Yoga and Endurance Training

Since personally beginning a yoga practice close to 3 years ago, I have witnessed a multitude of positive changes in both my mind and body. Yoga is one of the oldest forms of structured exercise, which speaks volumes in my opinion. If something isn't effective, it certainly isn't going to survive for centuries and more an more people are practicing yoga.

Obviously one of the most important physical benefits of yoga is the increase in flexibility that comes from practice. This is especially important for us multisport athletes as the repetitive movements we engage in through running, cycling and swimming can cause muscle strain, tightness and inflammation. Yoga helps to move oxygen-rich blood and energy into these areas that are used over and over again during multisport training and racing. If you ever want to see what this openning feels like, just put yourself in some variation of the pigeon-pose (google yoga pigeon for images) after a run workout. You might see or hear things like double-pigeon or modified pigeon posture, either of which will work miracles when it comes to opening the hips and piriformis muscles. I guarentee you'll immediately experience what allowing energy flow into and out of a muscle feels like by doing this pose  By allowing wastes (lactic acid) to flow out of the muscles as well, a natural detoxing effect takes place. These particular benefits are similar to those achieved through massage, which you certain read a lot about when it comes to athletic training.

In addition to the increased flexibility, there is also the increase in strength that comes from yoga practice. Yoga is in fact a balancing of strength and flexibility. What could be more important to us as athletes regardless of what level of athlete that we are?  There are styles of yoga that are more focused on increasing strength such as power and Ashtanga yoga, and if you have ever taken a class in either of these styles, you've certainly felt how much strength is needed and involved!!!!

One thing that I personally gained and what I see as the biggest benefit of yoga is the mental strengthening that occurs from regular practice. Maintaining focus and calmness when holding ourselves in physical postures is a practice in-and-of itself.....literally (Pranayama Yoga), but its also a part of any style of yoga. Using ujjayi type breathing, in which we use a controlled inhalation and exhalation, can be utilized in the same fashion when engaged in multisport training. Controlled breathing helps us to stay on pace, remain relaxed, and keeps our heart rates in check (all very important apsects when training and competing). Ujjayi breathing (which you can also google) basically should mimic the ebb and flow of the ocean.... you'll make almost a snoring sound on the inhalation, by focusing on breathing into the upper back area of the throat. The exhalation is powerful and controlled, by also resulting in a snoring type sound as we push the air over the same upper back section of the throat and nasal area. It gets much easier with practice I promise!!! Anyway, once you get it down, you can then do like I do and engage in ujjayi breathing while running and experience the calmness and control you can maintain in your workouts and even when racing. Its also a perfect way to "get out your head" when drifting to those negative places we all reach when workouts and races get hard! Focus on the breathing and those thoughts of quitting and pain eventually subside. Ujjayi breathing can be loud if you want it to be, which can also "distract" you from those negative thoughts of quitting!  Just don't pay attention to the person on the treadmill beside of you giving you weird looks :) 

These are just a few thoughts that came to mind when I started thinking about posting some of the benefits of yoga, as related to triathlon and endurance training. So go out and take a yoga class! Most people these days have a gym membership and I bet there are yoga classes offered at most gyms.  If not, many community recreation centers offer classes and the cool thing about these are that a lot of the instructors are just getting started, which means you as the student, will get a lot more attention and well thought-out sequences as the new teachers are probably spending hours coming up with each class!!!! Many of these classes are relatively inexpensive or operate on a donation only basis.  If taking a group class isn't for you, let me suggest looking into purchasing DVD's that you can do at home. Baron Baptiste is an amazing teacher with amazing Power Yoga DVD's. You can get 'em pretty cheap on Amazon or eBay. The instructor that I did my teacher training with, Doug Swenson, also has DVD's out there for sale and he wrote Power Yoga for Dummies, which has tons of photos of postures and routines you can follow. It also gives some of the history of yoga and the various styles out there which is great information to know.