Rethinking Yin Yoga Claims for ADHD: Yoga Claims & Sketchy Aims
There’s a narrative that Yin Yoga—a slow, still, introspective practice—is especially good for people with ADHD. You’ll hear claims like: “It helps you build tolerance for stillness,” “It supports regulation,” “It teaches you to feel your feelings,” “It gives you permission to pause,” “It helps you notice what happens when you stay,” and even that it works like a “dimmer switch” for overstimulation.
But these well-meaning phrases can be harmful when applied uncritically to neurodivergent people—especially women with ADHD, who are already expert at masking their true needs and behaviors to fit into neurotypical expectations – and let’s face it, women are currently the highest demographic in all Yoga classes. People aren’t pets, we can’t be trained to stillness by the person in charge.
For many, practices like yin don’t foster regulation—they can cause dysregulation, exhaustion and even shame because there is this mythology woven around what the practice can do for your body and mind and because is human nature to please people, participate and say something is great even if it didn’t feel it.
Reading claims that yin is great for pain and adhd has made my toes curl.
I totally understand why we want to package things for special populations, it sells and we attract more people and those new to yoga so the chances of converting them to become a regular customer is probably higher than when we just call it yoga.
So is there a place for yoga for athletes, yoga for bad backs, yoga for runners, yoga for arthritis, yoga for over 60’s etc? Well it definitely conveys the air of fitting in , belonging and it also suggests it will be forgiving regardless of your ability but let’s face it, physical yoga is all the same man made poses in different orders just with different accessibility, tone and emphasis. So is there is a place for it? I’d say yes, it lowers a barrier to participating and some people do it really well.
However things get sketchy really quickly when we make big claims.
Let’s unpack it.
When a yin class encourages stillness, silence, and sameness, it can inadvertently demand that everyone have the same experience, obey the rules and fit the mould. The message becomes: sit still, stay put, feel what arises—and if that’s hard for you, you’re doing it wrong or not as competent or an outsider who doesn’t belong and doesn’t really get it. Does anything scream you don’t fit in here more than that?
That’s not regulation. That’s assimilation. We can all conjure up an image of that particular yin teacher who acts like the police of the practice and their only tool is to keep encouraging you to stay still or stay in the pose under the guise of ‘or else the practice won’t work’.
As for neurodivergent folks, especially those who have spent a lifetime trying to fit into a world designed for neurotypical brains, this is another layer of pressure to mask—to override our body’s natural cues in order to visually “succeed” at a practice that isn’t meeting us where we are – and what does masking lead to? Extreme fatigue, emotional exhaustion, burnout and more. By clinging to the idea that this particular style of yoga is good for ADHD are we adding another brick to the load that some people are already carrying just to feel as though they may potentially fit in to a society they see differently.
Yin might be profoundly soothing for some, but for others it’s a recipe for dysregulation. Stillness doesn’t always equal peace. For many with ADHD, especially those socialized to be accommodating and quiet, stillness can feel like a trap. What looks like “permission to pause” from the outside may actually feel like a command to suppress: movement, thoughts, impulses, identity.
This matters because when we generalize the benefits of a practice like yin without accounting for neurodiversity, we risk reinforcing norms that pathologize difference. We end up praising “regulation” when what’s really happening is masking—and covering up leads to burnout, not balance.
ADHD means dopamine is often lower than neurotypical which can look like boredom, fed up, restless, depressed, doing multiple things at once, fidgets, lack of focus or presence (literally the opposite of what yin demands). This leads to seeking dopamine on phones, socials, being tempted by all the interesting things a finger tip away. So relate that to the required stillness of yin. Those with the urges to move, check their phones, look around. They could well be seeking a normal dopamine level that yin is prohibiting them from topping up.
Add into all this that many yoga teachers have rigid rules around phones and how on earth can we be advocating this as helpful for ADHD? You cannot as a yin yoga teacher die on the hill of stupid rules AND advocate the practice can help everyone and I don’t like the way this yoga narrative is in uncomfortably close territory to suggesting ‘helping’ or ‘fixing’ diversities rather than accepting them, it’s othering.
Instead of asking everyone to conform to stillness, let’s ask how our practices can be more responsive, more inclusive, and more curious about the vast range of nervous system experiences that show up on the mat. If you are lucky to be a haven for the neuro spicy in class what other tools have you got apart from permission? Strumming, jiggling, sa ta na ma hands – jot some ideas down for true accessibility.
Let’s direct people to other practices and movements that might mean you don’t get their ticket price but does mean that you’re practising ethically as a teacher.
This is the problem with using AI to fully or solely generate social media posts and blogs. It will comb the internet for what already exist as common knowledge and won’t necessarily take into account changes in fact, information, views and more that have shifted in yin way beyond the fascia fables and strict stillness rules that we all were once mistakenly adhered to.
As for claiming yin yoga CAN help chronic pain…
There is absolutely no evidence supporting the idea that yoga let alone specifically yin yoga specifically is going to help or resolve pain.
There is absolutely no evidence to prove that any particular type of movement, number of repetitions or type of exercise is superior to any other in helping pain or can eradicate it. I have written so much on this and directed my fellow movement professionals to much work around this by others.
Movement in general is proven to help positively with pain and moving more rather than sedentary choices increases that again. Lifting weights or scaled resistance training is proven to be helpful as are movement snacks, frequently interrupting still periods of daily life with little bite-size movements for relief and building confidence around moving with ease.
None of these are yin or even yin adjacent.
What else are we sure of? Well speak to anybody who has experienced chronic or acute pain. Whether it’s knee lower back or anywhere and they will reliably but anecdotally tell you that the worst times for them are getting up in the morning and beginning to move after a long period of being still or getting up after sitting down or being in one position for too long. Remind you of yin?
Of course everybody is pain is different, valid and individual and this is why instead of purely repeating our clients testimonials about them feeling better from yin, which are usually sought out so hardly impartial, we need to look at current evidence.
Everything we have touched on so far strongly suggest that being sedentary for periods of time may not feel helpful in the moment. So suggesting staying in a yin pose for periods of time feels very contrary to where current evidence is.
It’s also worth noting that there is very limited evidence around yin yoga in particular so we can neither made bold claims nor strongly dismiss them especially as what there is is pretty bias or from yoga study projects.
So where can yin play a part?
I’m honestly not sure it can understand the model that is currently taught. What could help is wriggling, rocking, exploring those so called yin shapes refamiliarising with what feels good and navigating what dosn’t and we do know that yoga has the potentially to interact with dealing the nervous system down but that dosn’t mean it happens by simply attending class regardless of our experience. It’s just hugely misleading and irresponsible to say flat out can yin help with chronic pain? Yes. This borders on territory like posture panic which we looked at in another episode. We are sold devices, interventions, courses that we don’t need, go completely against evidence and pray upon people who are desperate for a change.
Let’s leave it with some positive facts we do know and can utilise around pain facts and the information we give out:
Pain relief originates from the person, not the exercise its self.
Ability to relieve pain lies with the individual not the exercise.
Pain relief depends on the individual not the type of exercise.
It’s the person not the exercise that facilitates pain changes.
These all say the same thing in different ways and none of them claim helping chronic pain with yin yoga, in fact they amplify the individual not symptoms, cures or expectations.
So yin and big claims. Yoga and big promises. Cures, fixes and answers.
It’s grifting. Grifting with a side order of peace and love.
