This morning I did an actual Yin Yoga workout. This workout snack consists of primarily two poses that you hold for a long time. Since I have chronic shoulder pain, I thought this one was a good one to start with. It did not feel as good as I expected it to. It was actually pretty hard for me to relax into the poses, so this may take some practice and work for it to actually help with my pain. Aprille doesn’t talk much, which is fine. There is no music, so if you need some music to relax into the poses, you might want to play some. I didn’t mind the quiet, but some gentle music might help me relax more. I’ll be honest, I was moving a lot. Not big movements, but little shifts, trying to get into a more comfortable position. Which never happened. I don’t think the object is to get comfortable, so I probably need to stop trying. Aprille however, never moved once she was in position. But this was my first Yin Yoga! I will keep trying them! I plan to return to this one frequently, but she has a few others I want to sample first.
***6/24/19 Update: I did this one again this morning and did a lot better. I held all of the poses the full amount of time without moving. Heart melting pose was easier than thread the needle but when I came out of heart melting pose I felt pain in my mid-back. It was momentary and doing child’s pose for 30 seconds really helped with that. Her transitional moves of cat/cow also helped with any cramping after thread the needle, so I see the need for doing transitional poses. I was a little concerned about the cramping pain I felt when coming out of a pose. How is this helping relieve pain? But several hours later my shoulders actually feel better than they usually do! Less tight! So maybe there is something to this! I am going to keep doing Yin Yoga frequently for a few weeks–hopefully I get some results!***
Yin Yoga Snack for Chest, Shoulders & Upper Back Release is 11 minutes. It consists of 2 poses that you hold for a long time. You do a few other poses for a short amount of time, but those are transitional poses. The first pose is heart melting pose (or extended puppy pose) for 3 minutes. Then you do child’s pose for about another 30 seconds. Next is thread the needle (she calls it twisting puppy pose) for 2 minutes. Do 5 cat/cows then thread the needle on your other shoulder for about 2:30 minutes then 5 more cat/cows. Child’s pose again for about 30 seconds. Sit on your knees, hands in prayer, take a deep breath reaching arms overhead, palms together and end in with hands in prayer.
For more info on Yoga Ranger and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
I tried it out and – it worked! I am jumping around the house now and it feels awesome:)
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That quickly? Just one time doing this workout? Or do you mean, you’ve been doing Yin Yoga for a while and it has helped? Because I definitely did not get the same results. I am assuming that it consistently it will help over time. Were you suffering from pain before you did it?
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Just one time – doing about four different of your workouts;) I haven’t been doing yoga the past months but I always pay close attention to stay stretched and flexible as a part of my daily workout routine. So I suppose it was just this extra kind of (how do I describe it?) rush? you get when successfully doing yoga that made me feel so incredible! Was I suffering pain before…hmm no not pain but do you know this awkward feeling tensed muscles give you when they had to suffer some hour before the computer-screen? Normally I do some other exercises to get rid of that but this time I tried yours instead and was surprised by the almost instant tension-relief they caused.
Have a lovely day
Laureen
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That is awesome! And I know exactly what you mean. In addition to chronic shoulder pain, I always have a tense neck, too–I work at a computer all day. You have definitely encouraged me to keep at it this consistently!
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