Yoga
Increasingly, runners are finding that yoga, in contrast to more strenuous forms of cross-training, provides them with additional strength and flexibility without muscle pounding. Bearing in mind that skeletal muscles work in pairs, what happens during running is that the foot, leg, and hip muscles experience a heavy amount of pounding, tightening, and shortening. Left unattended, these compromised muscles are stressed, possibly leading to injury. Stretching brings them back into balance, keeping them soft and supple so they can do their job.
Since muscles help maintain posture and balance, if these are out of sync, the stressful demands of running will aggravate any preexisting conditions. Many runners simply run in pain and learn to live with it. Yoga can help identify and treat these nagging sources of pain, leading to more enjoyable running — and more years of it.
Turning the Focus Inward
Yoga focuses the mind on the internal movements of the body so that mind, body, and breath are integrated. In an article in Yoga Journal on how yoga and running complement each other, Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola write, “In addition to physically counteracting the strains of running, yoga teaches the cultivation of body wisdom and confidence. As you develop a greater understanding of the body and how it works, you become able to listen and respond to messages the body sends you. This is especially important in running, where the body produces a lot of endorphins. These ‘feel good’ chemicals also double as nature's painkillers, which can mask pain and the onset of injury or illness. Without developed body intuition, it's easier to ignore the body's signals.”
There are different types of yoga, including Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa, and Bikram. It's good to know which type might be best for you before signing up for a class, though you'll find that different people — including instructors — use the terms to mean different things.
Other Benefits
Yoga's focus on breathing can be extremely beneficial to runners. In fact, the Indian Journal of Medical Research published a study showing that athletes who practiced yogic breathing (pranayama) were able to exercise more intensely at the same heart rate compared to those who didn't. According to the Pranayama Institute in New Mexico, “The system of pranayama is credited with conferring upon its practitioner a calm, balanced, and focused mind, increased vitality, and longevity.”
International spiritual leader, artist, and activist Sri Chinmoy says, “The body's capacity and the soul's capacity, the body's speed and the soul's speed, go together. Running and physical fitness help us both in our inner life of aspiration and in our outer life of activity.”
Suzanne Goldston, a yoga instructor, shared her perspective on MarathonTraining.com: “In your yoga practice, you are taught to breath through the nose, keeping the lips together. This allows the nose to do its job. The nose warms, moisturizes and filters the air as well as affecting the nervous system differently than mouth breathing. I'm not suggesting you stop using the mouth to breath[e]. What's important is an increased awareness of the breath, a deepening and steadying of it, and taking the breath deep into the pit of the lungs.
“The richest supply of blood, which is used to transport the breath to the muscles where it becomes energy for you, is in the bottom of the lungs. Because the majority of us are chest breathers, we never really access the entire lungs. As we learn to do this, our lung capacity will increase which will automatically increase our stamina.”
