[irkk]

Hello to all

I live in Germany and started my spiritual journey with Japanese martial arts (Shotokan), Yoga and Zen, which I practised for about seven years.
Then I focused more on the self-defense aspect of the arts and began training in Chinese martial arts (mostly WingTsun).
This focus on self- defense and a lack of time brought along a discontinuation of my spiritual training in Zen and Yoga.
After a few years I was literally forced up my spiritual training again through a major health crisis.
For the last eight years I have been practising WingTsun and Taoist spiritual disciplines.
I have strong interest in Tai Chi (especially Wu style) but have not yet found a good training opportunity.

At the moment I am concentrating on Yin Yoga, Winn´s Fundamental stuff, and zdorovye, which I find more accessible than body flow.

[sean]

Hallo Irkk! Mein Deutsch ist Schlecht so I won't even try.

Welcome to The Tao Bums. Great to hear from you. Another German, I think we have several others here from Germany. I lived in Hannover for a year myself actually and often miss it.

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At the moment I am concentrating on Yin Yoga, Winn´s Fundamental stuff, and zdorovye, which I find more accessible than body flow.

By "Yin Yoga" do you mean Chia's "Tao Yin"? Also, I'd love for you to speak more about Zdorovye and how you feel it differs from Warrior Wellness and Body Flow. The only tape I have in that series is "Slavyanskiy Byeg" for effortless running which I enjoyed.

Tschüss!
Sean.

[irkk]

I mean Yin Yoga by Paul Grilley. It is a form of yoga which is rather passive compared to other yoga styles (considered Yang Yoga by Paul Grilley) like for example Ashtanga yoga.
All poses are held in a relaxed way for about 5 minutes. Yin Yoga focuses on joints, ligaments and fascia not on muscles. I found it especially helpful to alleviate pain from long sitting. It helped me to improve my flexibility tremendously. Some movement restrictions that I could not target with normal Yoga, quickly went away through a few Yin sessions.
I do not want to sound like a commercial, but it is a really great practice. If you want more information, you can check out Paul Grilley´s website or pranamaya. com.
As for zdorovye, i think it is an earlier form of warrior wellnes and body flow but the movements are much more clearly presented. You can find almost all movements from warrior wellnes, with a clearer explanation of the angles of execution etc. plus some movements that are not on the warrior wellnes dvd.
Then it includes floor poses that are not in warrior wellnes but in the beginning stage of body flow.
These movements are also presented in a clearer way than on the body flow DVD.
I became kind of frustrated because the body flow dvd does not include enough instruction (at least for me) but I am happy practising the beginning stages of body flow from the zdorovye videos.

[sean]

irkk, on Sep 17 2005, 12:22 PM, said:

I mean Yin Yoga by Paul Grilley. It is a form of yoga which is rather passive compared to other yoga styles (considered Yang Yoga by Paul Grilley) like for example Ashtanga yoga. All poses are held in a relaxed way for about 5 minutes. Yin Yoga focuses on joints, ligaments and fascia not on muscles.

Wow! I just googled and found Paul Grilley's home page and this is now on my must buy list.

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I found it especially helpful to alleviate pain from long sitting.

And damn do I need this! I sat in full lotus for 45 minutes on Thursday (usually I just sit Burmese) and I lost track of my body so when my timer went off and I "came back" I thought I was going to have to call for help to get out of the pose, it was quite painful.

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As for zdorovye, i think it is an earlier form of warrior wellnes and body flow but the movements are much more clearly presented. You can find almost all movements from warrior wellnes, with a clearer explanation of the angles of execution etc. plus some movements that are not on the warrior wellnes dvd.
Then it includes floor poses that are not in warrior wellnes but in the beginning stage of body flow.
These movements are also presented in a clearer way than on the body flow DVD.
I became kind of frustrated because the body flow dvd does not include enough instruction (at least for me) but I am happy practising the beginning stages of body flow from the zdorovye videos.

Great review. I'm sold! I had thought that Zdorovye was just an earlier somewhat less sophisticated version of what later became WW and BodyFlow.

Thanks for all the helpful information!

Sean.

[irkk]

There a basically three methods to get into Yin Yoga without attending a workshop:

1, You can get the book from Paul Grilley titled Yin Yoga

2, You can get the DVD set from pranayama

3, You can get the Yin & Vinyasa Yoga DVD from Sarah
Powers (www.sarahpowers.com)


The DVD set includes from Paul Grilley includes an entire DVD that explains the theory of Yin Yoga and the differences to "Yang" Yoga, so I feel you do not need to get the book if you get the DVD set.

The DVD by Sarah Powers contains a combined Yin and Yang Yoga session. Sarah powers combines her approach with a mindfulness approach. I think there is some vipassana influence in her teaching.
She explains and talks a lot during the poses. I have found that some people find that annoying when repeating the session on a daily basis, but you can turn the sound off if you need.
Over time I have practiced Sarah Powers Yin Yoga set the most as I feel it adresses my problem areas best and is very helpful to make long meditation sitting sessions easier. In fact she mentions, that that was one reason for her to include Yin Yoga in her training.

[sean]

Sarah Powers' approach sounds interesting. Do you think I will get a full understanding of Yin Yoga through her DVD or should I start with Paul Grilley?

Looks like Sarah Powers is from San Francisco near where I live but she travels a lot. She'll be out in November though doing a class and I think I'll catch it.

Thanks again for turning me on to this aspect of Yoga.

Sean.

[irkk]

There is a lot of theory behind Yin Yoga. The teacher of Paul Grilley believes, that he has found evidence of the meridians in the human body. In his opinion the connective tissue found almost everywhere in the body is what he calls "meridian tissue". Thus the concentration of Yin Yoga on connective tissue.

If you want to get more information of that background I recommend getting the Yin Yoga book, because it is cheaper than getting the DVD`s by Paul Grilley.

If you are not interested so much in that background I don´t think you need the book or DVD, especially if you can attend a workshop with Sarah Power in the future.

But I think that the idea of connective tissue as meridian tissue can be seen, at least in my opinion, as some kind of missing link between taoist practises and body flow or zdorovye. It explains the positive effects of "exercising" the connective tissue on the body. This understanding has really helped me to connect various aspects of my practise.
So I would get in to the theory of Yin Yoga at least further down the road when you have had first hand experience of Yin Yoga.