Running : Pair yoga with running to get Stronger, Sharper, and less Injury-Prone
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By: Sandra Prior
 
Date Submitted: 2009-06-17 12:59:06 - Article Views: 20292 - Word Count: 642
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Five years ago, Angie Stewart, a Los Angeles-based personal trainer, suffered from iliotibial band (ITB) pain so severe she couldn't run longer than 40 minutes. ‘The outside of both of my legs would hurt to the point that I would have to sit down,’ says Stewart, who had been accustomed to jogging 60 to 80 kilometres a week. ‘Once I even had to get someone to drive me home.’
For six months, she tried all the usual antidotes - icing, stretching, cutting her mileage, doing physical therapy, self-massaging with a foam roller. Nothing worked. Finally, Stewart tried yoga.
‘I hated it at first,’ she says. ‘All I could think about while I was there was that I'd rather be running. I felt like I was wasting my time. I didn't see how something so noncompetitive and calming in nature could provide me with any athletic benefits.’ But after two months of five sessions a week, Stewart says her ITB syndrome disappeared. And with the conviction of the converted, she founded Runner's Yoga 90210, where marathoners, beginner runners, and even members of UCLA's track team gather in Beverly Hills's Roxbury Park for a 20- to 30-minute run followed by 45 to 55 minutes of yoga in a nearby studio.
Yoga improves strength and balance, but one of the best things it can do for runners is increase flexibility. If you don't have the flexibility in your hip flexors and hamstrings to create an adequate range of motion, your body will ask that motion to come from other joints - joints not meant to produce that motion. So you get early fatigue, early breakdown, and you expose yourself to injury.
Best Practice
Just as your running workouts vary in intensity - from easy run to the tempo sweat-fest - so should your yoga routines. After a long run or during a week of peak mileage, gentle stretches enhance recovery. On a rest day or during a period when you aren't training heavily, a challenging class like power yoga, or Ashtanga, builds strength and improves flexibility. Poses that stretch your muscles post-run; others that strengthen your core at least three times a week; a longer routine that targets the entire body on a rest or easy day.
You want to maximize the results of time spent on the mat. While it wouldn't hurt to do gentle yoga on your rest day, power yoga might be better for building strength. You wouldn't want to do power yoga during a taper, when you have pent-up energy. It might tempt you to push yourself harder than you should.
Beyond balance, strength, and flexibility, yoga offers an added benefit that can enhance performance: improved mental focus. It teaches you to be in an intense situation - perhaps deep in a back-bending pose - and to bring awareness to your form and your breathing to make the situation manageable.
This skill is invaluable when you reach the 30th kilometre of a marathon. You'll learn ways to cope, which will benefit you as an athlete and in life.
Power Pose
Lunge with Twist (Stretches Hips)
Step your left foot back; lower down so your knee and toes rest on the ground. Put your palms together. Twist and rest your left triceps on your right quad. Look over your shoulder.
Balance Pose
Pyramid (Promotes stability, Stretches Hamstrings)
Stand with your left leg front. Hinge forward from the hips, tilting the pelvis forward and keeping the back straight, knees slightly bent. Interlace your fingers behind your back and stretch them up.
Core Pose
Reverse Table (Strengthens Abs and Back)
Sit with your knees bent, feet on the floor, hands directly under your shoulders with fingers spread wide. Push up through your hands and feet until your torso and thighs are parallel to the floor. |
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Sandra Prior runs her own bodybuilding website at http://bodybuild.rr.nu.
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