Stretching Yourself

You run every day or hit the pavement twice a week choosing to spend your free time swimming or rollerblading down the esplanade. You feel fit and aren’t afraid of challenging yourself to a 10km run at the weekend. But when someone proposes a session in the weights room or a yoga class you cringe at the idea knowing very well that you’re strength isn’t at its best, and as far as stretching goes, well you know that you can touch your toes.

That’s exactly my problem of late and I hate it. I’ve been so focused on my running that I’ve let these two areas down completely. A few years ago you’d find me spending the majority of my time at the gym lifting weights and going heavy or heading for a Pilates class a few times a week. There was a time when I could do fifteen unsupported chin ups and fifty push ups – now, well what can I say – two chin ups on a good day, fifteen push ups on a better day. Shocking!

So in the coming weeks I’m going to try and add a little bit of yoga and Pilates into my regular fitness routine. For the time being I’ll attempt one forty minute session of Pilates each week along with some yoga poses on most days of the week and gradually expand on that. Flexibility is extremely important in running as it minimises your risk of injury, improves posture and strengthens different muscle groups.

Today I made an attempt to do some yoga poses I found at the Yoga Journal. They included the following poses;

Sphinx pose

Plank pose

Downward-facing dog

High lunge

Standing half forward

Happy Baby Pose; and,

Bound Angle Pose.

The biggest thing to work on will be my patience when it comes to practicing yoga. I like to do things quickly but yoga is a slow form of training which both my mental and physical health should benefit from – and hopefully my running performance will too.

Do you train yoga? Is stretching an important part of your workout?