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Yoga Poses for Runners
Stay Injury-Free, Run with Efficient Form, Perform like a Champion
Daily stretching is important for runners to remain injury-free, run with efficient form, and to perform at the top of their potential. A natural consequence to stressing the muscles and ligaments is shortening and tightening.
The consequences of this are many but the two most important are a high probability of injury and lack of range of motion which results in a shorter stride. A longer stride means less leg turnover to cover the same distance. This, in turn, conserves valuable energy, which can be key in a long race or training run.
Why Yoga Poses for Stretching?
Simple; for our purposes, yoga is just static stretching (applying and holding tension on the muscle) as opposed to ballistic stretching (bouncing on the muscle). The ballistic method is not advised, especially with cold muscles.
As luck would have it, there are many poses that target key parts of the body for runners and fitness walkers. These are shown in the infographic below. How long should you hold a pose? Start off with 60 seconds and build up from there.
Dont push too hard; this is not a race. You will limber up bit by bit as time goes on. When is the best time to stretch? Thats an individual choice. Some prefer just after a workout, some like it in the morning after coffee, and some do it before going to bed. Just do it daily.
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