Yin Yoga: The Foundations of a Quiet Practice

After coveting this DVD set for some time, I finally purchased it awhile back. As both a yoga practitioner and a teacher, Yin yoga is one of my favorite styles, and I thought that I could learn from this DVD. It has A LOT of content, and I still need to spend time watching the lectures in greater depth, as I've mostly just skimmed so far.The first DVD is Grilley's lectures, all 108 minutes of them. I will have to come back to list the chapter breakdowns. Basically, Grilley covers anatomical differences and how this impacts individual practice. He discusses what makes yin yoga unique and how it complements more yang yoga practices.The second DVD contains the yoga practices themselves. These focus on yin yoga, naturally, although a few yang routines are offered as well. I'll provide the menu listing and then describe details.Yin Practices*Hip Series, 70*Spine Series, 62*Infant Series, 63Yang Practices*Warrior 1:35 Play Lop*Flying Dragon 2:38 Play Loop*Golden Seed 1:22 Play Loop*Custom Yang SequencesSpecial Features*Bonus Yin PracticesThe heart of this DVD is the yin practices. For each, Grilley instructs a class of four students (including his wife), each of whom displays the poses showing different modifications and levels. Grilley states that the Hip Series focuses on the area above the knees to the lower spine, and it is designed to increase the range of motion in the lower pelvis and hips. The Spine Series places emphasis on the pelvis, sacrum, and spine; it includes several twists. Finally, Grilley describes the Infant Series as the "least yin" of the three. There is more work for the spine in a horizontal position, including a standing warm-up.The yang practices aren't really follow-along routines, as they feature Grilley and his wife Suzy moving through flowing postures, often facing away from the camera. The Customized Yang option does provide a bit more in the way of actual practice choices, as here the viewer can mix and match practices to create short yang flows.Finally, the Bonus Yin Practices opens a separate submenu. The routines themselves are in slideshow format, with a still photo to display the pose combined with Grilley's very brief voiceover cues naming when to come in and out of the pose. This menu is as follows:*How to Use the Bonus PracticesOpening Practices*Butterfly Opening Sequence - 28:40*Dragonfly Opening Sequence - 28:25Closing Practices*Snail and Roots Sequence - 28:35*Shoelace Sequence - 22:00*Saddle Sequence - 25:02I've owned this DVD for several months now, and I still feel like I've only scratched the surface of what it has to offer. I look forward to using and growing with Paul Grilley's Yin Yoga more over time.

This DVD changed my view of yoga forever. By detailing the difference between Compression and Tension, Paul demonstrates (in the actual 3, one hour Yin classes) how each pose will be executed differently from practitioner to practitioner, and that these differences are due to the differences in the skeleton they were born with. Our skeleton has a lot to do with why we can or cannot make our pose look like that of someone else. Compression cannot be changed - you are born with the bones are you are born with (his DVD: Anatomy of Yoga is EXCELLENT for learning about this in more depth and I am very glad I bought it along with this one). The 3 Yin classes on Disc 2 really bring this point home as his models depict these variations - even though they are all doing the exact same pose. While the poses are being practiced, Grillie talks about why they are being performed differently by everyone, and how these differences are absolutely OK. There is nothing wrong with you - why you may never be able to do a pose the way someone else does a pose - and if you try to, you could risk injury. I also found his 3 short Yang sequences unlike anything I have seen before. It was like watching a beautiful martial art master move gracefully through a series of forms. They are also somewhat easy to learn because of how he set up the menu. You can watch his instruction of the short forms (these are 1.5 to 2.5 minutes long in length), and then play the forms up to 5 times in a row automatically (great as an actual workout or in order to learn them). You can also combine the 3 different forms into one long flowing form in a variety of pre-set combinations. Hard to describe, but the logic of it the menu makes sense once you start to learn them and want to combine them back to back. Bottom line is this 2 disc set was well worth the money. I also highly recommend you purchase Anatomy of Yoga. The combination has made me very interested in going to yoga teacher school for my own self-study. He is a skilled teacher!

I'm still a beginner but my wife has been practicing Hatha Yoga at home for more than 20 years mostly using videos. For the past year we both attended a yoga studio for more detailed instruction where we were introduced to Yin Yoga. Yin Yoga focuses on the connective tissues rather than the muscular tissue in the body and is a very good complement to Hatha and other forms of Yang Yoga. The positions are held for 3-5 minutes and use gravity instead of your muscles to put the targeted connective tissue into extention. What we liked most about the yoga studio was the detailed instruction on how to safely put yourself into a correct yoga position to maximize the benefit and how to adjust the position to your body type and conditioning, including the proper use of props. When the yoga studio went out of business, we decided to continue our practice at home and purchased the subject Yin Yoga DVD by Paul Grilley. After a month of practice, we can wholeheartedly endorse this DVD and recommend it to others. The expertise of the instructor is evident and the quality of instruction is as good as the personalized attention we received at the studio. Disc 1 of the two disk set contains a two hour detailed lecture on the theory of Yin Yoga and is a must before continuing on to the guided practices on disc 2. I generally can't sit still for a two hour movie but had no problem paying attention to the lecture. Disc 2 contains three guided practices of about one hour each that focus on hip opening, spinal bends and an "infant series" emulating the progressive movements of an infant. My wife and I alternate the three sessions every other day. In addition there are about two hours of material including Yang movements in the Chinese tradition and bonus Yin practices. The set is a little pricey for an exercise DVD but considering the quantity and quality of the material presented, is well worth the price. Bottom line: If you would like to learn Yin Yoga without signing up for a studio class, this is the DVD to get.