Yoga helps runners prevent injuries and build core strength

It wasn't long ago when local runner Kenneth Clair was a walking injury report. His knees hurt after runs longer than 8 miles. He suffered from shin splints and ankle problems. And Clair usually had to interrupt his marathon training because of back strain from running or lifting weights. The pain, said the 37-year-old federal government employee, was debilitating. "I would take a step, and CRACK!" he said. "I would eat Aleve like candy and hope for the best."

But at the Philadelphia Marathon last fall, the McLean, Virginia resident set a personal record of 3:30:58. Before that, Clair's personal best was 3:45. What gives? He pointed to an activity that seems counterintuitive to many runners: Yoga. Specifically, Bikram yoga.

Often called "hot yoga" because practitioners bend themselves into 26 asanas, or poses, and two pranayamas, or breathing exercises, in a humid 105-degree room, Bikram yoga is founded on the principle that heat makes stiff muscles more pliable and allows us to sweat out toxins more easily.

Its creator, Bikram Choudhury, began studying yoga as a toddler, and at 12 was India's youngest national yoga champion. As a teenager, Choudhury was severely injured in a weightlifting accident. With the help of his yoga teacher, Choudhury created the now popular 26 poses and breathing exercises, which helped restore his health. He founded the Bikram College of India in Los Angeles in 1974, and since then--especially in the last five years-- hundreds of Bikram yoga studios have opened nationwide.

The practice is not for the weak-willed: Heart rates soar and oft-ignored core muscles work hard while trying to hold a difficult pose, such as a deep back bend, for five to 10 seconds. Within minutes into a typical 90-minute class, yoga students are drenched in sweat, their faces red from exertion, and their muscles trembling.

"It looked challenging and I like a challenge," Clair said, in typical runner fashion. It wasn't easy at first. The high heat and strenuous poses made him nauseated in the beginning, a common occurrence among novices, who tend to get dehydrated. But Clair persevered.

He's practiced Bikram yoga for about a year now, and takes the 11/2 hour yoga sessions at the Falls Church Bikram Yoga studio one to three times a week.

Clair noted almost immediate relief from back and muscle pain. He's also more limber, and his joints and muscles seem stronger. More importantly, he hasn't missed a day of training because of injury for months. "I have not injured myself since [last] March to keep me from running a step," he said.

Carolan Sudol, the 40-year-old owner of Bikram Yoga Dupont, says yoga helps improve lung capacity, muscle strength, and flexibility by working not just all of your muscles, but also your internal organs.

"When you run, you use only 15 percent of your muscles, your hamstrings and butt muscles," she said. "When you do yoga, you're impacting every single part of your body. You're bringing blood and nourishment to every single part of your body."

Sudol, who opened her Dupont Circle studio in 2001, adds that yoga counteracts the stress and pounding that runners put their bodies through. And the high heat in Bikram allows runners to stretch their muscles more deeply.

"When you're stretching your muscles in a warm room, there's less risk of injury," she said.

That may be true, but people can also over-stretch and consequently strain their muscles, caution some exercise experts. They recommend that yoga students, especially beginners, listen to their bodies, progress slowly, and take tutelage from a qualified yoga instructor.

Lengthening Stride
Cynthia Koons started running in fifth grade, and began beating boys in footraces soon after. The 28-year-old recent District resident ran cross-country and track in high school and college, specializing in the 400. Koons still runs about 15 miles a week and enters local races, such as the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, but considers yoga her primary sport now. She says she's become stronger, more flexible, and her body more aligned since starting Bikram about three years ago. Koons attends yoga classes in Dupont three to four times a week.

Yoga is especially good for runners, as they tend to hunch their shoulders and tighten their hamstrings and shoulder and back muscles, Koons says. Yoga, such as Bikram, will help stretch those muscles and strengthen complementary ones. She also credits yoga for lengthening her stride. "My hip joints were so tight, but once I started getting flexible with Bikram, I had a longer stride and didn't get as sore afterwards," she said.

Like Clair, Koons points to Bikram yoga as the type of yoga many runners would be drawn to. "Bikram would fit a runner's personality, because it's so physically demanding," she said. However, she also emphasized that other types of yoga, such as Ashtanga and Iyengar, will help runners.

Local runner Peter Lamberton hasn't tried Bikram, but practices Hatha yoga with influences from Anusara and Iyengar. Anusara, which means "flowing with grace," unifies power stretches with a philosophy that "looks for the good in all people and all things," according to an Anusara Web site, anusara.com. Iyengar yoga uses props, such as wooden blocks, ropes, and belts, to help students stretch correctly into the various asanas.

Lamberton, a 53-year old lawyer with the Federal Trade Commission, says he started taking yoga classes weekly in 2005 because of lack of flexibility. He also admits not adequately stretching after training runs. As a result, in several marathons, he developed painful hamstring and calf cramps. "This could be debilitating," he said. Since starting yoga, Lamberton has become more flexible, and stronger in his core muscles. "Running doesn't do a whole lot for upper-body strength, so what core-strengthening yoga contributes is good," he said.

The meditative aspect of his yoga classes also helps Lamberton, who volunteer-coached a recent 10K training program sponsored by the DC Road Runners and the Arlington YMCA, mentally focus while running. "In the past I have simplistically counseled some runners to repeat over and over, 'Breathe, breathe, breathe' for every breath they take when their body gets out of sync," he said. "This must be derivative of greater yoga concepts of breathing, because yoga is teaching me to focus on breathing during exertion. There is a lot that runners could get out of yoga."