Top 5 reasons why every runner should do yoga:
Running on a regular basis causes tightness or inflexibility in certain muscle groups, including hip flexors, hamstrings and calves. A lack of flexibility is one of the biggest factors in conditions such as Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciitis and iliotibial band syndrome.
Yoga helps improve flexibility, increase joint stability and range of motion, strenghtens opposing muscle groups, develop breathe control and focus the mind.
1. Flexibility
Flexibility of the muscles is important because tight muscles pull their bony attachments out of proper alignment, which can cause torque in the joints and potentially joint breakdown.
Joints that lack flexibility are then restricted from going through their full range of motion and have to work harder to get where they should be.
Flexibility can also help speed recovery!
2. Breath Work
The natural response to physical stress is to stop breathing. Stress triggers our "fight or flight" response which in turn, floods the body with adrenaline and gives us rapid, shallow breath—which is why so many runners get the dreaded SITCH
Yoga focuses attention to the breath and lengthening the breath. Becoming more aware of your breath during yoga practice can translate into you are running. Learning to breath with the rhythm of your body
Yoga also focuses on breathing using the diaphragm (proper breathing to fully inhale and exhale) and get out of the habit of belly or chest breathing…which of course will also help improve your breathing while running.
3. Core Strength
Almost every single posture in yoga utilizes your core muscles. Your core cannot become strong just from doing sit ups, you need to strengthen all areas of the core through balance and stability
A healthy core will improve your posture, provide balance and make it that much easier to be a runner.
The core muscles support the spine and allow the runner to flex, extend, and rotate the trunk and hips. With proper stabilization of the midsection, running becomes more efficient, and the risk of injury to the back is greatly reduced.
4. Mind Body Awareness
We runners are generally stubborn when it comes to injuries and pain. It is an old school attitude to admire those who run through debilitating pain instead of listening to their bodies.
Yoga teaches you to listen to your body and learn what it needs in a gentile manner. Yoga is about doing what feels good and learning to give the care that your body need.
By learning to modify your practice to suit us best on the mat, you become better able to assess what your body is trying to tell us on your run.
It is also can be used as a method of recovery, something us runners do not give ourselves enough of (both body and mind)
5. Strength, Balance and Imbalances
Yoga is a fully body workout that incorporates every muscle group in the body, especially the upper body which often gets forgotten by runners.
The balance you want to focus on here is the balance of the body as a whole, the balance and imbalances in the body
Every single person has imbalances in their body; one side is stronger, one side is more flexible, one leg is weaker etc.
In yoga every single pose is done on each side to achieve a balance. This helps you begin to correct and draw attention to any imbalances you may have in your body
Even more important, yoga poses are based on proper alignment of joints. This helps to relieve the everyday stresses on our joints due to the imbalances with in our bodies that contribute to improper alignment
Yoga will help you increase and maintain a range of motion and can correct muscle imbalances created from high impact training, by aligning the joints, particularly in injury prone areas such as the IT band, hips, hamstrings and knees in runners.
