Yin Yoga — Poses & Practices — Posture

Where this sits

This is a practice offering, not philosophy. It lives beneath Asana in the Body group, and it is the yin counterpart to active, muscular yoga. Where the philosophy of YogoLogo is referenced here, it is referenced lightly — the full treatment of each idea lives on its home limb.

This page is the map. Specific sequences, and a fuller page for each pose, come later.

What Yin is (and isn't)

Most yoga people know is yang: muscular, rhythmic, warm, repetitive. It works the muscles, and it works them by effort.

Yin is the opposite pole. It is still, cool, and sustained. Instead of muscles, it works the deeper, slower tissues — fascia, ligaments, joint capsules — and it reaches them not through effort but through time. You take a shape, soften the muscle around it, and stay long enough for gravity to do the work.

Paul Grilley's phrase for this is "twenty is plenty": you don't need many poses, because you hold each one so long. A whole practice can be a handful of shapes.

This is the clearest place in the body to feel the two halves of practice held together — showing up and letting go. You arrive in the pose with intention, and then you stop pushing and surrender to it. (That pairing — effort and release — is explored fully under Samadhi.)

The three principles of every Yin pose

Every pose in this practice runs on the same three instructions:

Find your edge. Come into the shape until you feel a real sensation, then back off slightly. Never the maximum — the first honest edge.
Become still. Settle the body and stop fidgeting. The stillness is the practice, not the shape.
Hold for time. Stay. Most poses are held three to five minutes. The change happens in the staying.

If a student is rushing or straining, return them to these three. Everything else is detail.

The energetic layer (a note on tradition)

Yin Yoga as taught in the Grilley lineage draws on Daoist and Traditional Chinese Medicine theory: the idea that long, still holds stimulate energy lines — Chi — that run through the connective tissue, much as acupuncture works along meridians. This is why the source manuals describe each pose in terms of the organs and meridian lines it affects.

This is offered as that tradition's own framework, credited to its teachers — it is a working vocabulary from Chinese medicine, not a claim drawn from Patanjali, the Stoics, or the Buddhist texts that anchor the rest of YogoLogo. Hold it lightly and on its own terms.

How a Yin practice works

A few practical notes that shape how the poses are taught and sequenced:

Cool, not warm. Unlike yang yoga, Yin doesn't need a warm-up. Cool muscles let the stretch reach the deeper tissue rather than being absorbed by warm, active muscle.
Breath leads. Quiet nose breathing throughout; move into and out of shapes on the exhale.
Name before moving. Settle into each pose deliberately rather than flowing.
Hold, then counter. Roughly three to five minutes per pose (and per side), followed by a gentle counter-movement to release before the next shape.
Surrender is the governing cue. "Let gravity do the work" is the single most repeated instruction.
Come out slowly. The body feels briefly fragile on exit; move gently, and the fragility passes.

The poses — grouped by what they work

A working map of the poses in the manuals, organised by region and action rather than alphabetically. Each gets a fuller page of its own later; here, a one-line orientation.

Feet, ankles & the base

Toes Squat (Seiza) — tucked toes on the floor; opens the toes and ankles.
Ankle Stretch — sitting back over the tops of the feet; the counter to toe and squat work.
Saddle — reclining back over folded legs; opens the front of the thighs and the lower-back arch.

Hip openers (external rotation)

Sleeping Swan / Upward Swan — front shin across, back leg long; a deep, classic hip opener.
Shoelace — stacked, folded knees; opens the outer hips, decompresses the lower spine.
Square (Fire-log) — shins stacked parallel; strong external rotation, sensation in the outer hips.
Dragonfly (Straddle) — wide legs, folding forward; hips, groin and inner thighs.
Dragon — deep lunge with many variations; front hip and back-leg hip flexors.
Frog — knees wide, sitting back; a deep groin and adductor opener.

Hips — internal & balanced rotation

Deer — one hip externally, one internally rotated; the balancing counter to one-sided hip work.
Happy Baby — on the back, holding the feet; opens the hips and releases the lower back.

Forward folds (spine)

Caterpillar — seated forward fold, rounded spine; the long stretch up the back of the body.
Butterfly / Sleeping Butterfly — soles together, folding forward; lower back without needing loose hamstrings.
Half Butterfly — one leg folded, one extended; folds over each side in turn.
Dangling — standing forward fold, knees soft; releases the lower spine.
Snail — legs over the head; the deepest rounding of the whole spine.
Child — folded over the knees; the resting pose and reset point of the practice.

Backbends (spine)

Sphinx — propped on forearms; gentle, sustainable compression of the lower spine.
Seal — propped on straight arms; a deeper version of the same backbend.
Camel — kneeling backbend; opens the front body and shoulders (held briefly).
Bridge — supported on a block under the pelvis; a passive, propped backbend.
Melting Heart — hips high, chest melting toward the floor; opens the upper back and shoulders.

Side body

Banana — lying long and curved to one side; the side-body and IT-band stretch.

Twists

Twisted Root / Reclining Twist — knees dropped to one side; releases the spine, good before rest.
Cat Pulling Its Tail — reclining twist with a quad stretch; counters strong forward folds.
Twisted Dragon — a twist added to the lunge; hips, spine and obliques.

Restorative close

Waterfall (Legs up) — legs supported upward; calms the system, settles the legs.
Savasana (Corpse) — final rest; the close of every practice, and arguably its most important moment.

Safety, honestly

A short, true note rather than a long medical list:

Tingling or pins-and-needles means a nerve is being compressed — ease off or change the arm/leg position. If it persists, come out of the pose.
Sharp or burning pain is a stop signal, especially in the knees. Dull, spreadable sensation is fine; sharp pain is not.
Inversions and head-down poses (Snail, Waterfall, Dangling, Happy Baby) carry standard cautions — high or low blood pressure, glaucoma, menstruation and pregnancy among them. When in doubt, choose a gentler alternative.
Knees, lower back and necks are the joints most worth protecting; props exist precisely so a pose can be made smaller.

One honest note on scope: the source manuals list a number of strong therapeutic claims — curing specific conditions, controlling bodily functions, and so on. These are left off this page. The honest version is that Yin is calming, mobilising for the deep tissue, and good for the nervous system — and that's enough to say without overreaching.

Cross-references

Asana (parent) — the limb this practice sits within.
Pranayama — the breath that carries the long holds; explored fully there.
Pratyahara — the turning-inward and stillness that long holds train; its home limb.

Sources

100hr Yin Yoga Teacher Training (manual)
The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga — Bernie Clark
Paul Grilley's lineage — the Daoist / meridian framing