Why cross-train with yoga?
Yoga offers a wonderful blend of practices that help support your running journey.
It’s like finding a new friend on the road to better fitness! 🤝
- Breath work (Pranayama): The biggest benefit of yoga: breathing! Yoga Breath control techniques are practiced in yoga and can help you regulate your nervous system and thus, decompress! Slow the heart rate and reduce stress so you can feel fresh during your workouts where high-intensity matters.
- Stay focused (Dharana): Focusing on form and breath through yoga aligns with the need to focus on your gate, breath work, and pace while running. Yoga helps you fine-tune your concentration skills, so you can push through those tougher miles to finish.
- Strike a pose (Asana): I know people often say, “I’m not flexible enough to do yoga!”, but here’s the thing: you don’t have to be flexible to do yoga! Certain poses strengthen and stretch different major muscle groups. By practicing variations of poses and transitioning through each one, you’ll give love to the muscles that support your body’s ability to run. Plus, you’ll give those hardworking quads, knees, and ankles a soothing stretch while you do yoga.
Yoga becomes your perfect sidekick in cross-training; you’ll be surprised by what it can do to enhance your running training. 🏃♂️🏋️♀️
As you flow through yoga sequences, you’ll discover how your own body weight can be a powerful tool to boost your stability and strength.
Those standing series poses?
They’re the bread and butter that target your lunges, legs, and challenge your balance, overall, helping you unleash more mobility, especially in your hips! 🕺💃
So why not lace up those running shoes and unroll your yoga mat?
The journey to better running and enhanced overall fitness is more enjoyable when you’ve got yoga as your trusty companion. 🌟
Here are three practical yoga poses that can be particularly beneficial for runners:
- Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana):
- Start on your hands and knees, with your hands slightly ahead of your shoulders.
- Push your hips up and back, creating a V-shape with your body.
- Keep your feet and hands hip-width apart. Push your heels back to lengthen your lowerback.
Benefits:
- This pose lengthens your back and stretches your hamstrings, Achilles tendons and calf muscles.
- Get ready! Stronger shoulders and arms are a great benefit to this pose.
- It’s great for post-run recovery to alleviate tension in the legs.
2. Low Lunge (Anjaneyasana):
- From Downward-Facing Dog, step on leg forward between your hands.
- Check that feet are hips width distance apart. Then, find a 90-degree bend through the leg that’s between your hands. 90-degree meaning align your knee over the ankle.
- The back knee can be lifted or down on your mat. The heel of back leg should be lifted and coming forward so your on the ball mound of that back foot.
- Lift your chest. Arms can remain framing the front foot or up in the air for a bigger balance challenge.
Benefits:
- Lengthens and stretches hip flexors.
- Strengthen quadriceps.
- Might provide immediate relief for tight hips, a common issue for many runners.
- Offers a balance challenge.
3. Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana):
- Start in Downward-Facing Dog and bring one knee forward towards your wrist on the same side.
- Drop onto the outer hip of the leg that’s forward, and slide your back leg towards the back of your mat so you come to rest on your outer hip.
- Shin becomes close to parallel with the mat.
- Check in with your knee joint and tension in your hip and adjust the angle of your front knee and front ankle from toward the front of the mat.
- Lower your chest to the ground, keeping your back leg extended.
Benefits:
- Opens up the hips and stretches the piriformis muscle, which can help prevent IT band issues and alleviate sciatic pain.
- Stretches lower back when chest and arms are extended forward.
- Relieves outer hip of front leg.
