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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Yoga thoughts and benefits

 So I have been doing yoga since the week before New Year's in a desperate effort to get my injuries healed and back to running strong.

Initial yoga thoughts
  • it's slow
  • its boring
  • %#@*  when did I get so inflexible?
  • I'll try anything if it helps me
Current thoughts
  • gaining some flexiblilty
  • actually loving the stretches and the pace of it
  • I think it is helping (I'm getting better anyway)
  • wow I am still so inflexible
Yesterday I got off work a little early so I popped in my favorite yoga video and when I got to triangle pose  (?)  my fingers touched the floor.  I gave a little victory whoop.  When I started I looked a lot like this.. only probably not so graceful

now my fingers look more like this. Yay for progress.  I am seeing it in other moves as well, this one was just very exciting!


Only took me seven weeks of yoga!  Maybe in a couple more weeks I will be able to put all my fingers down!
Are you wondering if yoga could help your running?  Here are some benefits according to studies done.
  • improves strength, flexibility and mental focus
  • eases pain
  • improves running times
  • strength and flexibility gained help you run more efficiently and stay injury free

So far, I like to think it is helping me. I did some last spring when first injured but then I quit. Really intending to keep it a habit this time. Do you stretch or do yoga? If so what are your favorite poses/stretches? I love downward facing dog and anything that stretches my hips and hamstrings.

8 comments:

  1. I started practicing yoga back in August in an attempt to get over my knee injury and I really think it's helped!! I ran 1.6 miles straight last Tuesday!! **knock on wood** no pain!! Congrats on getting your fingers to the floor in Triangle pose!! It's so fun to see progress!! :) Hope it continues to help in your healing!! :)

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  2. Oh I hate triangle pose! Like you I recently have been able to touch the floor in triangle pose... but when it comes to twisting, aw hell naw! I love yoga though... it's benefited me enormously :)

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  3. I don't do either on a regular basis, but know I should. Pigeon is one of my favorite stretches to open up tight hips and quads though!

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  4. I decided to do a pilates video on my non running days this week but was so sore from the first try that I did a 60 mins yoga workout on my next non-run day. It was a little hard to get through but most of it felt amazing. Now I want to make sure I do yoga and pilates during the week. Just need to figure out a plan.

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  5. Yoga is terrific for runners, I agree. I like the poses that help with my core. Plank on forearms, alternating knees almost to the ground, makes me feel strong and like I'm doing something useful.
    Congrats on your newfound flexibility!

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  6. I try to do yoga once a week at least, I do think it helps a lot with basically any ache or pain that the body has. Though recently I've started to get a little bored with yoga, it is indeed too slow, I need to go to more high energy classes I feel like. Though yoga is still valuable. My favorite poses are probably the harder one's to try - crow and side crow. Plank and side plank are also good to do.

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  7. I do yoga maybe once a year when a friend drags me to a class. I try to stretch after runs, but more often than not, I'll just stretch what feels tight and call it good.

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  8. I just started picking up yoga in the last 3 weeks--- aside from learning my hamstrings are extremely tight, i think it helps bring perspective on to what is going on with my body (apparently my left side is WAY more flexible than the right). When I was doing it regularly for maybe 5 weeks last spring it allowed me to majorly PR (i'm sure there were other factors, but that was the major change!)
    Love that you're starting to see flexibility, I hope that will come for me soon too!

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