Simply Power Yoga

Runners World describes various ways in which yoga can enhance your running practice.

Although yoga and running lie on opposite ends of the exercise spectrum, the two need not be mutually exclusive.  By Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola

During the course of an average mile run, your foot will strike the ground 1,000 times. The force of impact on each foot is about three to four times your weight. It's not surprising, then, to hear runners complain of bad backs and knees, tight hamstrings, and sore feet.

The pain most runners feel is not from the running in and of itself, but from imbalances that running causes and exacerbates. If you bring your body into balance through the practice of yoga, you can run long and hard for years to come. Although yoga and running lie on opposite ends of the exercise spectrum, the two need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, running and yoga make a good marriage of strength and flexibility.

As a yoga teacher, I often hear runners complain of sore feet, bad backs and knees, tight hamstrings and hips. Over the years, I have watched runners, and others for that matter, with joint pain, back problems, muscle pulls, tendinitis, strains and sprains come to class and increase range of motion, agility, flexibility, lung capacity, endurance, strength and general body practice. Yoga has the ability to help all of us get better – better in terms of healing and rehabilitation, better in terms of strength and flexibility, better in terms of the elimination of pain.