As someone who has always enjoyed the competitiveness of pushing yourself against yourself and others, I never really pictured myself in downward dog in a pair of yoga tights.

Yoga was still relatively niche when I was in high school but one adventurous phys ed teacher did manage to get a class of 20 teenage boys to go through a few basic yoga poses. That was about the extent of my foray in the world of Yoga until quite recently.

My partner is big into yoga and pilates. I am always up for trying new things and am genuinely interested in seeing the things that make her tick. When she suggested we do a yoga class together I happily agreed to give Yoga a go. She thought it would be good for my running and the other stressors in my life. I was not convinced but thought hey... why not?

I am terrible at yoga. My partner claims there is no such thing as being terrible at yoga and that actually misses the point of it. I still think I am terrible at yoga.

I will put my hand up and say like a lot of people I generally tend to avoid things I don't feel I have some natural ability at. Yoga has been different.

Benefits to running...

Whilst I do find Yoga to be a good stress relief and quite relaxing - this is a running blog. So I will focus on how I have found it helps my running.

I am not naturally flexible and my work entails long hours in a seated position. I have found yoga to be an exceptional form of active recovery. I can almost immediately notice the difference even after something as simple as a 15 min flow.

With the benefits of static stretching coming into a lot of debate and a bigger weight of evidence directing us to more active forms of recovery (walking, swimming, biking). I have found yoga to be a good medium between the two. It helps me to get my body moving and the blood flowing into my muscles whilst at the same time stretching and moving them into the opposing directions I have been forcing them with work and my running. Some breath work never hurts either!

How best to implement it...

I must admit that apart from a handful of times I have accompanied my partner to the local yoga studio - I am often quite time poor and available at inconvenient times for studio opening hours. Luckily, there are plenty of great youtube channels that offer a range of yoga tutorials specifically aimed at runners that fit perfectly into a busy schedule. (15 mins of active recovery doesn't seem like too big an ask!)

My advice for getting started is set yourself up in front of a smart TV with an easily accessible remote. Select a youtube video (I will list some of my favourites below) and block off 10 minutes extra than the length of the video. For beginners like myself, being able to watch the instructor on screen and then rewinding and letting them talk you through to the next pose makes it a lot easy to focus in on their directions and get the positions right.

Whilst it may seem a little stop start at first you will quickly get the hang of the movements and then can perform them at the instructors pace and direction.

Some of my favourites...

So why not give it a go and see how you body feels with some yoga the day after your next long or hard session. I have listed three of my favourite "go to" yoga videos on youtube. If theres any you think I should add to my list drop them in the comments below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hTllAb4XGg&t=9s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4ZJXhCmORA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg_66cTAVCc

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