Runner’s Yoga – Official Blog

Just in time for summer comes news that excessive use of high-SPF sunscreen lotions can impede our body’s supply of a vital nutrient – vitamin D.

And having too little vitamin D is a serious issue. Not only is it essential for building stronger muscles and improving reaction time (Any athletes out there?) but deficiencies in vitamin D have been linked to everything from osteoporosis to heart disease.

Unfortunately, there is virtually no vitamin D in our diet – you’d have to eat seven pounds of salmon every day for your daily requirement -  so the best source is the sun. (UV rays trigger our body to produce vitamin D naturally.)

But, if you’re coating yourself in high-SPF sunscreen lotion, those UV rays aren’t getting through. So you’ve either got to take supplements, or, as the American and Canadian Cancer Societies now suggest, consider getting small amounts of sun exposure.

Naturally, your doctor and personal situation  will determine the best course of action for you, but you might want to heed the advice of Dr. Robyn Lucas (MD, PhD) who says, “… short sun exposure of more skin is a lot safer than longer exposure of just your face and hands.”

And if you choose the sun-tanning route as your source of vitamin D, remember, you don’t need a lot: you can get almost a year’s supply of vitamin D by exposing 40% of your skin to the summer summer sun for just 3-10 minutes twice a week.

See you on the beach! (For just a few minutes )

Van

(For more, see National Geographic Adventure, June/July 2009, “The Sun Rx” by Kate Rope)

Runners need yoga more than almost anyone because of the incredible impact their bodies are subjected to. The body of a 130-pound runner, for example, is subjected to over 600,000 pounds of jarring force every mile. Every mile!

Obviously, something’s got to give.

Naturally, most of the injuries are to the lower body. But the whole body is affected. And since the body is an ecosystem, trouble in one area can easily spread to another.

Which is why almost 70 percent of runners will be injured. And when runners start ‘going long’ (training for distance races), the risks go up.

So what’s the easiest solution? Stop running.

Right.

Any of you runners out there ever tried to do that? I have. It didn’t work

But I had to do something, because my approach to running (and practically everything else I did!) was to try to blast my way through the walls. Which meant I was regularly busting myself up.

And then I discovered these wonderful things called “doors”. And the thing that showed me where those doors are, is yoga. It is a perfect complement to running. (And every other sport I’ve tried, actually!)

In fact, yoga (particularly the 30-minute Runner’s Yoga routine) is the only reason I’m still out there running. (Please, don’t tell my orthopaedic surgeon.)

Yoga provides the Yin for running’s Yang, as others have noted. The soft to balance the hard. The door to get you safely through the walls.

And not just in terms of the injury prevention and rehab benefits that come from maintaining range of motion, flexibility and balance in the runner’s body. (Although that is often the aspect we initially notice and appreciate the most.)

It is the mental approach of yoga, the breathing techniques, the increased awareness of messages from the body, that can have the most profound effects.

They can literally change the way you run. Change the way you train for any sport. Maybe even change the way you think. They did for me. They have for many others.

It takes a while to ‘get’ this approach. Especially if you’re one of those Type-A athletes (like I was) who thinks you’re not accomplishing anything unless it hurts.

The first step is to try only breathing through your nose when you train. (If you’ve downloaded the Runner’s Yoga Program you can read about the science behind nasal breathing in Illustrated Manual #2 – The Breath.)

And in the next post I’ll tell you how to get started.

See you out there.

Van
RunnersYoga.com