Yoga for Runners
Yoga Poses for Runners
If you bring your body into balance through the practice of yoga, you can run long and hard for years to come.
While runners may have incredible endurance and powerful legs, they invariably train in a "sport specific" manner— they perform specific actions over and over again and their focus is on external technique.
This type of repetitive sports training, or conditioning, results in excessively tight leg, hip and back muscles. Also, many running related injuries are caused by imbalances.
The pain most runners feel is not only from running in and of itself, but from imbalances that running causes and exacerbates.
Yoga’s ability to create more range of motion in the body is a helpful way to loosen up those tight muscles and ligaments, increase range of motion, agility, flexibility, lung capacity, endurance, and strength.
Yoga has the ability to help all of us get better – better in terms of healing and rehabilitation, better in terms of strength and flexibility and also better in terms of the elimination of pain.
If you are new to yoga and would like to gradually integrate yoga into your conditioning and mobility routine, begin with these basic poses:
N.B. Warm up or run first.
I do the poses in a continuous motion from pose to pose, exaggerating breathing but naturally.
I do 5-10 minutes after runs and once or twice a week a 20mins session.
Lateral Flexion:
Stretch and strengthen tight back muscles with this simple pose
Try it Standing straight, bring both arms overhead, palms together. Inhale, and lift out of the lower back until the spine is elongated. Exhale, and reach your arms to the right and overhead until you feel a deep stretch up the left side of the body. Keep the glutes tight and the lower body moving forward as your upper body continues to lift and sink with each inhale and exhale. Take five deep breaths, and then switch sides.
Twist the spine:
This stretch offers a soothing massage to the lower back.
Place your left hand on your right knee. Take a deep breath and slowly twist your body to your right side. You can also place your right hand on the floor near your right hip. Stretch upward by pressing your hand against the floor.
Try to keep your back as straight as possible. Inhale and come back to your centre position.
Repeat the same stretch on the left side. Suck your tummy in for a deeper stretch.
Forward Fold:
Any pose that involves reaching for your toes is great for stretching your hamstrings and calves. Pulling up on your toes can also stretch your arch and your IT band—a perpetually tight muscle in runners that travels from the hip to the outer knee.
Do both standing and seated forward folds after a run.
For the best stretch when seated, hinge at the waist and reach as far you can with a straight back before folding over your legs. If you can't touch your toes when standing, bend your knees slightly or stand with your feet slightly apart, or place your palms on your calves.
N.B. Please please please, don't be tempted to over stretch, by reaching too far or for too long.
Hamstrings don't need much stretching, but need strengthening.
They are supposed to have a certain tightness and a kinetic energy for a running actions natural pull through leading to a gravitational effect into the next stride.
Hamstrings have a direct or symbiotic relationship with your quads.
Strength wise for best effect and efficiency, the ratio should be 60% quads & 40% hams.
If you are too tight in your hams, look to your lower back and glutes.
Downward-Facing Dog:
This classic yoga asana (posture) will stretch tight hamstrings, which are a trademark of devoted runners, as well as elongate the back.
Simply start on all fours and slowly lift your hips towards the ceiling as you straighten your legs. Elongate the spine, and straighten the knees, and push the heels toward the floor as much as you can without forcing.
Lift the wrists. Move the abdominal muscles in and keep them firm; drop your head toward the floor and let it hang loosely.
Hold for at least five deep breaths.
Some of the most common issues for runners are shin splints, knee and foot problems, and IT-band syndrome, so poses that are going to lengthen, strengthen, and open the hips, quads, calves and hamstrings are good. Downward Dog does a lot of that, in addition to opening the arms and upper back, which also tend to get tight after long stretches of repetitive forward-and-backward swinging.
N.B. After each run I do a caterpillar walk using the downward dog. walking towards my hands then hands only walking forward and so on for 5metres or more.
Upward Dog:
Runners often have very strong legs but weak upper bodies including the core and arms, which may hurt their performance.
Practicing an upper-body yoga sequence can help build strength in these neglected areas.
From Downward Dog, move into plank (or high push-up) position, lower halfway to a low push-up, and then roll over your toes and arch your chest upward into a back bend for Upward Dog.
Later I will show more variations of the plank and similar back strengthening poses.
Triangle:
Stand with your feet three to 3 - 3.5' apart. Turn your left foot in 30 degrees and your right foot out 90 degrees. Be sure that your right heel is in line with the arch of your left foot. Bring your hands into a T position and take a deep inhalation. Exhale and move your pelvis toward the left as you extend your torso to the side and over your right leg.
Place your right hand down on your shin and stretch your left arm vertically overhead, palm forward. Turn your head to gaze softly at your left thumb.
Hold for three breaths.
Release by coming back to standing and practice on the opposite side.
This type of twist can be really difficult for runners because their hips and glutes are so tight—but it can also be extremely beneficial for the same reasons.
If moving into Triangle pose causes pain in your outer hip, try resting your arm on a block instead of the floor. Don’t force the position, start by reaching to your knee if you have to, and gradually progress to your foot over some weeks.
Pigeon Pose:
Another hip opener that also relaxes the mind and stretches out the lumbar spine.
Start in downward dog and bend the right knee and bring it forward. Take the right knee just outside the right hand while releasing the top of the left leg to the floor. Then square your hips to the floor and bring your torso down towards your leg so that you’re doing a forward fold over your right leg. Keep your left foot pressing down onto the top of your mat as you breathe into the tightness of your hips and continue to square them off.
Hold this posture for a minimum of five breaths.
It isn’t easy initially, so progress it over weeks
Bound Angle or Cobbler
This hip opener is a formidable solution to tight and sore hip flexors, abductors and adductor muscles.
The effects of this exercise are understated and benefit you subtlely and mch more than you realise. I like to repeat this exercise lying on my front for a variation.
Sitting in Cobbler pose (also known as Bound Angle pose), with the soles of your feet touching and your knees wide apart, opens the lower back, hips and inner thighs, especially when you fight the urge to hurry through your routine and hold it for several minutes at a time.
If your hips or groin feel too tight to sit up straight or to bring your heels in close to your pelvis, sit on a block or a blanket. Don't force your knees down to the ground, but let them drop naturally so you feel a gentle stretch.
Lift and lengthen your spine as you inhale and exhale deeply through your nose. Relax your throat. Relax your eyes. Inhale, do nothing. Exhale, soften and release your groins.
The more you can soften the groins, the more the legs will release downward. Sit quietly without straining the thighs hold this posture for a minimum of five breaths. To release, straighten one leg at a time.
Tree:
Stand with your feet parallel. Bend your right knee and place your right foot as high as possible on your left inner thigh. Press your palms together in prayer position. Hold for three breaths.
Release and practice on the opposite side.
Balancing on one leg is great for runners, and is great for your core stability, benefiting track racing and cross-country in particular.
The more you can strengthen your legs and improve your balance, the less likely you are to twist an ankle or fall down when you're on a trail or any type of uneven ground."
To master the Tree pose, fix your gaze on an object in the distance—whether it's the horizon line or a spot on your studio wall.
Once you're able to stand in Tree for 30 seconds to a minute, make it harder by practicing with your eyes closed.
Bridge:
Back bends help open the shoulders and the front of the body, and also strengthens the core. They are good counter poses to running, because the longer we run the more we tend to hunch forward.
Lift your hips up toward the sky and try to keep your body in a straight line with your core engaged. To open your chest even further, clasp your hands together underneath your pelvis and try to roll your shoulder blades toward each other.
N.B. No matter what sequence of poses you do, remember that your breath is also important—both on the mat and equally on your runs.
If you can practice lengthening and evening out your breath while you're stretching, it will also transfer to smoother, calmer breathing while you run.
P.S. During the years that I ran half-marathons and more particularly marathons, I had very few periods of showing imbalances and rarely had any niggles, never mind injuries. This whilst doing these exercises after each run and on a 20-30 minutes session once or twice a week.
I had a rota of exercises which included many more variations of poses, of which I would usually do four or five after each run, sometimes mixing in Isometric and pilates.
Along with hill sessions, hill and off-road runs, it was all the strength and resistance training I needed, even when I was peaking at 120mpw.
The bonus is that they are in the main, running specific.
I WILL ADD TO THESE POSES ABOVE, LATER ON.
Below are some demonstrations as to how and when to apply these poses.
I could show you myself, but many of the poses I have not kept up and would have to start from scratch for the more advanced poses.
Despite being unfit and just a jogger now and for the last 20 years, I can still do all the basic Asana's suitable for runners, and it is my intention and in fact necessity to get back into my daily routine, and so return to a state of strength, good mobility and therefore return to some strong running before I am 65 years in February 2017.
N.B. Some demonstrations of good practice below.
Don't expect to be able to do everything perfectly, there is no rush.
Let yourself achieve positions organically, don't force them, as you will loosen up in time.
post run stretch- 5-10mins. Karen Dubs
a good 5-7min muscle / tendon release for soreness
A 12min dynamic mobility core stability session
A 20min after run sequence This covers most of what I personally need.
Yoga for Runners - 25 min version
Yoga Practice for Runners, Ekhart 20min Sequence