Yin is a fantastic way to increase or maintain flexibility as it focuses on the areas around the joints. You’ll immediately notice more open hips, buttery muscles and a major mind detox. In the long run, it will lubricate joints, release the fascia of the body, increase flexibility and positively affect your yang practice.
My favorite aspect of both of these styles of yoga is they teach you to feel. Rather than rushing through asanas from breath to breath, Restorative and Yin yoga both cultivate a powerful inner awareness.
On the superficial level, you learn to feel how the slightest, most subtle movement changes the asana completely. On a deeper level, emotions surface that you usually suppress. You learn how to sit with difficult or painful emotions that arise and work through them – the same way you physically work with a difficult posture — adjust as needed, sit with it, breathe through it, send it Prana, and smile.
In a Nutshell: Restorative yoga heals a body in need of healing. Yin yoga activates change at a very deep level in an already healthy body to increase performance.