Dedicated runners are constantly trying to find better ways to take care of their bodies to prevent injuries. A yoga routine for runners may be exactly what you need to complement your training. Too many runners suffer from bad backs and knees, often forcing them to abandon running altogether. You will soon see that a regular yoga practice will allow you to keep running long and hard for many years to come.

Hatha yoga is a series of exercise and breathing for good health. The main benefits of yoga for runners may start with the asanas, or postures. Yoga in runners improves circulation, concentration, strength and flexibility. Yoga for runners, develop strength and make upper body muscles really strong and flexible lower body and spine. It is very useful in preparing the cardiovascular system and muscles for great performances. Gentle form of yoga is sometimes practiced to revitalize after hard training or competition.

Yoga allows calmness and understanding to our minds and bodies. The focus and understanding would train the mind for competition and to develop self esteem and confidence too. Yoga Wellbeing runner’s yoga programs are healthy activities meant for burning fat, building our strength, strengthening and toning our bones, increase flexibility, improve balance and concentration.

When the body is in a contracted state during physical exertion, the muscles are tight and you have limited range of motion, leaving you in an injury-prone state. Proper breathing techniques allow the body to loosen up, and increase lung capacity. While you are expelling CO2 at a higher rate, your body can concentrate on recovery instead of on waste products resulting from CO2 accumulation. Oxygen inflow is increased, keeping your muscles and joints saturated in nutrient-rich blood, both protecting them from injury while enhancing performance.

A yoga routine for runners will also prevent pain by focusing on symmetry, alignment and balance. Regular running often stress muscles unevenly, causing imbalances in the body. For example, running can develop uneven muscle strength around the knee, creating acute knee pain. Yoga will evenly work the upper, lower, inside and outside muscles, forming a more stable support for the joint. Furthermore, unaligned hips can cause strain in the anterior ligaments in the knees, resulting in even more knee pain. And finally, if you are off-balance when running, your body compensates by working harder and less efficiently. The compensating muscles get tighter and weak muscles weaken. Those tight muscles, that should ideally be soft and supple, become brittle and hard, leaving them susceptible to tears.

Finally, the last thing a yoga routine for runners can do for you is aid the healing process of your existing injuries. Oftentimes a sore lower back is merely the result of tight hip flexors that are causing hypertension in those back muscles. This back pain can easily be alleviated through some simple hip-opening poses. Other yoga postures focus on squeezing and releasing joints, thus encouraging active nutrient-rich blood flow to those areas. The practice will also boost the body’s natural healing process, producing pain-relieving endorphins and infection-fighting anti-bodies.

Through this practice, your body will loosen up and work more efficiently. And you can finally bid farewell to aches and pains; yoga will not only prevent future complications, but will actually heal the injuries you currently have. For more information click here.

Have you ever felt an overwhelming happiness at the end of one of your yoga classes? All the worries gone, being able to breathe deeply with ease: everything in balance? This is what I felt after my first Yoga class and I never stopped practicing yoga since.

You could feel this way, too, thanks to the benefits of the yoga postures. For instance, opening the chest with backbends could easily make you feel energetic and able to breathe deeply and easily. On the other hand, Shoulder Stand (Salamba Sarvangasana) can have a sedative and neutralizing effect on the nervous system producing a feeling of calmness.

Nowadays we often overwhelmed by work, by responsibilities, everything is so fast paced. Thus, it is rare to be able to find time to connect with ourselves. We are always living in the future, what’s next, what do I have to do next? The mind is always spinning, projecting us ahead in the future; we are rarely able to appreciate the present moment, the moment we are living. We become unaware of our breath and most of the times the breath is shallow and irregular, causing a feeling of anxiety, sadness, nervousness and tiredness. Do you ever stop even for a second to notice your breathing? For most of us, we are so busy worrying about the past and the future that we do not pay attention to our breath, to our feelings in the “here and now”.

It is easy to lose ourselves by always living in the outside world, not having an awareness of who we really are, not being able to see inside ourselves. We become detached from ourselves. We look for happiness outside, for wealth outside, for recognition of who we are outside, but by doing this are we really happy?

If you are one of those people that often feel sad, suffer from depression or anxiety, I would suggest you to try yoga and see what happens. If you do decide to try, try a one to one session or a group class that you choose to take with no expectations. Don’t feel like you have to be the best or push yourself beyond your limits, there is no competition with others and with yourself.

To feel a deeper and lasting effect of the asana practice you’ll have to be persistent and disciplined, practicing regularly. In fact, the asana practice will create and increase awareness of your body, of your senses, of your mind. With practice you’ll be able to develop awareness of your thoughts, you’ll be able to sense the fluctuations of the mind, you’ll be able to recognize your internal states and to change them before they turn into negative thoughts or feelings. You’ll have the tools to bring your body and mind in balance.

Does yoga help breath cancer patients?

University of Alberta research fellow Amy Speed-Andrews has examined how a specialized Iyengar yoga program for women currently in the treatment for breast for breast cancer, and who have completed treatment, makes a difference in their recovery.

For two years groups of study participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their physical and mental health at the beginning of a 10-week session of Iyengar yoga and again at the end. After analyzing the data that was collected, Speed-Andrews, from the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, found that after yoga 94 percent said they had improvements in their quality of life; 88 percent felt better physically; 87 percent reported being happier and 80 percent were less tired. Other improvements were reported in body image and in decreased levels of stress, anxiety and depression. This is significant, considering breast cancer treatments often leave women in pain, immobilized, tired and depressed.

Studies have proven that people of all ages need at least sixty minutes a day of exercise for better health. It is essential, especially for ADHD children, to get exercise to run off their high amounts of energy. Without it, they cannot focus or process what they have learned. According to the article, “The Active Classroom”, no recess for ADHD kids can lead to problems in the classroom.

How Yoga Benefits ADHD

Positively, yoga can assist with the high energy by calming kids down. An estimated 2.5 children between the ages of 4 and 17 take a prescribed drug to treat the neurological disorder. With ever increasing concerns of long-term problems from these drugs, people are looking for a less extreme way to help cope with the symptoms. Researchers from Australia and Germany have found that boys ages 8 to 13 who practiced yoga at least once a week for five months were found to be less hyperactive. Yoga’s forward bends, a pose that helps deepen and lengthen breath, is said to aid well in helping ADHD students concentrate.

Yoga, a 5000 year-old practice, has been known to calm children, reduce obesity, reduce discipline problems, decrease anger and panic, enhance imagination and academic performance. Additionally, common physical ailments such as pains of the stomach, back, and head, constipation, sinus issues, and colds have all been reduced by practicing yoga.

Many of  the yogi’s in who come along to our London classes ask us why yoga makes us feel happier and more energetic. Well here’s a little insight.

Researchers at Boston (BUSM) were interested in finding out what exactly does happen to the brain after a yoga session compared to another physical activity, in this case, walking?

The team studied two groups of participants for 12 weeks. One group practiced yoga and the other group walked, both for an hour, three times a week. Prior to the study period, the researchers took a brain scan using magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) imaging, then compared it to a second brain scan taken after the participants’ final session of either yoga or walking. The scientists were particularly looking for the gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) levels in the brain. Low GABA levels tend to be found in those with depression or anxiety, therefore generally the higher the GABA the better the well-being.

The results, which are published in the current issue of the Journaly of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that the GABA levels were higher in the group of yogis versus the group of walkers.

Study participants were also asked to evaluate their state of well-being at various points during the 12 weeks. Those spending their time moving through asanas claimed to have seen greater improvements in mood and reduced anxiety levels compared to those who hit the pavement.

The research team hopes this is a starting point for more studies into yoga as therapy for people suffering from mental disorders.

Yoga therapy is finding more and more demand in the marketplace. But yoga continues to grow amongst the generally busy and stressed consumer as well.

Many of our clients come from the corporate world, and they seek yoga to as a way to restore the balance in their life.

Whenever I ask my yogis before class if they have any requests, I’m asked about hip openers. Hip openers may be challenging, but they can also be incredibly satisfying, both physically and emotionally.

If you’re like most students, you probably feel as though someone poured superglue into your hip sockets. There are perfectly good reasons for this. First, modern life requires sitting all day, which keeps your hips from the rotation, flexion, and extension they need to remain agile. Second, common sports such as running and cycling—and even an everyday activity like walking—demand hip strength but not flexibility. The third culprit is stress, which creates tension in your body, especially in your hip area, which is a complex cluster of powerful muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Even a little bit of stress-induced clenching can really lock them up.

So, short of tossing out your chair (which could lead to other physiological problems), and entirely eliminating stress from your life, what can you do to unstick your hips and get them gliding freely again? For starters, you can start to incorporate Pigeon Pose into your daily routine.

This pose is perfect for tight hips because it stretches the hip rotators (the buttocks area) and the hip flexors (the long muscles that run along the front of your thighs and pelvis). It also requires substantial external rotation in the front leg and substantial internal rotation in the back leg. If you practice it consistently, you’ll notice an increased suppleness throughout your practice. You may also find that your body moves more easily even after class, since your pelvis is the central hub of movement.

All you have to do is be attentive to the many—and sometimes difficult—physical sensations that arise. Your ability to observe and be with these sensations and the accompanying cacophony of thoughts and feelings may be just as rewarding as the physical benefits of the pose.

Why not start your week off with a good stretch and give yourself a mini Yoga Wellbeing challenge? This stretch strengthens the legs and ankle, it stretches the backs of the leg and also improves a sense of balance.

Step by Step

1. From mountain pose, bring your left knee toward your belly.

2. Reach your left arm inside the thigh, cross it over the front ankle, and hold the outside of your left foot. If your hamstrings are tight, hold a strap looped around the left sole.

3. Firm the front thigh muscles of the standing leg, and press the outer thigh inward.

4. Inhale and extend the left leg forward. Straighten the knee as much as possible. If you’re steady, swing the leg out to the side. Breathe steadily; breathing takes concentration, but it helps you balance.

5. Hold for 30 seconds, then swing the leg back to center with an inhale, and lower the foot to the floor with an exhale. Repeat on the other side for the same length of time.

Yoga Wellbeing teachers create a range of restorative practices that help clients deal with insomnia. Insomnia—the inability to get to sleep or to sleep soundly—can be either temporary or chronic, lasting a few days to weeks. It affects a whopping 54 percent of adults in the United States at one time or another, and insomnia that lasts more than six weeks may affect from 10 to 15 percent of adults at some point during their lives. To get a decent night’s sleep, many people are turning to pills.

“Sleeping pills are not always a cure; they treat the symptom but not the underlying problem,” explains Sat Bir Khalsa, a Kundalini Yoga teacher. Beneath the symptoms of insomnia are the anxiety, fatigue, and stress that our increasingly fast-paced world seems to be creating. These days, who hasn’t worked long hours without taking a break?

You may feel that you’ve adapted to the intense rhythm that modern life requires, but if you’re experiencing sleepless nights, your nervous system is probably rebelling. It may be stuck in a state known as arousal, where your sympathetic nervous system is triggered. In this state your mind will race or your palms might sweat. Your body will secrete more stress hormones, and your temperature and metabolic rates will rise, as will your heart rate. “There is very good evidence that people with chronic insomnia have elevated levels of arousal in general,” Khalsa says. “And some insomniacs have higher levels right before they go to sleep.” By creating a routine of soothing rituals, you can bring your nervous system back into balance and transform your sleep patterns for good.

Rituals for Relaxing

Whether it’s yoga to reduce muscle tension, breathing to slow the heart rate, or an herbal massage to calm a racing mind, a simple routine can be the most effective and safest road to a better night’s sleep. There is growing evidence that small behavioral changes can make a big difference in getting some good shuteye. A 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that participants who made modifications like reducing stimuli in the bedroom and learning relaxation techniques improved their sleep more than those who took drugs.

Know Your Timing

The first step to feeling well rested is to institute a regular bedtime. Maintaining consistency will help keep your circadian rhythms—the biological changes that happen every 24 hours—steady. Eventually, your body will naturally understand and crave sleep during these hours.

Tuck in Early

Although eight hours has long been considered the ideal length for a night’s sleep, Douillard says that it’s not just the number of hours you sleep that matters, but the time of day you go to sleep as well. He insists that our bodies naturally want to arise around 5 a.m., since humans started their day around daybreak before the advent of modern technology.

These are just a couple of ideas to get you started.

It’s the paradox of sunscreen. When you dutifully slather on the SPF 30 before heading outside on a sunny day, you’re protecting your skin 
from harmful ultraviolet rays. But you’re also preventing those rays from prompting your skin, liver, and kidneys to make an essential vitamin—vitamin D.

For more than 90 years, vitamin D has been known to play a role in bone health. But new research suggests that vitamin D may have many other health benefits. Vitamin D may play a role in reducing the risk of cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Emerging studies are examining the effects of higher doses of vitamin D on depression and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Vitamin D occurs naturally in a few foods, such as salmon, egg yolks, and liver, and many other foods are fortified with 
it. The Food and Nutrition Board at the Institute of Medicine deems a vitamin D intake of 2,000 international units per day to be adequate for adults aged 50 and younger; older people need more. In light of new research, those recommendations are currently under review. But many of us aren’t getting enough even by the current recommendations. By some estimates, as many as three out of every four people in the UK aren’t getting enough vitamin D. While some nutritionists recommend seeking vitamin D by going outside for 10 or 15 minutes without sunscreen on a sunny day, dermatologists argue that’s neither a safe nor reliable way to ensure adequate vitamin D levels.

What’s the yogic message today? Read the label of your multivitamin to see if it contains the daily value of vitamin D, and ask your doctor to check your vitamin D levels 
at your next physical, if you’re concerned. And don’t forget your sunscreen and hat when you head for the beach.

Wondering whether a private session would suit you? Here’s a little bit of an insight to booking a private yoga session.

Yoga Wellbeing will send you the right teacher for your private yoga wherever and whenever it suits you. Laura will spend as long as you need discussing what you’d like to achieve and how you’d like to achieve it. We will talk about what you need to help your body and mind, what you enjoy doing and any particular requirements. You choose the time and place and then we choose a teacher who is ideally qualified to help you.

You pay a flat rate of only £60 per hour, so whether you prefer a one-on-one or you want to share your class with family, friends or colleagues, the cost is the same regardless of location or group size. There is no minimum time commitment, and you can always cancel an appointment without charge as long as you give your teacher twenty-four hours notice. All Yoga Wellbeing teachers are fully qualified, fully insured and have been personally picked by the Yoga Wellbeing team.

Call  now 0845 843 0895  for a personal consultation or to book a Yoga Wellbeing teacher to visit you at your home, office or hotel.