Term Pass, Gentle Yoga, Wednesday 5.30-7pm, 03.06.-01.07.

Benefits of Hatha Yoga:

– Enhances strength, flexibility and balance
– Reduces symptoms of stress, anxiety & depression
– Relieving muscle tension
– Improves Balance & Body Posture

– Improves Memory & Concentration
– Helps to cultivate emotional balance
– Increases Blood flow and levels of hemoglobin & red blood cells
– May increase lung capacity and help oxygenate blood through more conscious breathing
– Increases physical, emotional & spiritual wellness.

Some physical benefits of Yin Yoga:

– Improve your range of motion and flexibility
– Passively lengthen your muscles through stressing the fascial bags that wrap the muscle fibers.
– Reduce adhesions, which restrict movement between the sliding surfaces of our muscles
– Stimulate growth of fibroblasts, which are the cells responsible for creating collagen, elastin, and the water-loving molecules that hydrate our tissues and joints.
– make your ligaments thicker and stronger through greater collagen production.
– improve lubrication through greater hydration of our tissues, which allows joints to move and fascia to slide more easily
– Keep your skin younger looking though hydration, which provides room for cells to migrate through the extracellular matrix.
– Compress the extracellular matrix to liquefy the ground substance, which is often in a gel-like state, allowing toxins to flow out of the tissues
– Stimulate the chondrocytes and osteoblasts, which create cartilage and bone, helping to reduce degeneration of these tissues.
– Reestablish the normal lordotic curves of the spine, specifically in the lumbar but also in the cervical spine.
– Prevent or reduce contracture, where the ligaments and the joint capsule shrink and reduce the joint’s mobility
– Reduce osteopenia and osteoporosis, which are dangerous reductions in bone density.
– Reduce fixation, a condition that limits the movement of our joints, and thus prevents fusion, a permanent loss of mobility in the joint.

Some energetic benefits of Yin Yoga:

– Awaken, enhance, and balance prana.
– Stimulate and awaken the kundalini serpent, lending towards eventual liberation and enlightenment.
– Stimulate the production and flow of Chi and Jing energies.
– Nourish the organs through acupressure via compression of the meridian lines.
– Replenish the store of Jing in your Kidneys, which in turn helps all your organs function properly.
– Create tiny piezoelectric currents that stimulate optimal cellular responses.
– Create internal pulsed magnetic fields that can restore cellular health.
– Turn off the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight) and turn on the parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest)
– Increase levels of the neurotransmitter GABA.

From Bernie Clarkes book, The complete Guide to Yin Yoga