Yin Yoga for Recovery

I’ve incorporated yoga workouts into my training for a while now, but recently have become a real fan of Yin yoga on my rest days as it has a focus on holding poses for an extended period of time to target the fascia and other connective tissues.  It’s a passive form of yoga and one that I have found to be highly restorative as releasing tension in the fascia helps to improve blood flow to the muscles which reduces soreness and promotes muscle recovery.

Yin yoga is a form of yoga that I came across when researching ways to improve the flexibility of my hamstrings and hip flexor muscles like the psoas as a way of improving my running efficiency.  It was during this same research that I came across the stretch that I now love to hate – the couch stretch. 

I haven’t been doing yin yoga for long, but so far it seems to be helping to overcome some flexibility plateaus I encountered with the more active forms of yoga I’ve tried in the past and I do feel it has improved my recovery. 

I’m not a fan, however, of the deep stretches of yin yoga prior to any workouts and prefer a more dynamic set of mobility drills as a warmup on workout days.  It’s great on rest days though.