Video: Effective yoga for runners

Setting a personal best often comes with a series of aches, tightness and discomfort. It’s definitely part of the process.

One thing that can help is adding a simple body work routine to your training plan. A series of basic yoga poses can be very effective in helping to keep your body healthy, prevent injuries and ease the mental stress from training. You can also use yoga as a dynamic warm-up or after your run to help your recovery.

Heather Gardner works with a lot of runners. Gardner is a coach, certified group fitness instructor and indoor cycling coach. Each week, she leads a running group in downtown Toronto. She says she encourages her runners to take care of their bodies so that they can continue to train and develop instead of getting derailed by preventable aches and pains.

In this video, Gardner takes you through a series of running-specific yoga poses. These poses target areas where runners experience the most discomfort from repetitive motion and high mileage.

Kristi Edgson also works with runners and helps to demonstrate the poses. You can learn more about Heather at www.runsoulcycle.com and Kristi at http://www.urbanedgefit.com/

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