Why Yoga for Runners?

 Because I want to be able to run as long as I can! 

 I first fell in love with Yoga because of peace of mind I felt after my first class. I just knew there was something special about this form exercise and was in Yoga Teacher school 3 months later. I can’t really explain the science of how Yoga works. I studied Kinesiology (and it still surprises me that Yoga never came up). I just know that for me my body and mind react differently to Yoga than it did to all the years of running and weight lifting that I’ve done, with the added benefit of a lingering feeling of goodness. 

 I also love running. In my late 20’s I started noticing that a lot of my runner friends who ran long distances (20 plus miles a week) were beginning to have problems and couldn’t run anymore. Knee pain, back pain you name it. I thought it was because they were over doing it so my game plan was t to run less so I kept my runs to less than 10 miles a week. This worked for a little bit but in my early 30s I noticed that I woke up in the morning with “minor” back aches or “minor” knee pains. I also began getting hip pain after my runs that was getting increasingly worse. 

 A few months after I started Yoga I noticed the hip pain was gone. I also didn’t feel the aches and pains anymore. I actually felt really good in the morning (well physically I did). I did some research and found that Yoga helps runners! 

 As beneficial as running is to your heart and major muscle groups (especially of the legs), it does have it’s consequences. Running shortens your hamstrings (because of the consecutive lifting of the legs), it contributes to slouching or rounding of the shoulders (because our arms don’t really move when we are running which sometimes leads to locked shoulders), it can be damaging to your knees, hips, and lower back. Any repetitive motion with out a counteraction can cause these symptoms.

 But what to do? It feels so good to run and it can help release so much tension. For me it’s almost like a need. Sometimes I come home from a stressful day and just need to go for a run because it releases so much tension and I feel so much better afterward. 

 Luckily Yoga can help keep you running longer, prevent the chance of injury and can potentially increase your performance.    

• It stretches and strengthens all your muscle groups (Yoga is much more than just stretching it actually does increase strength in your upper and lower body and especially your core). 
• The long holds help lengthen muscles that get shortened during running and strengthen muscles that are under used. Creating a balance that reduces chance of injury. 
• Yoga poses (asanas) also help increase the range of motion of all your joints (especially your shoulders and hips). Again reducing the chance of injury. 
• Most Yoga poses also involve core strength (more than you think).  This allows your core to do more work while running making your running more efficient.
• Yoga poses increase your balance. The balance you gain from Yoga poses helps to correct muscle imbalances (preventing the chance of injury). Balance is an often over looked area which could help increase your performance and lessen the chance of injury.
• Yoga is a great form of cross training.  Sometimes more running is not the best thing for increasing your performance. Yoga can be a great addition to your exercise options.

 Technically running does not really help my Yoga practice, because it counteracts all the things I do in my practice (well most of them).  Even though I think, Yoga offers a full body workout (that does include a cardiovascular workout), I still need my runs, and I’m glad that Yoga will help to keep me running longer!