Good morning Yogis. It's Tuesday Yinning time at Lotus Bay Yoga, so this morning I’m sharing a how to do a Yin Yoga styled Deer Pose.

When I teach yin I often say that the Deer is a friend of the Pigeon - from our more yang yoga practice, though the Deer has lots more Bambi than the stags with big horns.

What I love about Deer Pose is that it's subtle energy is a gentler hip opening pose, then cousin poses Swan/Sleeping Swan.

Seated on the ground our front foot is curled forward but in Yin, to protect the knee we bring our folded leg’s hip, to the floor.

The back leg is curled around at the knee, comfortably. Then allow both feet to be soft and unflexed.

We are achieving a mild hip compression here, with the femurs variously rotated in the hip socket, (external rotation of the femur for the front hip) and (external formation of the femur for the back hip).

Curl the legs and relax the feet like Bambi taking a warm and 'comfortable seat' in the meadow.

Then orientate the body over the front leg, and come forward either to a bolster, or to the ground.

With our yin practice we trust that we have put our body into a shape that activates the meridians and crucially we relax our muscles to allow the fascia to open. We are working into the Liver, stomach and spleen channels with this one and there is a sense of rest and digest in it's curled leg approach.

This pose can be held for 5 to 8 mins. Then switch sides.

Amy Weidlich @amyariel is the founder of Lotus Bay Yoga @lotusbayyoga at Driftwood Living @driftwoodliving in the heart of Little Bay’s Village in Sydney’s Eastern Surburbs. Join us for yin infused practices all through the week and a purely yin class on Tuesday mornings at 9.15am.

Amy gratefully acknowledges her own yin teacher Karen Milton and her teachers teacher Melanie McLaughlin.

namaste