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YOGA for RUNNERS - the next session Fall 2008
Join Yoga instructor and seasoned Marathon and Ultra-distance runner, for a Vinyasa-styled (breath synchronized) Power Yoga session that will create balance, strength and flexibility for the whole body, while enhancing mental focus. This class is designed to help improve your running and athletic performance. Yoga experience is NOT a requirement.
This 12-week session will be held one night each week, start date TBD. Submit the CONTACT US form if you would like to be placed on the waiting list.
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How do you experience Yoga and how has it changed you mind/body/spirit? How has it changed your outlook and the way you interact with people and the world around you?
Would you recommend that others take up yoga, and if so, why?
A male runner/triathletes perspective
Okay, I have been thinking about it and will try, as a novice, to express the benefits of yoga personally and from a male's perspective.
What caught my attention was your post in FBF, Yoga for Runners. I pretty much thought yoga was for women. lotus, chants, some light stretching and a great social "event". I did not want to attend alone, so I ask my wife to join me. Great to see another guy at our sessions.
I was also reluctant at first wondering where I would work it in with my real workouts (biking, running, swimming) but since Monday was my off day, it seemed to fit in my schedule.
First session was quite an eye opener wishing I had brought my sweatband, that's how much of a real workout it literally was.
By the end of the 12 sessions I learned:
- Yoga can be bust your male ego... luckily I am use to being a slow runner, cycler and swimmer so not being able to do poses well was not an ego buster, but fit in to my overall athletic ability.
- It helped reduce stress: I always felt psychologically lifted and calmer after the session, I think the same endorphin high you get from any sport applies equally to yoga.
- To breathe deeper: this was and is still difficult, so easy to chest breathe rather than use your diaphram. deep breathing improves my overall well being.
- My flexibility improved increasing my range of motion: an example is the ability to stay longer in an aero position on my bike. Usually I must sit up from muscle tightness after 15-20 minutes but on one ride I stayed in aero for 45 minutes.
- Yoga is a better way to stretch before and after running or cycling than traditional stretches.
- Add yoga as a legitimate cross-training activity for overall wellness.
- Be patient; I learned if the pose hurts to not push harder but do best you can and laugh when Charmaine goes into a pretzel type pose, knowing your best effort will fall short but marvel at what someday "could be". ~ Wayne June 2007 ~
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Our next race is Pike's Peak Ascent, August 18th!
The Pikes Peak Ascent and Pikes Peak Marathon is known as Americas Ultimate Challenge. Because the Ascent and Marathon are so unique and so physically demanding when compared to other half-marathons or marathons, having a general understanding of the courses is the key to planning your training. What follows is a brief overview of the course:
Elevation gain (start to summit) is 7,815' (2,382 meters); the start is at 6,300' (1,920m) and the summit is 14,115' (4,302m). Humidity generally is less than 15% (much less above 11,500'). The Ascent (and ascent leg of the Marathon) has only limited stretches without a significant uphill grade.
Most of the race is run on Barr Trail in Pike National Forest, a US Forest Service trail that is on the east face of Pikes Peak and Rocky Mountain. The trail is often narrow, winding, and may be gravel, rocks or dirt with sharp turns and abrupt changes in elevation or direction.
What does the elevation do to the atmosphere?
Other than making it thin there is much less oxygen in the air. The percentage of O2 stays the same in relation to other components in the air but the quantity of O2 drops. Elevation and what it does to air density (in rough terms, temperature being constant, etc):
- At 6,000' the pressure is 620 mm Hg (thats 18% less than at sea level)
- At 14,115' the pressure is 430 mm Hg (thats 43% less than at sea level)
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Comrades Marathon, South Africa
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Black Mountain Mt Mitchell 40-mile Challenge 2006
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Voet van Africa Marathon, South Africa
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Click image to see a larger version
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You love your sport but sometimes your body just doesn't move as smoothly as you'd like. Also
your breathing is labored and your energy low. So you train harder and just as you become fit, the injuries start and you're forced to back off training to recover. How are you going to improve performance if each time you ramp up your training, you get hurt? There is a way - more and more athletes are turning to Yoga. WHY? To increase energy through effective breathing, for protection against injury through correction of structural misalignment, and to remain active whilst healing when they do become injured. How does yoga work?
Yoga optimizes three key elements in your body: Breath, Balance and Flexibility:
Learn to breath correctly, replacing choppy breathing with smooth, steady breaths, thus improving oxygen intake and energy production. Yoga teaches full, deep inhalations and exhalations - calm, but energetic breathing. Yoga improves respiratory capacity by creating more space to breathe as the ribs; spine and surrounding organs and tissues become more elastic and flexible.
Yoga is based on a central principle of balance. The joints, when surrounded by balanced muscles, are free to move in their full range of motion. If you are even slightly off-balance, every running step you take forces your muscles to work harder in compensation, wasting energy. Yoga rebalances structural misalignment that lead to common runner's injuries.
Running is hard on the knees; lower back, hips, ankles and feet, so it is imperative that you keep your muscles and joints strong and supple, by increasing flexibility. When in-balance and aligned, the impact is distributed evenly. Health for a muscle is resilience. The body is meant to be springy - the foot and arch act as a springboard, the knees absorb impact, and the spine is designed like a big spring.
Injuries
While keeping the body balanced and flexible is preventative, injuries do still happen, be it from over training, or something quite unrelated. Yoga is used as a form of physical therapy to heal, effectively increasing blood flow to injured areas and strengthening the muscular infrastructure as injuries heal. The injured athlete can remain active while healing and getting stronger!
Performance
Yoga is a comprehensive approach to fitness that will improve performance and prevent common injuries by teaching the athlete how to develop body awareness, balance, strength, and flexibility, improve concentration, increase energy and manage stress.
To get started submit the CONTACT US form to sign up for classes, or to learn more. Your instructor has 16 years of distance running experience and remains injury free by practicing Yoga! Click here for her running history and PR's...
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