yoga for running – Run Better with Yoga

Helen Clare, yoga running coach taking a post run stretch for the hips and hamstrings

The importance of running recovery

27th February 2020
Helen Clare
Post Run Yoga
2 Comments

And how to do it right We’ve all been there – we have great intentions of doing our post run cool down but, for one reason or another, it just doesn’t happen! We don’t always feel like taking the time to stretch straight after a run – we’re tired, hungry, and have a million other things to do.

Helen Clare, yoga for runners, trail running on the coastal path

How to stop knee pain

Think running is bad for your knees? Uh uh. Running should not cause knee pain – if you have a healthy, well connected body. What do I mean by ‘connected’? I mean good alignment, that enables us to connect to our central core and glute power – making running efficient, and safe for our joints.

Helen Clare running along a trail in the evening light

How to fix tight hamstrings

Do you suffer with tight hamstrings? If the hamstrings tighten and shorten too much from repeated contraction and/ or over striding when running, they’re more susceptible to injury and can negatively affect our posture.

Helen Clare stretching hip flexors post running

How to fix sore hip flexors

Ever had pain or irritation across the front of your hips when running? Or after running? This is the area of the hip flexors – made up of the iliopsoas, rectus femoris and sartorius muscles – that primarily act to lift the knee and thigh closer to the body. Pain in this area is a common one for runners – but we can almost always fix it! In this video I talk about the reasons why irritation here is so common, and what we can do to go about fixing it. We’ll cover a couple of yoga poses, and a running drill. Enjoy! After you’ve watched, let me know – do you get pain here?...

Helen Clare combining yoga and running in 2020

2020 Running Goals!

It’s time to set your running goals for the new year and decade! It’s been proven that people who intentionally set goals are more likely to achieve the things they want – and those who actually write them down, increase their chances of success even more! So let’s dive into some possible goals that I’ve helped my students achieve in the past, and that you might be looking to achieve this year. Pens and journals at the ready, let’s get inspired! So here we go with 5 potential running goals that you might be inspired to take on for the year ahead! Run Injury and Pain Free This is the number...

Helen Clare practising good breathing technique for running

A practice to increase lung capacity

In this second video on focused breathing, I guide you through a counted breathing exercise, where we gradually extend the length of the breath, both on the way in and the way out.

Breathe more fully… run further, and live longer!

Breathing may well be a part of our autonomic nervous system, meaning we do it without conscious direction – but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t consider the way that we breathe. In fact, just by taking your attention to your breath for a few minutes (or even a few breaths), will slow and deepen your breathing.

Glutes

Many runners know, or are told by their physical therapists to strengthen their glutes, as weakness here is often the cause to many issues and complaints. But, in my experience, most people aren’t really sure how to go about strengthening the glutes – and end up just clenching their butt! The glute max is the largest of the three glute muscles and it is our primary hip extensor, meaning it’s job is to draw the hip straight back. So strength here, plus flexibility in the hip flexors (see last week’s video!), is essential for good, proper, safe running form. In this video I show...

How to stretch hamstrings

Runners have notoriously tight hamstrings, for a good reason! With that repetitive contraction of the hamstrings over the miles, it’s to be expected that runners have tighter than average hamstrings. And, in part, this is good

Helen Clare running along an empty beach

How to Improve Posture: Yoga for Shoulders

Continuing on the theme from last week on improving posture in order to improve running form, let’s talk about the shoulders… Clearly, how our shoulders sit play a huge role in our overall posture: If we only focus on strengthening our torso but neglect to think about opening the chest and drawing the shoulders back, then we risk compromising our new found core strength because we are still hunching the upper body.

Tag: yoga for running