The balance of Zen Ki Yoga®

Zen Ki Yoga® is based on the principles of yin AND yang. This means that within every class you are ensured of balancing these within you and leave each class feeling balanced, grounded and whole. There is a lot of buzz and interest in Yin Yoga these days and this is mostly because a lot of yoga practises these days have become very yang and so the yin classes help to balance this out. Unfortunately a lot of the people who are attracted to Yin Yoga are the yogis who need it the least. You see, we are mostly attracted to what we are already good at and we avoid the practises that we aren't good at because we don't like them.

Yin Yoga works particularly on our flexibility and holding poses for a longer period of time, so flexible people love it and people who have issues with flexibility have such challenges with this type of work that they tend to avoid it. Of course there are exceptions to this rule...

The general rule of yin and yang is that they balance each other so if someone is already yin (flexible, open, soft and supple), they don't really need more of this work: the yang people do!!! Yang people are more inflexible, tense and may or may not have more muscular strength and power.

If you regularly engage in exercise with lots of power and strength and even if you are a weights room junkie, then Yin Yoga is a brilliant addition to your self-care routine. If you are already flexible however, try to put more strength and conditioning into your fitness schedule.

The beauty of Zen Ki Yoga® is that it encompasses both the yin and the yang within every class so that it can cater for everyone within the one class whether you are tense and tight or soft and flexible. Us Zen Ki Yogi's know that you can't get the yin without the yang and vice-versa, so to maximise the result for each person, we are constantly working with both from moment to moment. We build strength WITHIN joints as well as in the muscles and constantly work on lengthening AND strengthening not just your muscles but also your vital organs to make lasting and positive changes to your health and well being. When we are trying to improve on flexibility, we will also build power and strength first so that the muscle will release more efficiently because the rule of yin and yang is that yin has to turn into yang and yang into yin when it becomes extreme. This means if something is yang and tight, we will make it more yang (tense it) so it has to become yin (release and let go). This is not new an amazing information - it is the basic law of the universe and the fitness industry even uses this to some degree with PNF stretching.

We are holding a 2 hour workshop on Yin & Yang (stretch and strength) in the studio in Darlinghurst on Saturday, 24 June 2017 from 12.30 - 2.30 pm. See our 'shop' page on the website for bookings!!!