Yoga on the Run

By Paige Greenfield

One of the great things about yoga is that each pose counteracts all of the stresses and abuse you put your body through—whether it’s hunching over a computer keyboard for nine hours or pounding the pavement for fifteen miles. The poses get deep down into your sorely tested, tightened  muscles and lengthen them back out while restoring blood, oxygen, and fuel. Simply adding a few poses to your post-run routine or taking one or two weekly yoga classes will help increase flexibility, prevent injuries (by strengthening the muscles around your joints to improve stability), speed recovery, and even improve speed through increased range of motion.

Want more proof? Look no further than these three runners who have used yoga to benefit their running. One runner practices poses post-workout, which improved his marathon time and erased IT-band pain, though he has never taken a yoga class; another found that opening her hips, hamstrings, quads, and calves was the antidote to leg cramps that once made her walk to the finish line; and another discovered that Bikram’s heat and series of postures healed an injury that nearly ended his running career.

Get these runners' workouts:
Kris Nardini: Post-run yoga
Monica Rempel: Poses to avoid cramps
Damian Stoy: Knee injury recovery

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