I’m going to crack.” I left my desk. I made my way to an emergency exit stairwell that’s barely used and I actually laid down on the carpet at the bottom of the stairs in savasana. I didn’t care if anyone saw me. I focused on my breath and placed one hand on my abdomen and the other on my chest. I felt relieved as I gained control of my breath and my emotions.
Stepping away from my desk allowed me to achieve some clarity and on returning, I basically said to my boss, “you can send me all these emails and tell me they’re urgent, but there’s only me here and I’m not superwoman.” Of course, I didn’t quite use those words but it seemed to do the trick.
This reminded me of an interview I had for working at a yoga studio doing their marketing. I was asked how I dealt with stress because “it’s not like you can lie in savasana in the middle of the office when it gets too much.” Seriously, the interviewer said that to me. But I did yesterday! And it worked! How funny is that!
I have shamelessly nabbed the above title from Nadia Narain – a great London teacher whose classes first got me interested in yoga a few years ago. And it’s true. You look around the room in a class and you see some students desperately trying to go deeper into poses. They’re looking round the room at their fellow students, seeing that perhaps one of them is able to get their chest down onto their thighs in a seated forward bend, and our old friend the ego rears its ugly head and says, “I can do that!”
Now ain’t she just the happiest lady you ever saw? (Image from thegreatestwallpapers.blogspot. com)
They strain, shoulders inching up around their ears, their fingertips turning white as they grip for dear life on their big toes, their knees buckling and their backs hunched as their noses teeter so very close to their kness. But are they breathing? I bet your bottom dollar that any thoughts of deep, lovely, full yogic breath have disappeared from their totally sattvic uncompetitive thoughts.
That person who is able to almost effortlessly hinge into a beautiful forward bend may be a professional dancer. Or someone who at least doesn’t spend eight hours a day tapping away at a computer. But as Nadia says, just because they can do that, it doesn’t make them happier. They’re likely to find certain asanas or postures challenging as no-one can be good at everything. Maybe they’ve got other things going on in their life that they’re finding seriously hard.
Yoga is about being true to yourself, listening and working with your body – not against it. Indeed, you often find that you can go deeper into a posture by taking more time and using your breath to release.
We need to be grateful for what we’re able to do and with our lot in life. It’s so easy to get caught up with comparing yourself to others and wanting “what they’ve got”. In the new year I decided to start a gratitude diary. Next to my bed I have a little notebook and in it I write five things for which I am grateful on that particular day. It’s a great practice to help cultivate positive thoughts and I recommend everyone to do it. You can be thankful for the big things but also it’s worth remembering the everyday ordinary things too.
And now back to my mat… if… only… I could just get my body to look a little more pretzel-like and wrap… my… ankles… round my neck…
Yin yoga is an excellent practice for many types of people – from those who struggle to find time to do anything, to those who run, cycle and do more active types of fitness. We all need to take time to be still, quiet and more contemplative. Yin yoga provides this.
3. Yin vs yang
