Yoga and Running

As someone who's been avid yoga student for some time, I often consider in what way yoga and running can go hand in hand. When I was doing 2 hours of ashtanga yoga every morning, I felt that running would be detrimental to my practice. The thought of tight hamstrings, quads, and even shoulders made me shudder, as I'd worked so hard to gain every single centimeter of length in the yoga poses. Yet there do seem to be running yogis out there, like a lotus girl, who've found the perfect balance.

Personally, with my propensity to gain weight, I feel that the cardio factor in running is hard to ignore. As well, there's the endorphins - you just can't beat that runner's high. Nothing else I've ever done even comes close. I've come to the point where I won't give up my running for anything in the world. Not only does it help me slim down, but it feels great and makes me happy.

I also feel that the simplicity of running makes it very accessible, even to someone who's out of shape. With ashtanga yoga, I always felt envious of the uber ashtangis who were jumping through poses and putting their legs behind their head. For these yogis, cardio is built into the practice, and, of course they can consider giving up running and strength training, as they achieve the impossible on their mat every day. In my case, giving up the cardio meant that I'd never be slim or fit enough to accomplish those difficult asanas ever. Mind you, yoga is not about achieving poses, but come on, some of us do want the physical benefits in addition to the spiritual. As much as I'd like to be a swami, I am only a woman of this world.

Anyhow, so here I am running again, and I'm now thinking as a runner in terms of what can yoga bring to my running, instead of having to ask myself whether running will hinder my yoga practice. Not surprisingly, there are many ways that yoga is beneficial for runners. There are asanas for everything, like healing your hamstrings, for example. There are perfect poses for hip, knee and low back tension.

In my case, I've been finding that the repetitive nature of running does create muscle rigidity. In spite of religiously warming up, cooling down, and stretching after every run, I haven't been able to escape this shortening of the muscles.

A typical runner experiences too much pounding, tightening, and shortening of the muscles and not enough restorative, elongating, and loosening work. Without opposing movements, the body will compensate to avoid injury by working around the instability. Compensation puts stress on muscles, joints, and the entire skeletal system. (Yoga for Runners, Yoga Journal.)

The only thing that really keeps me limber is daily yoga. Even just being in the restful Child's Pose for a little while really loosens up my hips and prevents the pain I sometimes get in my lower back after a long run.