According to Lucas, yoga is particularly good for boosting running performance because:
1. Yoga helps build strength and endurance through its strong poses which you generally have to hold for a while.
2. It significantly increases your flexibility, which is important for runners as it loosens tight muscles and reduces the risk for injury to a great extent. “Many people suffer from injuries due to stiffness and poor range of motion, usually because a lot of us are bound to a desk every day,” says Lucas.
3. It boosts your recovery. “When I was practicing for marathons, I had to run for long stretches almost every day, which inevitably led to sore joins and tightened muscles. I started doing yoga to balance out my training, which led to massive improvements with both my recovery and performance.
4. Science says it is. A study by the American Council on Exercise found a regular practice of Hatha yoga significantly improved subjects’ flexibility, muscular strength, endurance and balance. After eight weeks, the group improved their flexibility by 13% to 35%.
