Yin Yoga with Paul Grilley
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Pranamaya; www.pranamaya.com; 5 1/2 hours.
Twenty-some years ago at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco, my classmates and I were subjected to a practice called “timed forward bends”—each of the poses in the sequence was held passively for somewhere between 10 minutes and an eon. Paul Grilley systematized this timed, passive-holding approach as Yin Yoga, which, he says, is a complement to the more active, huff-and-puff yoga styles favored in the West. The two DVDs in this package include a lecture on Yin theory, an accompanying practicum, and three hourlong Yin sequences.
See alsoWhy Try Yin Yoga?
Since Yin students spend five minutes or more in a pose, a Yin instructor needs a good shtick to keep everyone interested and in place. Grilley is an intelligent and empathic teacher and a congenial raconteur, both educator and entertainer. His technique can potentially help increase flexibility and self-acceptance, not only in your asana practice but in your daily life. And this is a great resource for learning it.
Contributing editor Richard Rosen teaches yoga in Northern California.
