Are you a runner? Did you know that practicing yoga can be perfect for improving and balancing your running experience? Yoga and running are two different activities; runners should learn how to integrate yoga into their running practice. It is beneficial to incorporate yoga exercises in your running routine; whether you are a new runner or an avid runner, it boasts a ton of mental and physical benefits such as greater flexibility, more strength, better balance, and stress reduction. This article will talk about the benefits of yoga for runners.

Benefits of Yoga for Runners

Yoga Improves Your Body Flexibility

Many runners put more effort into their running routine to become fast runners, but it would be more advantageous to practice yoga so that your body would become more flexible as well. Therefore, yoga is an excellent complement to running, while body stretching is essential for runners. Yoga is a great technique to recover your body requirements when incorporated into the running process. Yoga for runners helps to increase flexibility and improve speed and stride length.

Yoga and running are not similar activities; therefore, you should be very careful not to overstretch, mostly right before you make a run. Instead, you should maintain post-run yoga, which will assist you in elongating your tissues and muscles. Although many runners depend on yoga for flexibility, analysis shows that motion range and strength matters more for runners.

Yoga Advances Your Running

Integrating yoga in your running practice may improve general running performance because yoga’s core strength helps stabilize your body. Yoga also strengthens abdominal muscles and lower back that are essential organs used in proper running form.

Even though yoga strengthens all muscles in your body, it emphasizes much on hip stability. Many posses of yoga training are perfect for running. Yoga for runners’ classes majorly focuses on the flexibility of the lower extremity, pelvis, and trunk. Many runners usually hold the upper body in contraction as they pump their arms and breathe deeply. For that reason, yoga can assist you to relax and elongate your upper trunk for better running.

Yoga Trains Your Mind

Apart from the physical body, yoga for runners extends its advantages to mental focus. Yoga trains you to handle negative distractions and thoughts that may pop up when you are running. Both yoga and running are mind-related games; the body and mind keep competing. The body wants to stop, but the mind knows you should keep on. So, for you to develop a better concentration and focus, you need yoga. Yoga helps you to focus on the body sensations and make running become a meditation. Though it may take much time and a lot of practice, yoga will make your running very effective.

Yoga helps runners to pay attention to body signals. For instance, your body emits chemicals like endorphins and other chemicals that can mask your pain. Therefore, yoga practice will help you identify real pain acquired from injuries and pain derived from regular workouts.

Yoga Helps You Master Your Breath

Both yoga and running are based on breathing. Though most people, when they hear about yoga, they think of physical postures only. Breathwork acts like one the most significant advantages for runners; the practice of mind through meditation and the breathing practice benefits you a lot in the running process.

You must understand and able to control your breathwork when running. To be aware of your breath during the running process assists you in many different ways like;

Minimizing anxiety
Reducing tension
Sooth the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system
Preserving energy

Yoga can be Tailored to Fit Your Running Techniques.

There exist many yoga practice options such as different teachers, studios, and styles used. Even though it is essential to try different options available, you must figure out what style, teacher, or studio matches your running method. If you are practicing through strenuous workouts and increasing your mileage, then it is recommended you practice gentle or restorative yoga sessions. But if you are just a jogger or doing minor runs, you should perform frequent and more powerful yoga workouts.

Yoga Reminds You to Recuperate and Relax

Yoga and running have different impacts on the body. If you acquire injuries when running, then the injuries will often need to rest. Therefore, doing strong yoga, meditation, and breathing is advantageous for improving the injury’s healing and emotional issues. Yoga is an enjoyable activity you should do as body tissues continue to heal.

Most injuries acquired by runners result from muscle imbalances, so yoga is necessary to increase body stability and help you stay free from injuries. All postures in yoga practice involve significant muscle groups; hence, yoga helps you concentrate on weak spots just before an injury occurs.

Depending on the injury, moderate yoga practice with a professional tutor is a better method to heal. You can avoid injuries and improve running performance through systematic breathing methods and lower body stretching.

Yoga Helps You Rectify Muscular Imbalance

Yoga and running are two different practices; runners always become very strong in several areas of their bodies, such as quads – and very weak in others, such as their glutes. That is not the case in yoga practice; effective yoga practice involves all the body’s major muscles. Practicing yoga for runners can assist in rectifying these muscle imbalances in the body.

The benefits of yoga for runners are overwhelming; as a runner, you should try your best to integrate yoga practice alongside your running process. By doing this, running practice will be an exciting and successful routine.

Fullscope Sports is an Atlanta specialty running store located in the Smyrna, Georgia area. We regularly sponsor community events at our store location. Please join us for some yoga and wine for women at our upcoming event. Randall Ray, Executive Manager of Scout & Cellar is serving fabulous wines for us to try.