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Running And Yoga Exercises

Can I Go For Running Just After Doing Yoga

Running and yoga have a lot in common; they both require flexibility, agility, patience and balance. Yoga helps you to stretch your body in a slow and controlled manner. This helps to give your body a proper form and alignment that is essential while running so as to get all the benefits from it without getting any injury. Yoga gives a better balance and symmetry to your muscles that is important while running without which you could be prone to injuries. It makes you more aware of the way your body moves. Before running you may warm up with Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) to co-ordinate your mind and body and to set your breath rate. This will help to maintain a steady breathing pattern while running and will also prepare your body for the run. Surya Namaskar or the Sun Salutation is a special set yoga asanas or exercises that are performed in a sequence along with the Pranayama or the breathing exercises for breath control while exercising. It is a series of twelve different asanas or poses that will help to improve the flexibility of the muscles and strengthen the spinal column. It also helps to tone your abdominal muscles.

Runners work certain core muscles and the ones mainly in the legs but yoga utilizes all the muscles including the other neglected muscles as well and thus make the runner a better and stronger body functioning. Besides running and exercising in open air also provides more oxygen to your body and makes you feel better. It also releases the endorphins in your body that make you feel happy and elevate your mood. You can also try another type of breathing exercise while running to prevent the pain in the sides that is also referred to as the side stitch. This usually happens when you take quick shallow breaths while running and the diaphragm does not get enough time to relax, and this leads to the pulling of the muscles in the side causing sudden pain. There is a simple way to tackle this, you simply need to take slow deep breaths and keep your breathing steady. You may practice one of the techniques in yoga called the Ujjayi breathing or Ocean breathing. It is called ocean breathing because when it is practiced correctly your breathing is audible and it sounds like the waves from the ocean. This relaxes your diaphragm and reduces the pain.

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