Bernie Clark: Yin Yoga, Human Variation and The Spine

Bernie Clark is a very familiar name in the yoga community. He has been teaching yoga and meditation since the 1990s, is the creator of YinYoga.com and is the author of several books, the latest being Your Spine, Your Yoga. Bernie’s interests in both science and spirituality motivate him to find bridges between Eastern and Western ideas about the body, yoga and the mind.

In this conversation, Bernie and Kathryn get into some hot topics that are being discussed in the yoga community: stretching vs. stressing the body, how to teach yoga when considering human variability, hypermobility and thoughts on the spine. The conversation begins with Bernie talking about yin yoga and the difference between stretching and stressing the body’s tissues. He talks about how this practice can stress the deeper layers of the body, which is beneficial to the health of our tissues. Kathryn and Bernie discuss how to effectively teach yoga knowing that there is so much human variability and that ‘looking good does not necessarily mean you are being healthy’ in your movements. Bernie also talks about whether or not people that are hypermobile should do yin yoga. Finally, they chat about the spine and how certain yoga cues such as “neutral spine” or “lengthen your spine” may be unhelpful and confusing.