Yoga for runners: 5 exercises to help you become more flexible and strong

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Running is not only about strong legs, a strong heart, and developed lungs. In order to achieve your goals without injury, you need to strengthen the body as a whole and remain flexible. When running, the upper body is often pinched - the shoulders and upper back. And the legs often hurt not so much the muscles as the ligaments.

Some friends finally got rid of joint pain after jogging only after they started doing yoga at least once a week. Yes, it does not strengthen the heart as much as running does, but it does give the body the flexibility and stamina it needs for long runs. Womenshealth magazine asked yoga experts and they recommended 5 assanas that will help strengthen your core, add speed, help relieve pain during and after your runs, and make you more resilient.

Purpose: to strengthen not only the legs, but also the whole body.

Exercise: Strengthening the upper body.

Barbara Ruzhanski, owner of West Hartford Yoga, recommends strengthening your upper body while running to balance your strong legs. To do this, she offers a side plank (vasisthasana) - this pose helps to strengthen the core (abs, back, neck), hips and arms.

Lie facedown on the floor and push off the floor with your hands. Hold this position. The abs should be pulled in, there should be no deflections in the lower back, the shoulders should be kept straight, the neck should not be pulled in, the head, neck and back should be in one line.

From this pose, move to the side plank while maintaining tension throughout your body. Option for beginners: turn your body to the left, raise your left hand and place it on your left thigh, bend your right leg at the knee and place it on the floor - it will serve as a support. The abs should be pulled in, the whole body is in one line (no deflections in the lower back), the hips are tense. Option for the more advanced: leave both legs straightened, raise the left hand up so that it forms a straight line with the right hand, while looking at the raised left hand. Hold this position for 15-30 seconds and then repeat the same on the other side. It is recommended to do this exercise 2-3 times a week.

Goal: pain-free running.

Exercise: Increase Strength and Flexibility.

Yoga can help deal with this problem by developing and opening joints. The stronger the runner, the more careful he must be. Christine Felstead, owner of the Yoga Runners' Club in Toronto, says running involves only certain muscles, while yoga requires all muscles to work in tandem.

And for this she suggests trying the assana sukhasana - sitting with crossed legs, if in simple terms, we used to call it sitting in Turkish. This posture is good for relaxing after running and opens up the hip joints well. Make sure your hips are higher than your knees while sitting. If not, then sit on a rolled towel or small pillow. It is advisable to stay in this position for 3 minutes, so that after a while you may feel discomfort in the spine. In order to relieve this discomfort, you need to engage your abs and core muscles so that you not only work on the hips, knees and ankles, but also strengthen the core.

Purpose: prevention of injuries.

Exercise: perfect posture.

Beryl Bender Birch, owner and director of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute, sees flexibility work as integral to whole-body development. If you don't practice your flexibility, sooner or later it will lead to injuries.

And for this he suggests trying the pose of the Mountain (tadasana). This simple and at the same time difficult assana will help you to feel your body and understand what it means to maintain correct posture. To get started, go to the wall and build your posture - press your heels and the back of your head against the wall, pull your chin in a little. As a result, you will have two air pockets between the body and the wall - in the lower back and in the neck area. Then gently stretch your body upward and feel a little taller. Then step away from the wall, maintaining this posture - you should feel a slight stretch, as if a stretched thread is going through your tailbone and crown. Do it when you are standing at a traffic light, in line, or when you catch yourself slouching - catch any opportunity and stretch out.

Purpose: agility.

Exercise: Correct stretching.

Marc Blanchard, founder of Power Yoga Centers suggests imagining the body as a clay pot: if you try to bend it or crush it, it simply breaks, but if you heat it, then it can take any shape you want. By stretching our muscles, we actually strengthen them, make them stronger. Strong muscles without stretching are actually weak. There is little oxygen in a tense muscle, and stretching exercises help relieve tension and free the passage of oxygen.

And for this, one of the variants of the viparita karani assana can be performed - this is when the legs are lifted up against the wall. A more advanced option is "birch". Lie on the floor so that the pelvis touches the wall, the left leg lies along the wall and is turned towards the doorway, the right leg is raised up and rests on the wall. Make sure that there is no tension in the knees. Hold in this position for 5-10 breaths. This exercise stretches the tendons under the knee well. A more complicated option: you spread your legs to the sides along the wall and lie there for about 10 minutes. In this case, you can take your big toes with your hands and help a little, but smoothly and without jerking. And you can also just raise two legs up with straightened knees, the toe towards you and the heels are pulled up.

Goal: quick recovery from jogging.

Exercise: Consecutive yoga sessions.

Yoga helps us recover faster from strength training by preventing the buildup of scar tissue. It uses body flexibility and breathing exercises to oxygenate our bodies. If possible, alternate your jogging days with yoga classes. Or practice sun salutation every morning.

The editor-in-chief of Lifehacker, Slava Baransky, began to actively engage in running, but after almost every run, problems with ligaments arose. After a month of torment, he nevertheless decided to try going to yoga classes (ashtanga vinyasa). The result is on the face, or rather, on the legs - the pains practically disappeared (especially the legs, back and neck), it became much easier and more pleasant to run.