Yoga for Runners

You already know that running can be invigorating, therapeutic, fun, and challenging. And you are likely painfully aware that it can lead to stiffness, muscle imbalances, and overuse injuries such as knee pain, shin splints, sciatica, and hamstring and groin strains.

Let Yoga for Runners show you how to incorporate yoga and breathing techniques into your workouts, help you eliminate chronic aches and pains, and keep you running stronger and longer. Each of the featured yoga poses was exclusively selected for runners and is described in detail to ensure correct execution and improve strength, mobility, and flexibility. Every part of the body is addressed to help you strengthen the spine, core, upper body, hips, hamstrings, knees, and feet and ankles.

Accompanied by full-color photos, the poses are also arranged into 13 yoga sequences to address specific areas of concern such as core stability, strengthening and lengthening the hamstrings, increasing mobility of the hip joint, speeding up the recovery process after a practice run or race, and loosening the neck and shoulders, which is particularly beneficial for runners who sit much of the day. Anatomical illustrations and descriptions explain how the poses and sequences decrease your risk of acute or chronic injury as well as why they are beneficial to your training regimen.

Yoga for Runners also features breathing and mindfulness techniques to help you become more alert to the signs of a possible injury developing and to know when you can push your body a bit harder.

Now is the perfect time to start a yoga program that will help your endurance, strength, breathing, and mental sharpness and make your running experience more productive, pain free, and enjoyable for years to come.

Chapter 1. The Running–Yoga Connection
Chapter 2. Fit Body and Mind
Chapter 3. Breathing
Chapter 4. Prevent Injury
Chapter 5. Healthy Spine
Chapter 6. Core Strength
Chapter 7. Upper Body
Chapter 8. Hips
Chapter 9. Hamstrings
Chapter 10. Knees
Chapter 11. Feet and Ankles
Chapter 12. Restore and Recover
Chapter 13. Yoga Sequences
Chapter 14. Yoga Off the Mat

With an extensive history as a long-distance runner and yoga instructor, Christine Felstead has married her twin passions into a pioneering program for runners. She teaches yoga classes and workshops for runners and endurance athletes and is continually evolving her program to bring the best to runners—most recently expanding the strength component and incorporating functional mobility. Felstead’s Yoga for Runners teacher training program offers certification to instructors working in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Felstead presents regularly at international conferences and has produced two best-selling DVDs on yoga for runners and a six-episode educational series. She has been featured in numerous publications, including Runner’s World, Women’s Running, Yoga Journal, Women’s Health, Library Journal, Sweat Equity, and Canada’s National Post. She resides in Toronto.