Improve your workout with yoga: get more out of your walk or run and protect yourself from injury with these three poses - Better Health Through Movement - Brief Article

YOGA PREVENTS RUNNING AND walking injuries by warming, lengthening, and strengthening your muscles. It also reduces pain and stiffness in your spine and joints, so you feel more motivated for these activities.

Practice these poses before and after your workout. Never strain or over-stretch, and stop any physical activity immediately if you feel pain. Breathe deeply through your nose during the poses and your workout. Try matching your breath to your movements to give your workout a meditative feel.

Walking Downward Dog

Caution: Avoid this pose if you have an eye or ear condition or unmedicated high blood pressure.

1. Begin on all fours in Table pose, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under or slightly behind your hips. Spread your fingers, lift up onto the balls of your feet, keep your knees slightly bent, and push your buttocks up toward the ceiling. Draw your belly in toward your spine.

2. Straighten your right leg and press your right heel toward the floor as you press your left hand harder into the floor, as pictured. Release and switch to your left leg and right hand. Repeat 10 to 20 times, inhaling as you switch sides and exhaling as you press into the floor. Relax your head and let it hang from the end of your neck.

3. Lift up onto the toes of both feet, keeping your knees bent. Feel your sides growing longer. Keep your knees bent and press your buttocks up toward the ceiling. Press your shoulders away from your ears and keep your belly drawn in. Now imagine your leg bones growing longer as you straighten your legs and lower your heels toward the floor. Hold for 3 to 10 breaths.

4. To release, return to Table pose.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Lunge Series

1. Begin on all fours in Table pose. Move your right foot up between your hands, and keep your right knee directly over your right ankle. Extend your left leg behind you, keeping that knee on the ground. Lift your torso from your hips and interlace your hands on your right knee. Tuck in your tailbone and lengthen your spine. Hold for 3 to 5 breaths.

2. Return your hands to either side of your right foot. Now move your right hand over your knee and place it on the floor between your foot and left hand. Walk your hands and torso a few inches diagonally to the left, as pictured. Hold here for 3 to 5 breaths.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

3. Walk your hands back to either side of your foot. Lift up onto the ball of your left foot and straighten your left leg. As your leg straightens, lower your tailbone toward the floor to deepen the stretch, and press your left heel back toward the wall behind you. Hold for 3 to 5 breaths. Lower your left knee to the floor and return to Table pose.

4. Next, repeat steps 1 to 3 on the opposite side.

One-Legged Frog

Caution: Avoid this pose if you have knee problems, are pregnant, or have had abdominal surgery, abdominal inflammation, or a hernia.

1. Lie on your stomach with your legs parallel and extended straight out behind you. Raise up onto your left forearm, with your elbow pointing to the left and your fingers pointing right. Your right arm should lie outstretched next to your body.

2. Bend your right leg at your knee. Using your right hand, reach back and draw your right foot down toward your right hip.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

3. Squeeze your buttocks, tuck in your tailbone, and press your shoulders back. Press your hipbones and your pubic bone into the floor. Gaze at the floor in front of you, keeping your neck in line with your spine, as pictured. Lengthen your spine and imagine that you are sending your heart out in front of your body. Hold this position for 3 to 5 deep breaths.

4. Keep your buttocks squeezed and your tailbone tucked in as you release your right leg and lower it to the floor. Bring both arms to your sides and lower your torso to the floor.

5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 on the opposite side, and follow with two more sets. When you are finished, lift up into Table pose and then enter Child pose: Lower your buttocks to your heels and your forehead to the floor. Extend your arms on the floor in front of you and rest for several minutes.

Rachel Schaeffer is a certified instructor of Kripalu yoga and the author of Yoga for Your Spiritual Muscles (Quest Books, 1998). Her website is www.yogadream.com.

RELATED ARTICLE: Success story.

Dan Coughlin, 56 Woodstock, Conn.

His Story: This eighth-grade social studies teacher has always loved sports and ran regularly for nine years. But around his 40th birthday, Coughlin had an epiphany: As a runner he had suffered chronic knee pain and he realized this problem could quash his plan to continue exercising for the rest of his life. Coughlin decided to switch to fast walking. Soon he was walking 12-minute miles an average of five days a week. His knees felt better, but his hips and hamstrings were sore.

How Yoga Helped: Coughlin and his wife took a community yoga class and some yoga seminars. He began doing yoga stretches after his walks and found that it made a big difference. "I love doing it," he says. "And, boy, do I feel it ill don't."

COPYRIGHT 2002 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group