As both a runner with tight hips and a yoga teacher, I spend a lot of time thinking about the yoga poses that I find really open up my hips well. I thought I would take some time to share some of my favorite yoga poses that help loosen one of my biggest trouble spots, the outer hips. 7 Yoga Poses That Will Make You a Better Runner Sign Up now and get started with the Yoga for Runners Challenge! DISCLAIMER: Although I am a yoga teacher, I’m certainly not a doctor and I don’t know your body. These are my favorite stretches, and if you decide to try them on your own, please listen to your body. If it hurts or doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Let’s start with what seems to be everyone’s favorite, pigeon pose AKA half pigeon. Yoga Journal has a great description of the pose and how to set up for it on their website. A lot of my students who are tighter in the hips have to stay lifted or bring their foreheads to a block before over time they loosen up and can fully melt into their mats. It’s all about finding the right amount of stretch where your body is that day. If you’re too tight to come into half pigeon, try reclining pigeon. You stack one ankle on top of your other knee and reach through and grab your bottom leg. Pulling the legs into your body more tightly will intensify the pose. I always make sure to keep my feet flexed. To intensify, try double pigeon AKA fire log pose. Yoga Journal’s description of this pose is here. As you can see, I’m pretty terrible at it because I’m so tight. It really does loosen things up a lot more when you’ve really gotten the hang of half pigeon and you’d like to go a little deeper. This is a variation on a simple forward fold, which was recommended to me by a sports medicine specialist that I went to see when I was in grad school. It’s an easy one to throw into a post-runs stretching routine and it really does a good job of stretching the IT band. What I’m showing here is a variation of cow face pose; the full expression has a different arm position that can be tough on a lot of people’s shoulders. After my runs, I like to do the pose without any fancy arms and just lean forward to deepen when I need it. Lizard lunge is one of my all-time favorites. I love that I can make this pose more (bottom) or less (top) active. To get into the pose, I came to a low lunge and slowly walked my foot toward the top corner of my mat. I then came to the knife edge of my front foot and let that knee fall open to stretch through the outer hip of my front leg. I find I get a better stretch when I leave my back knee down on the mat, but sometimes it’s nice to build strength and stay lifted. Twisting triangle is a harder pose, in my opinion, but it’s worth it. Yoga Journal also has a great description of this pose. This one I really feel in the IT band of my standing leg. I find that widening my stance–moving my feet toward the left and right (long) edges of my mat–gives me a more stable base for this pose. You can always use a block or some other prop under your bottom hand to make the pose a little easier. Thanks for reading! What’s your favorite yoga pose? What really needs to be stretched after your runs? Do you practice yoga on a regular basis? Original article and pictures take http://runningwiththesunrise.com/?p=1249 site
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