A Journey Into Yoga
I’m a runner first. I’ve always said that running is my first love and yoga is a close second. I started running in August 2012 and went to my first yoga class in March 2013. The reason I even went to that first class was because I had a running injury (IT band!) and needed something to help me recover from the injury. I read about the benefits of yoga for runners (lots of core! stretching! breathwork! mindfulness!) and decided to give it a try. After my first power yoga class I was hooked. The class was hard and the sweat at the end gave me a similar endorphin pump that I experienced post-run. I practiced power yoga consistently up until the summer of 2014 when we moved to Chicago and I discovered different styles and approaches to yoga.
Chicago is the place where I fell hopelessly in love with both running and yoga. With running, I had 18 miles of lakefront trails that never ceased to amaze me. With yoga, the styles were so different from Miami that my understanding of yoga as a practice expanded.
I became so immersed in the practice of yoga as a student while in Chicago that I knew I wanted to do a training to become a yoga teacher myself. The stars aligned and I completed my training in the fall of 2015. I have been a teacher of asana (movement) since 2015 and, in many ways, my practice of being a student has only deepened since becoming a teacher. I am a student of the practice before I am ever a teacher of the practice and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I firmly believe that my curiosity as a student is what makes me the best teacher possible for my own students.
I am a huge proponent of yoga asana for runners. Yoga and running have been the peanut-butter-and-jelly to my physical and mental fitness routines and, at this point, I don’t know how to have one without the other. In my experience, yoga has strengthened me as a runner and running has committed me more to the practice of yoga. They may seem like two very different fitness modalities; high impact (running) and low impact (yoga) on the surface, but both are their own form of moving meditation that help you check in with the state of your body, the steadiness of your breath, and the quality of your thoughts.
If that’s not enough to convince you try yoga, here are a few of reasons yoga asana is beneficial for runners:
Increased body awareness: Yoga helps you understand your body in space, imbalances within the body, and where tension is held in the body. This is important for runners who are trying to better understand their running mechanics and ways to improve running form.
Increased breath awareness: Have you ever noticed your breathing patterns when you run? In yoga, you learn to use your breath to make the uncomfortable comfortable. This is a tool that translates well to running; how can you use the breath to ease your way through hard and/or challenging miles?
Breath-body connection: Vinyasa styles of yoga often connect the breath to movement. This is important with runners as the breath plays an important role in finding a rhythm to your stride. Steady breathing sends a message to the brain that you are well and this in turn sends a message to the body that it can keep going.
Lateral and multidirectional movement: Running is all linear, repetitive movement. A yoga practice helps improve range of motion by introducing different ways of moving. Yoga classes can incorporate stretching and mobility that targets all those areas that runners tend to struggle with, like the glutes, hips, and even shoulders.
The power of the present moment: Yoga is all about being in the present moment and quieting the thoughts just enough to find stillness. Focusing on the present prevents one from ruminating over the past and worrying about the future, both incredibly important things for runners who go through all kinds of calculations about pace in their minds during workouts and races. A yoga practice helps you embody the one-moment-at-a-time mentality that gets transformed into a one-step-at-a-time mentality while on the run.
I know yoga is not for everyone. It’s pacing may not be for everyone and there are reservations about the meaning of yoga, but I do encourage runners to give the practice a try at least once. It might be helpful to start your journey into yoga by taking “yoga for athletes” specific classes.
I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you are a runner who also practices yoga, what are the benefits you’ve experienced? If you are on the fence about trying yoga, what are your reservations about the practice? Let me know in the comments below.
