A lukewarm love affair

I have been running the last few weeks after meditation and before my yoga practice.

I am the most fair weather runner who has ever lived, by the way. In the Spring it seems like the loveliest idea after a long winter but when it gets too hot, I reconsider. In the Fall, I think, “I should really start running.” Then, it gets cold and there is nothing in me that wants to stick with it.

Yoga is different. It is a love through thick and thin. Hot weather or cold. Cranky or happy. Chubby or lean. Too busy or at peace. I even take my yoga practice on vacation with me and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It doesn’t matter how I feel when I start my practice or begin to lead a yoga class, I always feel infinitely more connected to myself and others at the end of it. Mindful movement and meditation is the most underrated and accessible kind of magic.

Running is THE thing for some people and their yoga practice is the add-on that keeps them running. The last three weeks for me in particular, running has been a nice add-on to my yoga practice. During this strange time we are in the midst of, I truly welcome a more intense awareness of the relationship between my heart and lungs. I also just need to move more.

I am not professing a lifelong commitment to running but the combination of this with yoga has felt like a match made in heaven lately.

I have been returning from a run each morning sweaty and with movement buzzing through me. I stretch out my calves right away on the stairs into my house then I head to my yoga mat. I get grounded and use my breath along with the foundations of the poses to grow the shapes.

I have been doing a full practice but here are a select few yoga postures that have felt like pure heaven after a run…

Place a block under your sacrum and push your feet into a wall in front of you and down into the floor. Allow the tip of the pubis bone to look up slightly reducing the curve of lumbar spine and providing a nice set up to access iliopsoas.
Hug one leg into the chest but keep pushing the foot of the stretched out leg into the wall and down into the floor. To weight the pelvis differently, play with how you draw the knee to chest. Allow it to widen and notice the difference in the weighting of the pelvis providing a fresh exploration of iliopsas on the opposite leg. Breathe. Repeat with the other leg drawn to chest.

The trick here is to keep pushing the foot into the wall. Note: the foot to wall is now on the pinky toe side and along the floor. Push the other foot into the hand (or a strap if you can’t reach). You could follow this by opening the leg up into the open space beside your body; reclined hand-to-big-toe pose.
This is a variation of butterfly pose with soles of the feet together but away from the pelvis instead of the classic pose that draws the heels in close with feet opening like a book. I like stretching my arms out in front to get more length in the back body.
Double pigeon is so delicious that even looking at the picture I am imagining how it feels. There is so much opening in the hips and when you stretch the arms in front you will increase length all along the back body. Yum. This pose is also called double log pose (that makes me laugh and I prefer the name double pigeon). If this isn’t accessible, do regular pigeon or flip it onto its back for thread the needle.

A couple tips for this pose in particular…
1) create an “L” shape with both legs; line up hip to knee and knee to ankle.
2) keep the feet awake; move through the balls of your feet to keep awareness in the legs.

The other really feel great postures have been seated forward bend and standing forward bend against the wall, full warrior series, triangle and reverse triangle, bow and camel, downward dog, head stand and simply sitting back on my heels with my toes curled under. If you have a firm rubber ball or a good quality tennis ball, use it to roll out your feet and glutes.

What activity do you like to pair with yoga? Tell me all the juicy details about your love affair. If you have any questions about the postures above, let me know.

Stay healthy and happy, Katherine xo

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Katherine

A writer, meditator and yoga instructor committed to bringing more light into the world through mindfulness practices.

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