I like to balance my running with other activities: walking/hiking, biking and (very occasionally) swimming. But I still prefer running above all else. Especially this time of year. The sun rises earlier, the air is warmer, and it is so beautiful here in Maine. On my typical riverside route, I get to observe the budding of the trees and the way the sunlight plays on the current. I can't help but be happy after a late May morning run.
Because I also seem to need my morning running 'fix' to jump start my brain, I will pretty much do whatever it takes to stay healthy enough to run. I think cross-training is very valuable, and the activities such as swimming and biking definitely help. But I've found the best way to counter-balance the stress of running on the bones and muscles is yoga. It keeps me flexible, and it keeps me calm. I try to do some forward bends, backbends and gentle twists every day after running--along with some sit-ups and push-ups. Nothing fancy. I can generally finish this process in about 10-20 minutes.
While I love to go to a weekly yoga class in addition to doing post-run poses on my own, I've found this can be hard to squeeze in. So I found a DVD that offers additional yoga instruction and keeps me motivated: Yoga For Athletes. This DVD is somewhat more advanced than others I've seen, probably because it assumes that those who watch it have some basic level of fitness. It enables viewers not only to pick their sport (baseball, soccer, running and many others), but to chose from a wide variety of focused routines. It has general routines and those specific to body parts (legs, shoulders, etc), plus groupings of twists and backbends. These come in a variety of lengths: from 20 minutes to more than an hour. I love having the ability to pick just what I need. I also like having the convenience of popping the DVD into my portable player so I can participate in my very own post-run mini-session from the comfort of my bedroom.
Ironically, as I was considering blogging about the benefits of pairing yoga with running (or pretty much any higher intensity sport), I read an article in this month's Runners' World about this very idea. Runners, like most athletes, have always known about the importance of keeping our muscles supple--though we used to call the process 'stretching.' With yoga, we're going a bit further, and also striving to pay attention to our breathing. Yoga (like Pilates) has the added benefit of helping us with our core strength as well.
One thing to remember is that yoga comes in MANY different forms. I'm suggesting a very gentle, stretching type of yoga, as opposed to power yoga. From a Chinese medicine standpoint, I need a more quiet YIN activity to balance my YANG-oriented running. This is an important distinction. In this country we're constantly inundated with messages about increasing our activity levels (with good reason, given our obesity epidemic). What isn't mentioned is that those of us who are already very physically active need a way to bring our bodies back into balance. Too much YANG can lead to injuries and/or burnout. We YANG-addicts (or beautiful-May-morning-along-the-river-addicts) need to seek YIN (though taking in a beautiful river view offers its own yin benefits). We runners can get our YIN through yoga.
Non-runners can actually experience both yin and yang through walking--one of my other favorite pastimes (see Walking the Walk). My project manager, Angela, will be starting her own yin/yang walking adventure tomorrow morning, following a 6 AM wake-up call from yours truly.
Angela is such a good sport.
