Written by Allen Brown
Since runners are going over huge distances, it is not as surprising as to hear them complain about bad knees, sore feet, tight hamstrings, and bad backs. The pain that most of them deal with is not because of the actual running itself but because of the imbalances it causes.
Even though running can not be further away from yoga, the two do not necessarily need to be mutually exclusive. Your body can be brought into balance after a good running session with yoga, which can allow you to run long and hard for years to come.
Yoga and running can be a match made in heaven since flexibility and strength can be aging alongside other benefits that will be discussed furthermore.
Less Pain
First and foremost, it would be wise not to ignore your body signals. Many runners can feel the pain in their lower back or have a painful condition of the heel. When your body is screaming for a break, take it. Do not skip the rest since it is needed sometimes. Incorporating yoga postures as a cool down or even a warm-up can be a part of your workout.
Yoga would represent the circular complement while running as the linear part of the workout. Discomforts and injuries that have been brought to you by the running program should not put you off the track. Eventually, chronic pain will “self-correct” itself through a consistent and yet gentle yoga routine.
More Focus
Yoga is considered a meditative practice, and similarly, many people refer to running as a moving meditation. However, during a run, the mind can sometimes wander, leading to decreased motivation and potentially even giving up when faced with challenges. To prevent this, incorporating regular yoga training can help runners focus their minds and improve their overall running experience.
Yoga can assist runners to learn how to gain focus and to figure out how to stay in the present without having the fear of the future and going ahead of themselves. In yoga practice, especially if you do it by yourself, there are a lot of quiet downtimes.
These silent moments can be cultivated by the runners, which can fill them up with a stronger ability to focus and help in renewing the energy.
Greater Flexibility
There is no doubt that runners are strong athletes. Even so, more often than not, they become very strong in some areas, for example in quad muscles, while in others very weak, for instance, iliotibial bands, hamstrings, and so on. Effective yoga practice can assist you to “fix” these imbalances and, basically, even out your musculature by making you more flexible. All you would need to start is grab a yoga mat. The experts at yogangstar.com.au say that mats give you the ultimate balance between lightweight and cushy comfort, and that is completely true. Even though you as a runner do not need to be flexible as a gymnast, having a healthy routine and range of motion is a positive thing. It can enable you as much force and power to put in your foot strides. For that reason, a little bit of flexibility comes a long way.
Calm Mind
Staying calm is a goal everyone strives to, especially runners. Yoga can help with that, especially since running, even meditative at certain times can become extremely stressful. For example, in case you are participating in the race.
It is possible to often hear runners during the race to complain about their minds giving up, unlike their bodies. The reason is the lack of mental fitness, which sports psychologists would agree with. Yoga can cultivate a sense of calmness, even in such a tense environment.
Straightening All Muscles
Lastly, as a runner, you probably spend a good amount of time strengthening your core muscles. Usually, muscles are placed in your glutes, abdomen, and back. Yoga is more than effective and efficient to firm up the whole core musculature. Various types of poses target many different parts of the core. As a result, you would benefit greatly from incorporating these moves into your practice at least once a week.
Runners can become quite strong in some muscle groups, weak in others, have a nervous or scattered mind, and even body aches caused by repetitive motion. Yoga is, therefore, a great way of balancing out runners’ state of mind as well as the muscle imbalance and everything else, there is no question about it.
If you are a runner and would like to have those quads of steel and yet be focused at the same time and having all of these mentioned benefits that yoga has to offer, there is no need to wait anymore, just grab a mat and all qualities will be yours.
