Yoga For Runners

How Yoga Can Transform a Running Routine

Jan 21, 2009 Anne Valente

Making room for yoga can help runners achieve balance, proper breathing, and a more mindful approach to their running routines.

Most runners run because it is the most satisfying form of exercise they can imagine, but incorporating the practice of yoga into their routines has tremendous benefits as well, all of which can only enhance the enjoyment of running. From balancing out the body to helping runners achieve proper breathing methods, the practice of yoga can bring a sense of equilibrium to a regular running routine, and can even help runners approach their daily practice with increased tranquility and awareness.

Balancing A Running Routine with Yoga

Running is a wonderful form of exercise for the body. Yet as with any singular practice, running can work the same muscles over and over, with little attention to others. Yoga is an excellent complement to a running routine, as it offers other muscles the attention they need, and it also stretches out those heavily worked by running. According to Yoga Journal’s Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola (“Yoga For Runners,” January 20, 2009), the repeated motions of running can lead to muscle imbalances that cause injury. Yoga can balance out overworked muscles and increase the fluidity of the entire body so that a single, overused muscle does not throw everything off balance.

Using Yoga To Learn Proper Breathing

In addition to their muscles, runners also rely heavily on their lungs to keep their routine steady and comfortable. While running requires breathing out of simple necessity, yoga involves a much more focused awareness of breath and how it affects the body. According to Suzanne Goldston of MarathonTraining.com (“Yoga For Runners: How It Can Improve Your Performance,” 2008), yoga’s emphasis on breathing through the nose helps a runner become more aware of her breath, accessing the richest supply of blood to transport to the lungs. Such breathing increases lung capacity, which enhances both energy and stamina for runners. Baptiste and Mendola add that focused breathing can ease the muscle tension that runners carry, and it can also relax the entire body.

Becoming More Mindful Runners

In addition to improving balance and breathing, yoga also helps runners achieve the mindfulness that makes running more meditative and keeps them in tune with their bodies’ needs in order to prevent injury. Since yoga is a practice of paying attention to poses and body alignment, Goldston maintains that runners who practice yoga can apply a similar focus to their running routines. Becoming aware of the body’s alignment through yoga can help runners keep their bodies properly balanced while running. Baptiste and Mendola also note that the mindfulness of yoga helps runners enjoy their workouts more thoroughly, and with a heightened awareness of their bodies’ limitations and needs.

Yoga practice is easy to incorporate into a running routine, either as cross-training on off days, or as postures included in the stretching portion of daily running. Beyond an excellent complement to running, yoga can actually improve runners’ routines through mindfulness, healthy practice and balance.

The copyright of the article Yoga For Runners in Running & Marathons is owned by Anne Valente. Permission to republish Yoga For Runners in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Yoga Can Help Runners Find Balance.