Sports – Running

RYC customized programs are available to runners at all levels:  professional, collegiate, amateur, youth and recreational.  In addition to onsite training, RYC programs can be made accessible to all serious athletes–despite travel challenges–using numerous formats, including Skype/Facetime sessions, as well as customized videos, audio files and manuals accessed via the Private Client Portal. Refer to the Sports Programs and Private Training pages for more information on specific program options.

It takes strength and endurance to be a good runner. But flexibility and joint stability and mobility are also essential for maintaining a runner’s body. The high-impact nature of the sport is extremely physically taxing, especially for joints—the ankles, knees and hips in particular—and their corresponding musculature. And too often, dedicated runners ignore aches and pains in these areas, which, of course can lead to chronic pain and/or significant injury.

It’s common knowledge that one of the most important things a runner can do to stay healthy is “stretch.” But what does that really mean, and when should runners stretch? Before, after, only on off days? Ideally, runners should warm up and stretch the leg muscles and joints before a run and then conclude each run with restorative and releasing stretches, especially for the legs and hips. But beyond simply lengthening major muscle groups, practicing yoga on off days will provide a more well-rounded fitness program that will produce performance-boosting and recovery-enhancing gains in functional strength, flexibility and joint mobility and stability.

Tailoring RYC to focus from the ground up on the feet, ankles, calves, knees, quads, hamstrings, hips (flexors especially), glutes, and core can create a balance of strength/flexibility and stability/mobility through the muscles and joints to provide the necessary shock absorption and power generation for running strides. In addition to the direct physical benefits, yoga cultivates a powerful sense of body awareness. Runners who are more in tune with their bodies are less likely to ignore sensations that could indicate potential for injury.

More than merely offering preventative maintenance, RYC for runners can increase endurance. That’s because slow, expansive nostril breathing is essential to yoga. Employing deep diaphragmatic nostril breathing (activating the diaphragm and integrating the blood-rich lower lobes of your lungs) while running can help runners take in more oxygen with less energy expenditure. Some runners associate deeper, richer breathing with the experience of reaching the “zone” or attaining the “runner’s high.” Through regular yoga conditioning, runners can train their breathing to improve their nasal breath efficiency, expand their lung capacity and ultimately increase their endurance.

RYC’s specialized breathing, visualization and meditative techniques, are offered as part of “Eye of the Hurricane Training™.”