- What's up, everyone? Welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I am Adriene and today
we have runner's yoga. This is an awesome sequence for anyone who runs, jogs, walks fiercely. This pose is going to
provide a lot of release and help you find what feels good. Let's get started. (inspiring music) Okie doke, today we're
going to begin in a nice comfortable seat, crossed
at the ankles, here. Take a second to get settled in. Sit up nice and tall. Find any movement here, a little sway back and forth, that feels good, maybe letting go of the day thus far (heavy breathing) and beginning to notice your breath. I think this is an
important moment of the day and of your practice, just
allowing, key word, allowing. Just giving yourself an
opportunity to drop in, tun in, get settled in and it's a little different each day, right? The image here is like taking
some chalk in the hands or some chalk and
throwing it up in the air and watching the dust settle here. That's for you sporty folks. If you're not a sporty folk,
you can imagine glitter being thrown up in the air. Just the idea that it takes some time as it drifts back and forth and down to the present moment. Just give yourself that
practice of allowing the dust to settle and just
noticing where you are today. I know this can be tough
because we have oh-so little time in our busy lives, but that's what the yoga practice is all about. That's why this video isn't
called runner's stretching, you know, stretching for the legs. We're thinking full picture. Long lasting love with the mind and body. Here we go. (heavy breathing) You might notice if you're agitated today or you're really tight, so
I encourage you to find soft movement and that goes
throughout today's practice. Begin to deepen your breath
if you haven't already. Maybe checking in with
some circles with the nose. Then just to kind of kick
start our practice here, we're going to take three
conscious breaths together. Go ahead and inhale in through the nose. Sit up nice and tall, full breath, full, full, full breath in. Then just let the exhale go
naturally out through the mouth. (heavy breathing) Great, two more like that. Big conscious breath in. Inhale, fill the lungs. (heavy breathing) Then on the exhale, it's just very natural to allow it to let go, release. (heavy breathing) You don't have to do anything. Last time, big breath in. Sit up nice and tall, and let it go. (heavy breathing) Great. We're going to take the legs wide, here. Keep a focus and attention
on your breath best you can. Legs are going to come
nice and wide, here, to your wide, so this will
look and feel different for every body, right,
based on where the muscles are today, how you're
dealing with your joints at this point of time, and your energy. Come to a nice wide legged seat, and again, it doesn't
have to be super wide. It can kind of narrow and
then just see if you can sit up nice and tall, here. If you're feeling like the
spine is rounding hardcore, go ahead and sneak that blanket
or that pillow underneath and press into the sitting bones. Everyone sit up nice and
tall and then bring the hands to the tops of the thighs, fingertips in, and we're just going to
press the tops of the thighs out to remind us to find
this external rotation. For some, this will be a piece
of cake, so in that case, I would recommend that
you start really playing with your breath, maybe Ujjayi. If this is really tough
for you to sit up tall, breath deep, still, find
length through the neck, crown of the head, reaching
up towards the sky. Nice little power pose, here,
as we open through the chest, open through the heart. (heavy breathing) Then release the hands
and we're just going to use the hands to guide the
heels in for cobbler's pose. The soles of the feet come together, here. We stay conscious connected
through the sitting bones and the hands are going to
wrap around the ankles, here. Big loop of the shoulders,
forward, up, and back. Inhale in, exhale, glide
the shoulder blades in and down the back body. Lots of space between the
ears and shoulders, here. Then that same external
rotation you had in the tops of the thighs just a second
ago, try to find that here. The hands won't be there, but
you can try to ground down through the tops of the thighs. (heavy breathing) Find your breath. Again, we're not just hanging
out here, but we're really activating through the quads. Drawing down through
the tops of the thighs and drawing up through the
midline, the plum line. Again, you might find a little
sway here if it feels good. Bring a sense of you, a sense of softness to these active postures. How can we do that? I think by staying conscious with the breath and with practice. Inhale, lift the heart. Think up and over as you send your heart forward beyond your toes. What the heck does that mean? We're not just rounding forward, here. We're keeping length in the
spine, elbows grounding down. (heavy breathing) The image of the heart
just reaching forward. My heart will go on. Then finally, tucking chin to chest, rounding everything forward. Draw your forehead towards you toes. Doesn't even have to come close. Breath deep. (heavy breathing) Then, anchor through your
sitting bones again to roll up. Tuck the chin to the chest. It should feel good, nice and slow. Why rush it? It feels good. Lift the heart and exhale, release. Awesome work. We're going to come on to all fours and into extended child's pose, yay. Knees as wide as the yoga
mat, big toes to touch. Walk the hands out, melt your heart down. Bring your attention, your
awareness, back to the breath. Close your eyes. See if you can make your
inhalations longer, smoother, as well as the exhalations, nice and long, really pushing out all the air. If you are a runner or
a want to be runner, you will soon learn that the relationship with your breath is key. (heavy breathing) One more deep breath in, here. Then slowly pressing into the palms, walk it back up into tabletop
position on all fours. Knees underneath the hip points. Wrists directly underneath the shoulders. Take a second to press away from your yoga mat with the palms. Then we'll curl the toes under on the right foot and slide it back. Little calf stretch here and
you gently saw front to back. A gentle rock front to back. Again, to collapsing,
here, but pressing away from your yoga mat with the palms. Try to press into your right pinky toe. Keep breathing. (heavy breathing) Then switch. Curl the left toes, send it back. Same thing, here. Walk forward, even. Try to press into that left pinky toe. (heavy breathing) Then reel it back into center. Awesome. Now we're going to send
the right toes out. Lift the right foot up, lift
from the right inner thigh and then Just gentle pulses here. (heavy breathing) Then release. Bend the right knee,
step it all the way up into a nice low lunge. Walk the left knee back a little bit here. Check to make sure front
knee is over front ankle, so it's not going past. Then find your foundation and breath here. Light on the finger tips. You might loop the shoulders. Find length through the crown and then imagine my heart
will go on, again here. Nice and open to the
chest, not collapssed. This is very common and
very normal, natural. We're wanting to open this up, right? This is definitely going
to help our running game. Keep breathing, here. Pull the right hip crease back. Again, if this is a piece of
cake for you, you've already garnered flexibility, then
you need to be working on your breath, sending
big, big inhalations all the way down and then
exhale all the way up and out. (heavy breathing) The first step often is just
kind of learning the shapes and then it's really up to you to kind of go deeper and take care of your body and to apply the Pranayama practice. Here we go, curl the left toes under if they are not already. We're going to life the hips up and back, rocking on to the right heel. Big runner's stretch here. Pulling back through the
top of the right thigh bone. Then you can uncurl the back
toes if it feels better. If the knee needs a little padding, here, it's always a great idea to nurture that maybe by flipping the mat,
rolling the mat if you need. Right toes up towards the sky. Here we go, my heart will
go on, find that length. Inhale and then exhale, fold. Chin to chest. (heavy breathing) Then really articulate
through the right foot, here. Spread the right toes. Then we're going to roll through that right foot nice and slow. Great, from here, we'll
bring the palms to the mat on the left side and we're
just going to give ourself a little bit more space by
walking the right foot out. Now we're coming into a lizard variation. This can be one tough cookie
if you're tight in the hips, so breath deep here. (heavy breathing) For now, right toes pointing forward. If you want more strength
today, of course, you can lift that back leg, but on our ... Today's kind of deep and
yummy yin-like theme, I'm going to keep my back knee lowered, but you're welcome to lift. Take a deep breath in here. Find that extension through the heart and then exhale, maybe we find our self coming onto the forearms, here. (heavy breathing) Maybe you find yourself
releasing a top foot. Then nice and easy, take it nice and slow. I'm just going to walk
the right toes out towards the right edge of my mat. I'm going to be here for
some solid yummy breaths. Stay present. (heavy breathing) Maybe close your eyes. Notice the sensations as you inhale and exhale. (heavy breathing) Take one more juicy breath in and out. (heavy breathing) Then connect to your center, your core, as you press into the palms and slowly, mindfully
walk it all the way back. We're going to take this right
foot all the way over, now. Nice and slow, slow and
steady wins the race. Coming into our one legged pigeon. Keep a little awareness, or a lot, rather, of awareness in the right foot. Keep the top of the back foot down, excuse me, rooting strong. Then here we go. Loop the shoulders, find length. Breath. Maybe taking it forward. (heavy breathing) We're staying in the postures
a little bit longer today so stick with your breath. If you find that you're just
like fidgeting and waiting, very normal, very natural,
so just keep bringing your attention back inward. (heavy breathing) Great, take one more nice
full breath in and out. (heavy breathing) Then activate navel to spine,
connect to your center, your core muscles and
press it up nice and slow. We'll curl the back toes under. Press into all 10 knuckles,
come back to all fours. Same little ditty on the other side. Here we go. Big breath in, big breath out. This time, send the left
leg out, gentle pulses. Again, notice if you're collapsing here, can you press away from your yoga mat. This is a nice practice
for runners because when we develop our running
practice or jogging practice or even a regular walking
practice, we want to be able to have awareness from head to toe, right? One moving part. Then bend the left knee and draw it all the way up into your lunge. Keep the right knee on
the ground, but you might walk it back a little bit. Then just check front knee
over front ankle, here, and nice and stacked. Loop the shoulders, stay
light on the fingers, tips, so notice if you're
crashing into the finger tips. Connect to your core, engage to the belly. Breath. (heavy breathing) You might come onto the
top of that right foot, yogies choice in that case. Nice full deep breaths. (heavy breathing) Then pull the left hip crease back. Think up and over and
you send the hips back coming onto the left heel. Again, top of the left
hip thigh one pulls back with the left hip crease. Runner's stretch, big
flexion in the left foot. Inhale, open your heart. Find that extension and then exhale chin to chest. (heavy breathing) I'd like to point out,
notice that my right hip is stacked over my right
knee so I'm not coming all the way back here. (heavy breathing) Then bringing the left hand around, coming into our lizard on the other side. Keep the toes pointing
forward, here, for now and then notice if you're
gripping in the toes. It's kind of a, you know ... As we begin to open the hips,
other things want to clench, so we're going to stay
mindful and try to keep an awareness and softness
through the toes. Even the jaw, here, find extension. Breath, pull the left hip crease back. Give yourself lots of space. Maybe walking that left foot
to the outer edge of your left left side of your mat. Big breath in and then
you know what to do here. Maybe you use an exhale
to come onto the forearms. Maybe you save that for another day. Work mindful. Stay connected to your breath. (heavy breathing) Then eventually we'll
walk the left toes out and off the left edge. Breath deep, here. Again, you're welcome to
curl the right toes under and spike the right heel back. If you do, really spike
the right heel towards the back edge of your mat. Really brighten up through that left leg. Keep the hips lifted,
engaged to your core. Otherwise, keep it nice and
easy, again, allowing further release today, allowing
for your body to restore, and allowing for the
practice to balance out your cardio or your other workout. Zumba. Then connecting to your core to release, pressing back up into the palms. Even in our transitions, we're trying to create a full body experience. Super important, right? Then walking the left foot over
into our one legged pigeon. Take your time, take your time. Your pigeon might not look like mine. You might need a little
support on the left hip, here. You might need to draw your left heel really close into thy crotch. Really mindful. If you're in need of any of these poses, we have a foundations
video for all of them. Those videos really break down postures and give you modifications. Inhale, lift your heart. Exhale, find a full. Everyone stick with your breath. (heavy breathing) Slowly connect to your center. Press into the palms, come back up. This time, go ahead and
roll onto that left hip. We'll take the left heel in
and swing the right leg around. Sole of the right foot
comes onto the ground, so there's a tendency to just
kind of let it spill, here. See if you can work to
get the sole all four corners of the feet on the ground. This might take time. Then a little twist, here. I'm going to hug the right
knee with the right elbow and swim the right fingertips
all the way around. Try to keep a nice big
lift in the heart, here. Careful not to round through the spine. Inhale in and exhale, release. Great, we're just going
to switch the legs here, so right heel comes in and we cross the left foot up and over. Again, see if you can
work to get the left foot all the way on the ground
and sit up nice and tall. Hug the right elbow around the left knee and then swim the left fingertips around. Just a little twist, here, too. Release the back. Breathe into your belly. Relax your shoulders. Then release and grab your pillow. Yes. This is my actual pillow. This is not a prop. Legs out long. Legs out long. That's going to be ... Pillow comes right up to the navel, here. If you have a soft
pillow like this one is, you might even double up. If you have a bolster,
you can use that too. I have two bolsters,
but I like to use things that you have in your
house to really promote this idea that anyone can
do this and that this is something different than what
we do at the yoga studio. I love the yoga studio so much. My life if so rich because of
the community at the studio and stuff like that, but
this is something different. Own it, grab your pillow,
pull it up to your belly. Inhale, reach for the sky
and exhale, forward fold. Oh, yeah. Same thing as we've
been doing all practice. Find that lift in the heart first. Find extension. Inhale, big breath in and after your extension, you round forward, chin to chest. Hold, release. Close your eyes here. We're going to be here for a couple of nice long, beautiful, self-loving breaths. Cultivating a little peace in the body. Restoring, breathe for
the nervous system, here. (heavy breathing) The hands can grab the
ankles or the toes, here, or you can go full soften
and just kind of release wherever feels good, maybe
grabbing your pillow even. (heavy breathing) Then take the pillow, slowly
roll up through the spine. Just slide the pillow over
to the top of the right thigh and we're going to draw the left heel in, just a quick Janu Sirsasana,
pressing into the sitting bones and I'm just going to
kind of think up and over as I fold over the top of the right thigh. The difference here is I'm
going to grab the hand, or I'm going to take the
hands and grab the outer edge of my right leg first. Breathing into the left
side body and left hip and then eventually you can flatten out. Head to knee pulls here with the pillow. (heavy breathing) Then slowly roll it up, switch
the legs, slide the pillow to the top of the left
thigh, right heel comes in and you know what to do. Think up and over. Top of the right thigh grounding down. Today's sequence is a great one to learn. You can favorite this
video so that you can repeat it regularly and
eventually, you'll get all of these in your mind bank, in your body bank. As much as I want you to
do it with me, I definitely just want you to have these tools inside. Eventually flattening out. Head to knee pose. Then we release. Awesome. Take the pillow, bring it
around, and use it for your head. If you're running or walking or jogging or anything like that, and
then also balancing it out with yoga, you definitely deserve these next two postures with a pillow. Way to show up for yourself. Way to keep moving, right? Come to lie flat. Use your pillow wisely. Get comfy. Then hug the knees into the chest. Almost done, here, guys, so
nice strong full deep breaths. Make them count because you're worth it and this is only going to
help us when we get back in our running shoes,
get back on the pavement. Squeeze the knees up towards the chest. Give yourself a big hug. Roll around a little bit. (heavy breathing) Then happy baby pose. We reach around, knees
go wide, and we grab the outer edges of the
feet and we draw the soles of the feet up towards
the sky, so there's really an activation here of
lifting the soles up and then grounding down through the
shoulders, through the knees. Action point, lengthen the
tail bone, your coccyx, towards the front edge of your mat. Then breath into all
four sides of the torso. Life is good. We're so lucky to have these bodies. Give thanks for your body for your breath. Then gently release. Soles of the feet come to the
mat and we're going to turn onto fetal position, whatever side is towards the video, here,
towards the screen. Your bottom arm becomes a
little pillow with your pillow. The knees hug up, nice
curvature in the back body, just a little release for the spine. Then last thing before
we rest, we're going to send the legs out long and top knee is going to bend, top arm's going to reach around and grab top ankle and we come into a little
quad stretch, here. You can also roll onto your
belly for this if you want more. Breathing into your quads,
quadricep, opening up through the chest and the heart, here. Again, you can also do this on the belly. Sweet, and then gently release. Rock onto the other side. Take that fetal position first. It's nice. Then extend the legs out long. Top knee bends. Grab top ankle, quads
stretch on the other side. Here's your breath. (heavy breathing) Gently release, roll
back onto your pillow. Palms come to the knees, little release of the back,
here, as you just gently release the knees towards the front. Arms straighten here. Very gentle stretch. (heavy breathing) Then let it all go. You're either going to
extend out in Shavasana now or you're going to close your
eyes for one final breath before the video stops. If time allows, go ahead
and take a nice relaxation after the video, just
letting the nutrients of your practice soak in, seep in. Rockstars, using the tools
of yoga to create strong, healthy practices to support your running to motivate you to keep you safe. Joints stable and strong. We're rocking. This year is so great so far. I'll see you next time. Questions, comments below always welcome. Please also check out our
runner's warm up video and we also have a
runner's cool down video. I'll see you next time, all right? Namaste. (inspiring music)
Ekhart Yoga Channel is also very good.
I don't know if yoga does anything for my performance, though if I had to guess I'd say yes. But for sure yoga helps with my recovery. I also feel more "in tune" with my body. I know where it's tight or loose, where it's strong or weak. Yoga also helps with balancing out your left and right side. I am much or aware of imbalances and I can actively work on correcting them. For example, my left hip is tighter than my right, so I stay longer in the pose when i'm stretching the tighter side.
IMHO the best yoga poses after a run: hero (quads), downward dog (calves and hamstrings), pigeon (hips and glutes), cow-face (hips, glutes).
Where should I start if I'm not flexible enough to do almost any of this?
I started doing yoga after hurting my hip running a couple months ago. It's seriously changed SO much for me and I've become completely addicted to it. Not only has it helped my hip and plantar fasciitis issues, but I really feel like it helps my strength and balance for trail running and you really learn to connect deeply with your breath.
I actually just did this video yesterday. I love Adriene! I just recently found her channel and I like her style. She's cute, funny, explains things well, and doesn't get too hippie about it.
How often should a runner do yoga? Once a week?
Nice video from Adriene with a good yoga session focused for runners.
I've been doing DDP Yoga for a few years now and it helps out so much. I can't wait to try this workout that's specifically for runners. I'll also check out the Ekhart Yoga channel as well. Thanks for the heads up!
Not to say yoga is all bad, but there is a lot of evidence showing that yoga hurts distance running. Yoga improves flexibility. Improved flexibility reduces your running economy (essentially how efficiently you run). This is because your calves and hamstrings act like springs, in that when they are compressed or extended, they will fight against this. This makes for higher efficiency in your movements. Making these springs 'looser' through yoga, causes a loss in efficiency.
However, yoga is very good for general health. So if you are running for health and not purely for a PR, then yoga is beneficial.
Source: http://www.myrunningtips.com/yoga-for-runners.html
Good for all of you who have the patience. I couldn't get past waiting for the dust to settle.