Yin and Yang

I have talked about Yin and Yang several times on this blog. It is important to have a balance between yin and yang in your life. Recently, I heard Charles Poliquin give a very good explanation of yin and yang. You should think of yang as fire, so things like waking up in the morning, having energy, and working out would be yang. On the other side you should think of yin as oil. Yin would be rest and relaxation. In order to burn your yang fire you must have a yin oil reserve. So people who burn the candle at both ends are using up their yin oil. If your yin oil is used up, then you have nothing left to create your yang fire. This is why I place such an emphasis on rest and recovery with my clients. If you do not take the steps to ensure that you are building up your oil reserves then there is no way that you are going to make it through a challenging workout which is a yang fire activity.

The other thing to consider is that most people today live a very yang lifestyle, in that most people work too much, have too much stress, sleep too little, and never make any time to relax. If this is always the case, then you are eventually going to suffer from low energy because you will have no oil to burn. If this describes you then I would suggest that you place an emphasis on sleep, relaxation, and proper recovery from your workouts.