Yoga for Runners at Home

Whether you have just started getting into running whilst you've been stuck at home or you’re an experienced distance runner, your body will benefit from regular Yoga sessions. Pounding the pavement week after week can take its toll on your body. Runners can be prone to injuries in the hips, hamstrings, knees, calves and ankles. To avoid injury and keep up with your training, you need to maintain flexibility, strength and balance within your body. Yoga can help you do just that and is a great counter-balance to running.

Yoga stretches muscles that have tightened after a hard training session or a long run. It also increases range of movement in your muscles, which helps you stride out and run a little easier, giving you greater flexibility. The repetitive nature of running can throw your body off balance, particularly if you’ve had an injury before. Yoga restores balance and symmetry, which is so important for starving off further injury.
Breathing is also important in Yoga and running, yet the two exercises are quite different. While running, your breath is shallow; in Yoga, you take deep, long breaths to awaken the deeper parts of your lungs. This will help with your aerobic capacity.

Whilst your running muscles get a great workout on your runs, many other muscles don’t. Yoga is an all-body strength session. As well as looking after your legs, it will strengthen your core and your arms, which will help you run better and increase your strength.

Take a look at the Yoga exercises you can slot in after runs or on your rest days.