Love running? Obviously! Have all of your traditional strength training in order? Of course! Yoga might be the missing piece in taking your running to the next level.
In addition to all the normal benefits of physical exercise, yoga improves flexibility, teaches you how to breathe, helps you get in tune with your body, improves your mental game, reduces stress, gives you better posture and balance, and is a great form of active recovery. It develops focus, resilience, and the ability to stay in the moment. All things that, as runners, we would say YES PLEASE to!
When you’re running, it is large muscles like hamstrings, glutes and quates that tend to take over. While yoga will help to strengthen those muscles, it will also make those smaller and lesser used muscles stronger, while also improving mobility and flexibility in joints, helping to prevent injuries.
Just starting out, and don’t know which yoga to try? Yin yoga is for you. Yin targets your deep connective tissue like fascia, ligaments, joints and bones, so allows for quicker muscle recovery, better range of motion, and improved blood flow and circulation. It helps rehab those tired muscles, while preparing your body for the next run. It also helps to tap into your parasympathetic nervous system (the one in charge of resting and digestion), taking your recovery to the next level.
Yoga is a great way to diversify your movements outside of running training, not only making you a faster runner, but a healthier one too. Click below to check out some yoga classes from our Wellness Partner, CorePlus.
Beginners Yoga Flow with Ange
https://coreplus.vhx.tv/videos/beginners-yoga-flow-with-ange
Written by Sarah McGrath – CorePlus Studios
