Take it on the Run - Yoga for Runners

Feb 7, 20232 min read

I can usually spot a runner in my classes, they look like they are in great shape, and have the tightest hips and shortest hamstrings.

Yoga is great cross-training for runners, it makes you strong and flexible in an open position (Frontal vs Sagittal plane movement), so you are less likely to be injured.

Yin yoga is especially good because it works the connective tissue. Connective tissue surrounds every muscle and connects to everything (really) in your body, from your teeth to your bones, around your organs to the inside of your cells. It is as strong as tensile steel and about as flexible as a plastic bag.

Diagram of the Hamstrings and Bones of the Right Leg The white tissue is connective tissue. Here, it's shown just at the ends of the muscles (tendons, which connect muscles to bones), but all of the hamstrings (3 of them) are encased in fascia as well. There is no lengthening the muscles without connective tissue involvement. — Hamstrings - without facia

But, if you provide longer, sustained tension (as in holding a pose for 3 minutes or more) connective tissue draws in water and stretches. Since muscles like, say, your hamstrings are encased in fascia, it is what will actually increase your flexibility.

The 30-second stretches you try to stretch these muscles don't generally work because it is not long enough to affect the fascia.

No amount of heat, infrared or not, will affect your fascia, and while it feels good, and helps tight muscles relax the heat will not improve your flexibility as well as targeted Yin poses.

By working your connective tissue you gain not only greater flexibility, but you can start to release stored stress, tension, and even trauma from your body

See THIS blog post for more about releasing trauma

Click for an even MORE Detailed Explanation

Below is a Yin Yoga Sequence for runners (and other athletes, and even regular people) that will work to lengthen your connective tissue and improve your running game, or just your fitness and health in general. It focuses primarily on the lower body, hips, and spine.

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Practice once a week and start to feel a significant improvement in your flexibility.

You don't have to do every pose, but you do have to hold the one you choose to do to stretch the fascia.

Click below to download your own copy of the sequence, or see and follow it from this blog. ⬇️