My running has been set back several times over the years by various injuries. About 6 weeks ago, I was suffering from shin splints and a months-long ache in my left hip. On a whim, I decided to restart my on-again, mostly off-again yoga practice. Six weeks later, I'm injury free and back to running regularly.
I wanted to learn more about the effect of yoga on running to know if my experience was merely coincidence or if there is some underlying relationship between the two activities. I did some research and came across a great article in the Yoga Journal called Yoga for Runners by Baron Baptiste and Kathleen Finn Mendola.
The article highlights two benefits that runners can gain from yoga. First, running results in the "pounding, tightening, and shortening of muscles," while yoga counterbalances this with "restorative, elongating, loosening work."
Second, yoga leads to the development of "body intuition" that allows runners to detect the body's messages that warn of oncoming injury or muscle imbalance that might otherwise be masked by endorphins.
I can identify with the first benefit. I credit the disappearance of my shin splints to the elongating and loosening effects that yoga has had on my hamstrings and calves. Beyond that, I think yoga has kept my hip pain at bay by strengthening and stabilizing the weak muscles in my hips that were causing the muscles around them to overcompensate.
As to the second benefit, I can only hope that when the time comes (and it will), I will have developed by body intuition enough to detect the warning messages my body is sending me.
Interested in seeing what yoga can do for you? See my earlier post about affordable yoga classes in the Berkeley area.
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