You can practice running or yoga for an hour every single day for a month, a week, a year or a lifetime and while your focus might be on the physical results, something more creeps in when you aren’t looking.
While the two practices tend to believe they teach very different things, I think they’re more similar than devotees would care to believe. And of course it’s often claimed that “every sport benefits from yoga, but no sport benefits yoga” I once again must disagree and today we’re going to look at how the two combine to improve our breathing, hips and mental strength! BREATHE STRENGTH
Breathing is a central focus of both running and yoga.
The right breathe in running provides oxygen to your muscles for endurance and preventing cramps. The right breathe in yoga provides focus and body awareness…hmm sounds like both would be great in either situation!
Called pranayama in yoga, the focus is to deepen, lengthen and extend the breath, which is then paired with movement (the linking between breath and movement is typically how a vinyasa style yoga class is defined, as the connection between these two elements creates flow and continuity).
In yoga, it’s taught as the Ujjayi breath- a full, rich, yet smooth diaphragmatic breath in which the inhalations and exhalations are completed through the nose and are done so in equal length.
With practice, this style of breathing can help extend the breath for a longer duration, allowing for improved endurance due to the greater amount of oxygen, and because of its rhythmic and calming nature, it also helps to reduce stress and provide almost a meditative like quality, which can certainly enhance the running experience.
In running, we focus on in through the nose and out through the mouth as though blowing through a straw. Can’t breathe while running? Learn how to combat allergies for better breathing.
Learn how the yoga-running connection is about more than flexibility #runchat Share on XHIP STRENGTH
Over the last few years, I’ve harped on hip strength repeatedly here as a means to prevent injuries. We know that yoga can provide great opportunities to strength our hips, increase flexibility and range of motion.
As a yogi or runner, we are provided opportunities to become more in tune with our body and paying attention to those feelings allows for great ease in both our workouts and everyday movements.
Many of the movements in these routines are derived from yoga:
5 Yoga Stretches for ITB Relief
Daily stretches to loosen the hips
Hip Stability Exercises
Hip Mobility Exercises
These allow for greater focus on the hip joint and on stretching the muscles in that area of the body which is not only important for runners (who often have misalignment in this region), but also for just about every person who spends the majority of their day in a seated position, such as at a desk or when driving a car (which causes the hip flexors to tighten and shorten). In addition to greater flexibility and improved range of motion, yoga has also helped me to develop greater core strength and awareness of how my body moves. Runners may need to work on a lot of things (like touching our toes) when we start yoga, but our endurance and dedication to slow and steady progress make us GREAT at the practice of yoga.
MENTAL STRENGTH
One of the greatest things I’ve learned through my running journey is to be open-minded and to embrace every opportunity, concepts which I regularly impart upon my athletes. Yoga provides runners with a different opportunity to practice mental strength – the kind that requires you to be ok with slowing down and stillness.
Taking the first step (pun intended) and attempting yoga, as something so different from running is part of cultivating a mental strength that will flow over to better running.
During yoga class, teachers help remind us how to release what is not serving us, how to thank our body and be calm in the face of discomfort. Those lessons make it easier to both run farther and harder as we absorb them subconsciously. One of the things which you hear most frequently from runners and yogi’s alike is that the practice changes you. #MilesChangeYou is a mantra I’ve been sharing on Instagram for awhile because I hope to encourage new and non-runners to see beyond the calorie burn.
During a 30 day yoga streak, here area some of the things which reinforced so much of what I’ve learned through running:
1. Breathe…when it’s tough just breathe
2. Alternate from high intensity to low intensity
3. Standing still is not easy
4. Pull your shoulders back and stand proud
5. Tighten that stomach
6. Quality matters
7. Every teacher is not the perfect teacher, but there is something to be learned
8. Sometimes you need to do your own practice
9. It’s called practice, not perfection for a reason
10. You’re never too old
11. There is always time for things you want to do
12. Any space is big enough to connect with your inner self
13. Let your heart shine
14. Don’t compare yourself
15. Flexibility is about more than your physical muscles
16. Sometimes being still is the hardest workout
17. Smile it makes the difficult seem more fun
18. Appreciate your body for what it can do
19. Gratitude…have it for everything
20. You can get injured doing anything if you refuse to focus on the details
21. Be present
22. Focus on one thing at a time
23. We are all connected
24. It’s not all or nothing, it’s a little bit every day
25. Be willing to change to see change
26. Even lift shifts can have a major impact
27. You will fall because you try and because you try you will succeed
28. Don’t push or strain, instead just keep leaning in
29. The goal is ever changing as you are ever progressing
30. Your body can guide you, if you are quiet long enough to listen
How often do you practice yoga?
How has running or yoga changed you beyond the sweat?
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Skinny Fitalicious
I think there are a lot of forms of fitness that compliment each other like swimming and weight lifting and running and yoga. Great post!
My recent post Is Sugar Making You Fat? My Sugar Experiment
Susie @ Suzlyfe
I've discussed this with my clients before–there are so many concrete physical benefits of practicing both, but the mental aspect of both cannot be ignored either!
@FITaspire
I'm back in yoga this month and loving it. I'm making it a priority to go to a class once a week + a weekly handstand clinic that I've joined. I couldn't agree more with all the benefits you outlined!
wendy
I do a full practice 1-2 days per week but there's pretty much yoga every day. Those runners who don't do yoga? I don't understand them.
My recent post Are You Brave Enough?
kristenk
Love this! I really want to do a 30 day yoga challenge sometime, but my injury is not letting it happen right now :( Have you ever done Yoga with Adrienne? She has some really good free videos on YouTube and makes it really fun!
My recent post Welcome Back, Injury.
Debbie
I LOVE Yoga With Adrienne!! She puts up a calender every month with a different YouTube video for every day. She rocks! So much fun!!!
thisrunnersrecipes
I honestly haven't done yoga in months, but Pilates has offered the same benefits. Maybe not as much as the ones you point out, but breathing, control, posture/form, and easing into the moves/focusing on progress have definitely helped my running. Your post makes me want to try another yoga video again!
My recent post The Benefits of Oatmeal for Runners
Danielle
I love all of the lessons you took away from your 30 days of yoga – so many of the things that I incorporate into my teaching!
In my yoga for athletes classes and workshops one of the things I talk a lot about is the benefit of balance through yoga, not just physical balance in space, but like you said, balance between left and right sides (especially if you play a one sided sport!) and balance between strength and flexibility. Athletes work so hard to develop sport specific strength and yoga helps to stretch and lengthen those muscles after so much contraction, but the key is finding the balance to not un-do the sport specific strengthening and to find that balance where your body functions most efficiently!
I love getting to share the benefits of yoga with athletes. One of my favorite classes to teach is Yoga for Runners at my local running store because I get a lot of people new to yoga and it’s great to see them really begin to understand how/ why yoga will help them!
awhiskandtwowands
Adding yoga back in after a reoccurring injury just came back yet again. Originally from Dec 2014 and struggling 2015, having a good 6 months plus with out injury and now bam I finally decided I need to (as much as I hate it) let go of some of the strength training and add yoga back in and keep with my running for awhile and not set the goals too high. I loved the 30 things you learned!
Rebecca Dawkins
Amazing write-up. Running and yoga are the most crucial part of my life. They both go hand in hand with similar type of benefits. Yoga and running are the best form of meditation.
denipe01
Great reminder of how beneficial yoga is for the runner (and non-runner).