Stretch Your Gym Workout

By Nicole Kwan

Postures that will boost stamina and help your body recover

Hitting the mat after invigorating activity helps your body recover and repair. Plus, mixing yoga with different kinds of strength and cardio training calms and centers, so you leave the gym not just buff but mellow.

With the prep pose below, you’ll prime your muscles to produce more power; afterward, use the post pose to capitalize on the pliability of your muscles to stretch and restore. Both the warm-up and cool-down take 5 minutes or less. 

Your Machine: Treadmill

While the surface of a treadmill is more forgiving than the rugged outdoors, it’s not stress-free. “Treadmills encourage you to overstride,” which can lock up your pelvic muscles, among other problems, says Douglas Wisoff, a physical therapist in Boulder, Colorado. These poses balance you out no matter where you put in your miles.

Prep Pose: Lying Big Toe

To release hip, lower-back, and hamstring tension before you walk or run, lie on your back, then bring your right leg up at a 90-degree angle. If you can’t grab the big toe without taking your shoulders off the floor, place a strap or towel around your right foot. Make sure your left leg is grounded into the floor, then gently pull the raised right leg closer to the body. If your back starts to round, keep the left knee bent with the sole of the foot on the floor. Internally rotate your leg slightly by rolling your right thigh inward to stretch your iliotibial band and the outside of your thigh. Again, make sure your left leg is grounded into the floor, then gently pull the right leg closer to your body. Concentrate on reaching the leg up as well as pulling it in toward your head and chest. Hold for 5 to 10 breaths. Repeat on the other leg.

Post Pose: Half Hero Variation

This is an intense quad and psoas stretch that will ward off thigh cramps. How intense? Sandra Safadirazieli, instructor at Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, California, calls it “ouch-asana.” So go easy; don’t overdo it. Start on all fours facing away from a wall, with your feet touching it. Bend your left knee back to the base of the wall so that your shin is against the wall and your toes point to the ceiling. From here, begin to lift your torso and feel a stretch in your left quad. To deepen it, take your right foot and step into a lunge, making sure your right knee is stacked over the ankle. “This will access your quad even more,” Safadirazieli says. To deepen further, draw your tailbone toward the floor and place your hands on your front thigh or straighten your arms overhead. If you are tight, you can place your hands on blocks on either side of your front foot. Hold for 5 to 10 full breaths in each phase (if you do both the leg up the wall and the lunge), and then slowly draw your left leg back down before switching sides.

 

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