
Yoga for Runners
Between running and yoga, it's always been either/or for me. In months my yoga practice faded, I overcompensated by running hard. Also running really far…all the way to various physiotherapy offices. But in 2024 I approached running in a new way; I did away with the either/or mentality and chose to practice both activities each week and sometimes in the same day. After some time it was obvious that the practices were informing each other in an interesting and new way. Most excitingly, my enthusiasm for both didn’t fade as I reached an activity level that felt sustainable on in multiple ways.
How could this balance be important or even relevant? In recent years, running has only grown in popularity which many suspect is directly related to the COVID-19 measures for distanced activities. Whether training for a marathon or enjoying the social benefits of running in a crew, runners are popping up everywhere! This is a great moment to expand our teaching and integrate yogic values and asana benefits into other physical activities. Specialized classes, bonus tips, and consideration to other recreational hobbies can draw new yogis into your classes and practice feeling seen and empowered on and off the mat. As a teacher or a student, here are some insights I’ve had during my journey for how Yoga and Running work together.
Experience in focused breathing
Pranayama is an integral part of any yogic practice. Regulating and synchronizing your breath can help your body economize energy and find balance in your core muscles for your running pace. Controlled inhales through the nose and exhales through the mouth get the body into a rhythm that can be replicated with your feet, alternating the starting leg for every inhale encourages a balance between the sides of the body.
Listening to your needs
My prior running phase was built on a foundation of perseverance over care, seeing my body as something to conquer rather than work with. At the beginning of a yoga class, I remind yogis that yoga is a listening practice to understand what your body is doing, how your body is feeling, and what it needs or wants from this practice.
It seems like it should be automatic, but your instinct to listen, feel, and react to pains and urges is a continued training. In a yoga class you have the opportunity to give that listening space and clarity, without having to keep your eyes and ears open to the surroundings. Building those behaviors in a controlled environment lets them be that much easier in an uncontrolled environment.
Working inside to out
Feel good and secure inside before opening up to the outer world. Yoga builds an inner climate that can help one feel secure and available to these different conditions of running (locomotive, maybe outdoors, uncontrolled) meeting them with acceptance and adaptability. Vice versa running can build the rhythmic flow and connection with your body to let yourself trust in and move easily in flowing yoga practices.
Relief and variation
The differences in these practices let one be a source of relief and variation from the other. A 20 minute yoga practice before or after a run is a great way to activate your body or decompress after a final sprint. On long run days, leaving the house the next day might seem out of the question. Rolling out a mat for an online class can be a perfect recovery working different muscle groups to give those hammies a break.
After a week of work and yoga practice, a run in a new part of town or with a new group of people brings your practice out into the world and takes a break from concentrated self-focus.
Full body awareness and injury prevention
Perhaps one of the greatest tools yoga gives me is to approach running with a sense of using my whole body, and not just the “legs and cardio” label. Yoga uses all body parts together to increase awareness from the core and periphery. Hip and ankle strength and mobility, core activation, and lengthening of spinal muscles are all benefits that can kick into action for an aligned and freely moving running gait. That full body calibration secures my body and mind, working together to prevent injury.
Asana Reccomendations
Runners lunge
One foot forward and back leg stacking heel over the ball of the foot. This stretch strengthens the ankle, knee, and stretching the hip flexors. Bring it up into a high lunge to lengthen obliques skyward, and add a side stretch to open up the opposite hip flexor even more.
Arches, feet, and toes
Draw awareness to feet and toes during practice. Add a little extra love with a squeeze or roll out in folded poses. Observe weight and balance by activating the arches and finding a stable stance between the corners of your feet. For a nice toe stretch interlock fingers from one hand with toes from the opposite leg and roll them out, this can promote a healthy stretch for your toes to give you balance and spring while running.
Passive inversions
Viparita Karani/ legs-up-the-wall pose with a block or cushion underneath is great post-run to refresh the legs. Stretch the toes up and allow your core muscles to release with the sacrum into the ground. Feel supported and still.
Arm balances
Arm balances require full body integration using your core as the engine to bring the body to new heights. Bakasana/ crow pose, or a side chair with a floating extended back leg explores using the strength in the legs and arms in a new way. Use the isometric flexing of legs together to power the levitation of the poses.
It’s not only running!
These observations are coming from a developing runner, but aren’t limited to only running. Looking for the conversation between yoga and climbing, skiing, rollerskating, acrobatics, and maybe even curling can only inform your practice and teaching style and invite vibrance and variety!
To finish all this I think back to one of the first classes I taught at an unfrequented but persistent gym. After teaching the same small class for over six months, one of the dedicated older yogis finally explained that the “312” tattoo on his calf was the number of marathons he ran. He said during his marathon years, yoga was the practice that kept him moving forward to celebrate his body rather than push it through and beyond its limits. Now with the shoes hung up, his mat stays rolled out as his ongoing practice welcomes the change of pace and activity. I keep this anecdote close knowing that while I may not get an edgy tattoo, yoga can substitute as the practice that stays with me through my body's many variable chapters.