• Health and Fitness

Top 6 essential yoga poses for marathoners

All marathoners have aches, pains, and muscle tension that occur during or after running. These problems are usually felt in the back, knees, legs, ankles, and hips. They can affect your performance on the track. The good news is that yoga poses for marathoners can help you get rid of the pain, prevent injuries. Yoga can even improve your breathing during your marathon running. Yoga can help marathoners prevent injury, speed up muscle recovery and reduce aches and pains. Listed below are a few essential yoga poses for marathoners curated by UnCrushedLeaves Store, which can help you improve both your marathon training as well as your post-run recovery.

UnCrushedLeaves Store provides an opportunity to explore Yoga through online Yoga Classes conducted by certified instructors. Explore more now at Health and Fitness.

6 essential yoga poses for marathoners

1. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Downward Facing Dog is a great yoga pose for runners. It targets tight hamstrings. Marathoners should include downward dog pose as part of their after-run yoga routine to loosen up and relax their bodies. In this pose, you open up and stretch your arms, back, and legs. This yoga pose is perfect for marathon runners as it helps you to open up your calves and hamstrings and stretch your feet and achilles tendon while pushing your heel towards the ground. It is also extremely regenerative. It strengthens the arms and shoulders, elongates the torso and spine, and improves circulation throughout the body.

2. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

Bridge Pose helps you to build strength in your hip muscles. Running can be put pressure on your hips and can affect your performance. Bridge Pose is a must for the hip and spinal extension. This pose can help to target the posterior chain and gluteal muscles. It relieves tight glutes and opens your hamstrings.

3. Tree Pose (Vriksasana)

Tree pose is good for strengthening the calves, ankles, thighs, and spine. It simultaneously stretches the shoulders, groin, chest, and inner thighs, and opens the hips. This pose can also reduce flat feet and relieve sciatic pain. Tree Pose aims at your torso to build strength. It also helps to work on your balance. It builds strength in the ankles and calves.

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4. Upward Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)

Runners have to focus on their upper body as important as their legs when it comes to preparing for a run. Upward Dog can loosen a tight chest as you stretch out the upper body and shoulders. This pose gives the arms, shoulders, and chest a nice opening. This pose requires some upper body stability and strength. The upward Dog pose also provides balance to a runner’s body.

5. Reclining Pigeon (Sucirandhrasana)

Reclining pigeon is a gentler modification of pigeon pose. It is the perfect pose for tight hips. Reclining pigeon is also an excellent pose for stretching the connective tissue that runs along your outer thigh from your hip to your shin, the so-called IT band. This yoga pose can prevent knee problems because a tight IT Band ultimately leads to issues with the knee. You can do this pose at the end of any run.

6. Reclining Spinal Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)

A tension is created in your lower back when you run which can inhibit your performance and cause you pain and discomfort. This pose is a way to relieve that tension. It also stretches the hips and rotator muscles allowing your body to rest and restore. Reclining Spinal Twist is ideal as it has so many therapeutic benefits.

7. Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose (Viparita Karani)

Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose can relax and rejuvenate your mind and body, It also helps to improve your sleep. One should try to relax entirely while practicing the pose to feel the full benefits, using only as much energy as you need to hold your legs up the wall. It is probably considered the best recovery yoga posture for runners. It removes swelling in the legs and provides speedy recovery. This pose also isolates and gently stretches the hamstrings.

Every athlete from a seasoned marathoner to a CrossFit junkie can profit from practicing a bit of yoga. Yoga poses help you focus on your breathing and listen to your body. It helps lengthen muscles that have been tightened or shortened due to injury. It improves flexibility, balance, and range of motion. These easy poses can get you ready to run and promote post-run recovery and muscle growth.

Our earnest suggestion is to practice yoga with a qualified practitioner. UnCrushedLeaves Store provides an opportunity to explore Yoga through online Yoga Classes conducted by certified instructors. Know more at UnCrushedLeaves Store.