Yoga and the sports that we do (and a few poses to boot!)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about different sports that we do and how many of us use our practice to complement these other activities. Or maybe, what you complement is a sedentary work/life!  Either way, we come to our Mats to fill in the pieces!

So how can we optimize our practice to optimize what we do? So what I’m going to challenge myself to is to develop a practice for some of the sports, starting with running and then cycling.  

Why running first?  Well, because I decided about two months ago that I needed to find another reason to start to or at least learn how to run despite my usual 

(and kind of still) hatred of the activity of running.  Although I hate to admit it, the activity is starting to grow on me.  It is something I can do at any time, virtually anywhere and in anything (almost sounds like yoga!).  Running has always been really hard! I played sports and I was competitive, but that had a purpose, a tangible end-result.  It generally hurt my throat or chest or both. I was told I wasn’t breathing properly, so I tried to change the way breathed, not that it helped.  I discovered I could run a fair bit on a tread mill without the same effects, in fact I kind of found it enjoyable.  Turns out what I needed was a little coaching on the natural running techniques and body form. Which after years of yoga, made sense to me. Now, I’m experiencing different areas that need a little extra stretch, or a little more strength to keep my form in alignment.  After 19 years I finally understand why people run and am experiencing some of the benefits!

So runners, watch out, I’m coming after you!  I want to know your favorite pose or areas that you want that juicy stretch or that one which mill make you sweat!

A peek of what is to come: Strengthen your Medial Gluteus!  

These muscles are the ones located on either side of your buttocks just behind and below the top of your hips. This muscle, as it is named, is responsible for the medial rotation of your hips.  As you run it ensures you run in a straight line, notice how your feet don’t land hip distance apart, but on a nearly straight line? That rotation is caused in part by this muscle.  But even more important and more noticeable (I think, it’s main purpose!) is it’s role of stabilizing the hips in a neutral position when weight bearing on one leg.  As you can see in the picture when someone has a weak gluteus medius, that same standing leg’s hip will rise higher then the other.

My top three favourite Yoga poses that will help strengthen this: (for pictures or more thorough instructions follow their links to yogajournal.com)

1. Tree pose! (Vrkasana)What better way then to stand on one leg and train yourself to keep both hips neutral!  This is a very easy pose to practice, it will beneficial to train yourself to balance on one leg to train those stabilizers.

2. Warrior one! (Virabhadrasana I) Again, the single leg, hips neutral and body parallel to the ground. Lengthening your leg behind you as you reach yourself straight forward creating a long straight line of energy from heel to fingers. (think of your self as a pendulum reacting in line with your leg, the weight)  The higher you can get your leg up, the closer your body will come to parallel.  Don't forget to focus on not moving, scale back if you can’t breath naturally or get shaky.  It just means you need to train your body some more.

3. Side plank! (Vasisthasina) This pose is a three stage pose. The most important thing to remember is, it is the same as standing, you hold an alignment that stacks from your toes all the way to the crown of your head!  if your hips are sagging towards the floor then you need to start at stage one.  In each of these, we are working on reaching our top arm towards the ceiling, a straight line from the supporting arm. Until you feel stable and comfortable you can rest your hand on your hip, being sure to engage through your shoulders, keeping your heart open.

1. Start in plank, shift your weight onto one arm and rotate the side’s foot onto the side (don’t allow your foot to collapse!) bring your top leg out to the side in front of you, inline with your hips. With this leg, support your weight in the centre. 

2. Once you start to feel comfortable with your body placement and you feel strong enough, allow your top leg to remain stacked on top of your bottom foot.

3. When you are ready, you can begin lifting your top leg a few inches up and holding it there, you can do a few repetitions and work towards raising this leg higher.