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During Rachel Brooks’ 18 years as a bartender, her shifts typically ended around 4 am. “There’s nothing to do late at night,” she says. “It’s pretty much drink or smoke to wind down—it’s not anything healthy.” Even the Original Hotcake House closes at 11 pm.
Enter SIN Yin. On Thursday and Friday nights from 11 pm to 4 am, SIN Yin is a drop-in, donation-based, relaxing yoga session for service- and sex-industry workers. SIN Yin takes place at Brooks’ new Central Eastside studio, Yin Yoga Space, which opened in October. (A yoga instructor since 2016, Brooks also owns Seeking Space Yoga in Southwest.)
Students are welcome to stretch, relax, meditate and mingle during SIN Yin. Brooks also teaches classes on an as-needed basis. Otherwise, students can flip through a deck of cards with pictures of yoga postures to sink into. (Bartenders, consider shoulder-openers; strippers, try pigeon pose and other hip-openers to counteract all those hours in heels, Brooks suggests.)
Yin Yoga Space is dark and cozy, with candles flickering in sconces, black velvet seating, and freshly brewed tea before class. There are occasional live cello soundbaths. The lobby is stocked with healthy snacks for purchase, such as Better Bars, cold-pressed juice, dried fruit and crackers.
Most American yoga classes are long on “yang” energy—upbeat vinyasa flows that build heat. Yin yoga is a meditative, restorative practice that gets deep into the muscles and connective tissues. In a typical class at Yin Yoga Space, students hold postures for about three to five minutes each.
A security guard is on the premises for the duration of SIN Yin and available to escort students to and from their cars.
“Once I started to feel the benefits of yoga on my own body, I was like, why didn’t I have this earlier and why can’t we as service-industry workers or sex workers have the opportunity to take care of ourselves like this?” says Brooks, who tended bar full time at a range of bars, strip clubs and nightclubs. “The nature of the industry itself is, we get treated like shit. It’s a constant practice to remember to take care of ourselves.”