So, I took up running too. I was a sixth-grader who’d never felt particularly athletic. Gym class was a nightmare for me as we were always having to shoot baskets or square dance – neither of which appealed to me. I had decided by the time I was twelve that I wasn’t an athlete. Running changed that. I found that I was great at long, steady runs. I wasn’t a sprinter, but I could go a long way without losing any speed. Soon I was running around the lake where we lived. Later, my dad and I ran the hills and backroads of the Lake of the Ozarks together. And, one day, I decided to run a marathon.

Runners are a different breed, and I feel comfortable saying that because I am one. We love the solitude of a long run. We love the road rising up in front of us with the early morning sun. We love the sweat and the pounding of our hearts and the pavement. But, often, we don’t love to cross-train. To challenge the muscles that are not heavily utilized in running and thus may become weak and short. Very often, runners have weak core muscles, increased kyphosis (rounded curvature) in the thorax, and short, tight psoas and hamstring muscles. As the late runner, doctor and author, George Sheehan, once observed, many marathon runners look as if the amount of muscle on their body wouldn’t fill a teacup.

Yoga asanas offer a way to increase both strength and flexibility for the runner. By decreasing muscular imbalances, asanas can help runners to prevent injury. Additionally, the development of the smaller, intrinsic musculature that occurs through sustained practice of yoga may add to a runner’s performance in both speed and endurance.

Here are some essential asanas for runners.

Classical Surya Namaskar:

The classical version of the sun salutation includes breath and movement synchronized to open the hamstrings, front of the chest and psoas muscle (which connects the front of the lumbar vertebrae to the femur, and controls flexion of the thigh toward the abdomen).

1. Begin the series standing in Tadasana (Mountain Pose)—Stand up straight with your feet together on your mat. Press the thigh bones back, lengthen the spine down through your tailbone and up through the crown of your head. Open the chest by dropping your shoulders away from your ears and moving the tops of the arms back (Fig. A).

2. Inhaling, raise the arms overhead so that the palms touch and lean back slightly (Fig. B).

3. Exhaling, fold forward with the arms out wide as if doing a lovely swan dive into a clear lake – if possible, touch the hands to the floor or shins
(Fig. C).

4. Inhaling, leave your hands on your shins or fingertips on the floor and come halfway up, flattening the back and lifting the sit-bones toward the ceiling. Exhaling, fold in once more, drawing your belly and chest toward your legs, simultaneously step the left leg back and put the left knee, shin and top of the foot on the mat (Fig. D). Completing this movement will require that you come into a low lunge with the right knee deeply bent. Be certain that the right knee is over the ankle or behind it, not in front of it.

5. Inhale and raise your arms up with palms facing each other as you sink into your left groin, stretching the psoas. Exhaling, bring the hands down to the mat on either side of the right foot, draw the right foot back even with the left and press up into downward facing dog (Fig. E).

6. Inhaling, pull forward into upward plank pose, this looks like the upper movement of a push up, so feel the belly supporting the spine, the clavicles wide so that the chest is open, and the heels pressing away from you to lengthen the backs of the legs. On an exhale, lower the knees, chest and chin to the mat (Fig. F). If your core is very strong, you can lower to the mat through chaturanga dandasana, keeping your body in one solid line, so that the belly doesn’t touch the mat before the chest and chin or vice versa. It is tempting to allow the elbows to flare out to the sides as you lower the body in this manner. Resist this temptation and keep the elbows in close so that the upper inner arms actually brush the sides of the chest.

7. Once you are on the mat, make certain your hands are under your shoulders and then inhale open into bhujanghasana, Cobra Pose (Fig. G). This pose is more about opening the chest and keeping the shoulders away from the ears than dramatically bending at the lumbar spine, so keep your attention on the work in the chest rather than in the lower belly.

8. Release from bhujanghasana and exhale as you press yourself back into downward facing dog (come up through plank if your core is strong enough or leave the knees on the mat and raise the upper body then straighten the legs) (Fig. H).

9. Inhaling, raise the left leg up and exhaling draw it forward to land next to the left thumb on the mat. Simultaneously, drop the right knee, shin and top of the foot onto the mat (Fig. I). Inhaling, raise the arms overhead with palms facing each other. Exhaling, place the hands onto the mat on either side of the left foot and step the right leg forward to meet the left. Inhale halfway up and flatten the back with the fingertips on the mat or the hands on the shins.

10. Exhale and fold in deeply (Fig. J).

11. Inhale all the way up with the arms raised overhead, palms facing each other. Lean back slightly (Fig. K). Exhale the hands down the center line to the heart (Fig. L). This is half of the classical sun salutation. Repeat the sequence once more, this time stepping back with the right foot after the first forward bend and stepping forward with the right foot after downward facing dog. (Start by trying to do 3 repetitions of Surya Namaskar. You can increase over time until you are doing 9 or 18 repetitions in a session.)

Sole of the Foot and Toe Stretches:
Fig. 1 – Dr. Ashley Cleveland demonstrates foot and toe stretches.	Come onto your hands and knees. Tuck your toes and then sit back so that your buttocks rest on your heels (Fig. 1). If this is too intense a stretch at first, do not sit back as fully. If you are able to sit back fully and be completely comfortable, you may begin to lean the upper body back, resting on your hands and lifting the heart toward the ceiling (Fig. 2). To add a balance challenge to this stretch, start from the point where you are sitting on your heels, raise the buttocks slightly and turn the soles of the feet to face each other, opening the knees out wide. Shift your weight back slightly so that your knees lift off the floor and you are balancing in a deep squat on your toes. You may leave your hands on the floor to aid in balancing or gradually lift them away from the floor, eventually bring the palms together in prayer position at the heart. Stretching the bottom of the foot is very helpful for preventing plantar fasciitis, a common injury for runners. (Hold each toe stretching pose for 5–10 breaths or to tolerance.) Finally, sit on your mat and thread the fingers of your left hand in between the toes of your right foot. Really work your fingers deep into the groove between your toes. Use your left hand to rotate the front of the foot, putting motion into the toes and intrinsic bones of the foot (Fig. 3). Switch and repeat the process using the right hand to stretch the left toes and foot. The asanas covered here are not designed to be a stretching program prior to going for a run. Instead, they complement a regular running schedule by counter-stretching and strengthening. Add them to your ongoing training schedule a couple of times a week and see if you don’t notice a difference. Ashley Cleveland, MA, DC, is Provost and Associate Professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College–Kansas City, and teaches yoga in Kansas City.
Fig. 2 – Foot and toe stretch with full extension
Fig. 3 – Threading the fingers through the toes