Yoga for Runners: What are the Benefits?

Yoga has gained popularity in the general population in recent years. Adults of all ages use this practice to improve their health and well-being either as a stand-alone practice or combined with other types of exercises such as running.

I often get patients asking me if they should practice Yoga to improve their running or reduce their risk of injury. As a student and teacher of Yoga myself, my first reflex is to encourage people to try it out. But I also like the give people the best information possible with what research currently shows us. The goal of this article is to shed light on this topic and answer the question “What are the Benefits of Doing Yoga for Runners?”.

What is Yoga?

Let’s start with the basics. Yoga is a discipline that comes from ancient India and aims to work on the mind, body, and soul. The word yoga means to “join together” or “union”. This union could be described in Yoga as many different concepts. It could be the union of mind, body, and soul; it could be the union of our conscious and unconscious minds; it could be the union of our higher and lower selves, just to name a few examples.

What Yoga IS NOT is a religion. It’s also not “just exercise”. Let me explain that a bit more…

The 8 Limbs of Yoga

In Yoga, 8 limbs (Ashtangas) are described. Most people view yoga as being the different poses and shapes that the body can make. That is only one of the limbs of Yoga called Asanas. Although it’s an important part, the 7 other limbs can’t be looked over.

Below is a graphic I’ve designed to illustrate the 8 limbs of Yoga.

As you can see, it’s not just about a downward-facing dog, although it can be part of it. The physical yoga poses (Asanas) can improve strength and balance which is useful for runners, but there is also so much more than that.

What I love about practicing Yoga is how much is transferrable to our everyday lives and even to our running. Take breath control (Pranayama), for example, which can serve to calm our nervous system down throughout the day or control our breath on our runs. Another important aspect is concentration (Dharana) which is certainly transferrable to running as it helps us focus on the task at hand and be more present in our bodies.

If you look at these 8 limbs, it’s easy to see how they could be transferrable to our running. But what does research tell us on how Yoga can affect our bodies? Let’s take a closer look.

What are the proven benefits of Yoga?

1) Brain Health

A systematic review by Gothe et al. (2019) looked at Yoga’s effects on brain health. The results showed that there was an overall positive impact of practicing Yoga on brain health. They found that there were positive changes in structures of the brain such as the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.

The hippocampus plays a significant role in learning and memory. As for the prefrontal cortex, it contributes to our planning, decision-making, attention, memory, speech, and language skills.

Continuing in the brain category, another study by Saeed et al. (2019) looked at the effects of Yoga, exercise, and meditation on depression and anxiety. They found that Yoga helped reduce depression when used as a standalone method and also helped reduce anxiety when combined with other methods such as exercise.

2) Physiological changes

Another research review by Ross & Thomas (2010), found that Yoga was as effective or better than regular exercise at improving different health components in a healthy and nonhealthy population. They found that it helped reduce fatigue and pain levels as well as improve the quality of sleep. They also found that it reduced blood glucose (blood sugar) and blood lipids (fatty cells). Furthermore, it was found that Yoga helped reduce the amount of cortisol (stress hormone) in the saliva. Yoga also had a positive effect on heart rate variability (which is the variation in time between each heartbeat). In theory, if we are experiencing more stress, the variation between each heartbeat will be smaller. If we are more relaxed, the variation between heartbeats will be bigger.

3) Improved Performance

Although current research is limited when it comes to looking at Yoga specifically for runners, a study by Donohue et al. (2006) found that it improved running performance compared to motivation alone or nothing in distance runners. The runners did as little as 20 minutes of yoga before they ran to show improved performance.

4) Improved Body Awareness

Yoga was also shown to improve body awareness and facilitate motor learning skills in an article by Rivest-Gadbois & Boudrias (2019) that was published in the Complementary Therapies in Medicine journal. This ties into many of the aspects of Yoga discussed earlier such as linking the mind, body, and spirit. Increasing body awareness is also a good thing when it comes to running to make the most out of our training.

Limitations of Current Research

More research needs to be conducted on looking at Yoga effects specifically for runners. There also needs to be more specific research on the different types of yoga as there seems to be a lack of consistency regarding this in current available studies. Check out my article The Best Type of Yoga for Runners to find out more about this.

For now, we know that Yoga has a heap of good health benefits, not just for our physical body, but also for our mental health. That being said, if you wish to do yoga as a runner, go for it! Research shows plenty of positive effects and is leaning towards saying it can improve running performance when done before running in distance runners.

If you ask me if you HAVE to do Yoga as a runner, my short answer would be no. You don’t HAVE to do it, but it can be beneficial if you want to. I believe Yoga certainly has its place for those who are interested in including it in their training plan.

Tips for integrating Yoga into your running training:

• Include it in your warm-up or cool-down (keep it short and simple)

  Try this 15-minute cool-down Yoga sequence by clicking here.

• Do Yoga on your rest days (use it to calm your nervous system)

• Use Yoga as part of your cross-training to work on your strength and balance

• Use Yoga to improve your breathing and mindfulness

There you have it, all the key elements to understand the benefits of Yoga and how it can help us as runners. I hope this helps!

Happy running,

April

 References:

1.     Donohue, B., Miller, A., Beisecker, M., Houser, D., Valdez, R., Tiller, S., & Taymar, T. (2006). Effects of brief yoga exercises and motivational preparatory interventions in distance runners: results of a controlled trial. British journal of sports medicine, 40(1), 60–63. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2005.020024

2.     Gothe, N. P., Khan, I., Hayes, J., Erlenbach, E., & Damoiseaux, J. S. (2019). Yoga Effects on Brain Health: A Systematic Review of the Current Literature. Brain plasticity (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 5(1), 105–122. https://doi.org/10.3233/BPL-190084

3.     Rivest-Gadbois, E., & Boudrias, M. H. (2019). What are the known effects of yoga on the brain in relation to motor performances, body awareness and pain? A narrative review. Complementary therapies in medicine, 44, 129–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2019.03.021

4.     Ross, A., & Thomas, S. (2010). The health benefits of yoga and exercise: a review of comparison studies. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 16(1), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2009.0044

5.     Saeed, S. A., Cunningham, K., & Bloch, R. M. (2019). Depression and Anxiety Disorders: Benefits of Exercise, Yoga, and Meditation. American family physician, 99(10), 620–627