¶ Enhancing Running Performance With Yoga
So you're thinking about running , but not sure how to take the first step . My name is Brian Patterson and I'm here to help . Welcome to Brian's Rompod . Well , welcome back to Brian's RunPod . And it's me , brian Patterson , your host for this week's episode . Well , welcome back to the second part of our discussion with Nikki Yazbeck .
So yoga and running might not seem like an unlikely player , but when integrated , they can significantly enhance your performance , flexibility and mental resilience . In this episode , we explore how various yoga techniques can elevate your running game , prevent injuries and offer a holistic approach to physical and mental well-being .
We delve into the different yoga styles , such as Ashtanga , hot Yoga and Aerial Yoga , each offering unique benefits for runners . If you haven't listened to the first part of our discussion , which was on the previous week , then please do , but I do hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did . So what's I mean ? What's the difference between Ashtanga yoga ?
So what's there ?
Ashtanga yoga is similar to vinyasa flow and that it's constantly moving , but it is a sequence of patterns that was developed by Patabi Joyce and so it's a 90 minute practice , which , you know , yoga used to start yoga . Back when I started yoga , all classes were 90 minutes . Now that's not feasible . Now they're , you know , 60 , 45 minutes .
So an Ashtanga class , a typical Ashtanga class , there's three series , and so it's like beginner , intermediate and advanced . Somebody is going to be in that beginner series for years and years and years , and it's a sequence of movements within a 90-minute timeframe . So every single teacher is the same , every single class , and typically it's not led .
So you need to know the sequence . You go in , you kind of learn the sequence , but the teacher isn't over there leading the class , calling out what's next , and so it is the same from class to class all right , okay , thank you .
What's the one where it's like a heated room ? That's hot yoga . Oh , that's all yoga , bikram yoga okay heat it to around .
I don't know what your conversion would be . Over here it's like 103 to 105 , so it's extremely hot .
So 40 degrees Celsius , something like that .
It's not my style and I have some feelings around it .
Oh right Some people love it .
Some people absolutely love it .
Okay , come dripping with the sweat kind of yeah , I mean my .
My theory on the on the hot yoga is that we really need to warm our muscles from the inside out . With hot yoga they warm the muscles kind of from the outside in and so you are more flexible because of the heat , but I feel like it could make you a little bit more prone to injury .
Um , and some people do it because they think that they're going to detox um , they're going to lose weight , and that's not . That's not how your body detoxes , um no , and so there's some myths around hot yoga , but some people love it , and if you love it , then that's better than nothing on that detox thing , I had a .
I had a . I used to know I knew a guy who would wear a sweatsuit and go into a sauna and thought that was the best way of losing weight .
But there's yeah , and then you go drink a glass of water yeah , that's right .
That's right , yeah , but the other thing , uh well , we said in the introduction is aerial yoga . What's what's that in ? What does that ?
aerial yoga is so much fun . So aerial yoga is a piece of fabric that is hung from the ceiling and it's in a u-shape , and so it's a little bit acrobatic . It's incredible for strength building and , of course , yeah yeah , and it's a lot of fun .
It can also be really restorative and really relaxing , so you can get into yoga positions with the support of the fabric and it's just probably a marketing mechanism . But I , I got trained in it , I taught in it and it's just super fun and I would say it's half yoga and half acrobatic aerial okay , circusy stuff so is it .
It's a u-shape which is hung from the ceiling like a fabric yeah , yeah , and it can be really relaxing and it is possible to teach like a full yoga class using the fabric and using the breath , and so it's just fun and novel and something new and different , and definitely you'll feel different muscles that you haven't felt in a really long time .
I was shocked at how much upper body strength I needed and core , and so it really built those up for me when I was practicing a lot so on .
The moving on is basically on the practical side , let's say for yoga , for runners . So how often should we be doing it ?
well , I think anything is better than nothing yeah um , if you're wanting to really see the benefits of yoga , I would say twice a week okay and maybe three times a week . What's realistic for a runner ? Maybe once a week would be realistic yeah I think once a week would be better than nothing twice a week .
You'll definitely see benefits after a couple of weeks right , okay , and are there any sort of things that you could do , I mean on your own , let's say before a run or something ?
I mean I know we are probably the worst stretchers in the world , but , um , is there any sort of like poses or principal things that we can , we can do before we either go for a run or even after a run ?
Yeah , I mean hips and hamstrings are so tight for runners . So you know that figure four where you you can do it seated or standing , but you cross your ankle over your knees . If you look down , there's like a figure four and then , bending at the hips , you can even do it sitting . You can do it sitting , standing and that's just to open up the hips .
Or even sitting on the ground with one ankle in front of the other and like leaning forward . You're going to get some hip stretches there , moving your , working your hamstrings , doing a wide legged forward fold , a forward fold .
A lot of times runners and men or people that are really tight or athletes have a really hard time with hamstrings and hamstrings are really stubborn , and so I recommend that you bend your knees a lot , because if you just do a forward fold and you're really tight , you're going to take it in your lower back and you never want to feel pain in yoga , especially
back pain . That's just telling you that that's not the right movement . But if you were to do a forward fold and bend your knees , you're still going to get that hamstring stretch .
So when you talk about a forward fold , what do you mean ? Do you mean ?
So if you're standing up straight and then you just hinge forward at the hips and you get your head moving towards the ground , that would be a forward fold . You could do that with your knees bent a lot , yeah . And then if you think about just really pressing your feet down in the ground , like really trying , to imprint your feet down on the ground .
When you do that , shoes on , shoes off , doesn't matter . Yeah , that's gonna even heighten that and engage the muscles in a different way and and then , as you start to feel that stretch , you can slowly begin to straighten your legs . But again , you don't want to take that in your lower back .
Right , okay . So basically you're leading up to touching your toes , yeah , and you can do the exact same movement seated .
So if you're sitting upright with your legs in front of you , you can bend your knees again so you don't take it in your back , and then you can slowly start to fold forward so that you feel that stretch at the back of the legs and you want to go for that edge . You don't want it to be easy , but you don't want to be in pain .
You want it to be challenging .
¶ The Power of Breath in Yoga
And then the breath . That's where the breath is really important . So , instead of like panting and like I'm going to get the toes , really stop and come out of it , find your breath and then breathe .
And you'll notice that when you begin like I come out of it , I inhale , come out of it , I exhale , go a little bit deeper , inhale , come out of it and then exhale , go a teeny bit deeper . And the more you can use your breath in those simple poses , the more you'll feel your muscles release . You'll actually feel them release .
All right yeah .
Okay , okay .
So that's really the core , that's really the key to it , because I know when I spoke to a Pilates teacher she said basically it's just getting that breath right and then everything else sort of follows through .
Yeah , yeah . Well , think about if you're doing a forward fold and you're holding your breath , which when we , when things get hard , we hold our breath .
Yeah .
Then all your muscles just tighten up , tighten up yeah . So you're not really doing anything , so you have to relax your breath in order to get that stretch and then let's say , okay , if I do that before and after my run and whatever .
Or if let's say okay if I do that before and after my run and whatever .
Or if let's say I can't make it to the yoga class , I'm running late , but something that I can do at home you know I've got the mat or whatever I mean is , uh , I know it's very easy to just sort of put it into a little podcast , but is there something like you know , maybe a five , ten minute routine you know you can put together ?
Well , I mean , even if you're sitting in your chair with both your feet on the ground , like you and I are and then you cross your one ankle over your knee that's a figure four , yeah and then you fold forward in your chair you can do this at work Then you're going to feel a hip stretch .
Yeah , if you flex your foot , if you pull your toes back towards your knee and you do it , you're going to feel it even a little bit more . That's something easy that you can do . Another thing is if you put both your feet on the ground and you're in a chair and assuming your chair has arms on it , you can sit in your chair and do a twist .
So again , when we do that- so these are things you could do at work . Yeah , at work .
So you don't want to twist and hold your breath , because that's what we do we twist and we hold our breath .
You want to twist , find that spot , take a big inhale in your belly , that space below the belly button , and then , as you exhale , you can go into the twist a little bit more and then do that Like , instead of just cranking into a twist to try to get to this end goal , which is not the goal .
The goal is to release , would be to let your body release using the breath . Any twist , especially for runners , because you're in that forward plane . There's a saying in yoga a healthy body is a healthy spine . It's really important to move our spine in six directions . That's forward , back , side to side . What is it ? Front , back , side to side .
I was thinking up and down .
Up and down , yeah .
Up and down right .
And so we tend to not do six directions , we tend to do only two , maybe four . So laying on the ground and taking your arms out to the side , bringing your knees into your chest and then slowly dropping your knees over to one side and if it's too much you can use a block under your knees until it's comfortable and then breathing and twisting our spines .
The more we twist our spine , the better . If you're stuck in a traffic jam , you can do a little twist when you're driving . Yes , so it's just little tiny things , or ?
and this and this is the beauty of yoga is that it's not like when you go to a gym there's like 15 000 pieces of equipment .
You know you can go on that you , or you know you that you pay for to go on something like that yeah , but it's something that you can do every day or not , and you know , at any moment yeah , um , yeah , it's yeah I know that , um , that crossing your legs business , because I have probably the tightest hips in the world and I do find that very difficult ,
but I do try to .
I suppose the more often I do it then the kind of the easier and also getting the breath right it will get a lot easier yeah , well , I think when you first do it , you're going to feel everything , seize up right , because your brain goes into like oh my , oh , my gosh , what's happening .
But that's when , if you can use the breath , then you'll feel that seizing up , start to release , and that's where the growth happens in yoga is when you can feel those releases and that breath is the key to those releases .
Anytime you're holding our breath , you're not going to get a benefit of a stretch , whatever that stretch is and the other thing I've kind of noticed is that you know people who are doing is .
It doesn't depend on what size you are . Some people who are maybe a lot bigger or whatever , they can have amazing flexibility and they're able to do .
Certain have amazing flexibility and they're able to do certain positions that may be people who are maybe not as big , kind of yeah , yeah , and I see that in yoga . I mean , I've seen some really overweight people doing crazy things that I've never been able to do , um , and so , yeah , I think that that's . That's a great point yeah , yeah , yeah .
So it doesn't matter what you look like or whatever . So you never , you know , as long as you keep doing and you're practicing , and then with the flexibility it will certainly help .
The most exciting thing is that the older we are , the more we can benefit from it and the more you'll see the results . So there isn't an age , you know stop point on yoga where you can't get better .
If you start in your mid fifties , you're going to see marked improvement really quickly and that's really exciting and you'll and I think a lot of times when I went into yoga I was really already flexible , so things were pretty easy for me where I had to learn not to just flop in the poses but to use my muscles and engage in the poses when I go into them
. When somebody's coming into yoga practice and they're tighter and they don't have that flexibility , it's almost better because they've already got that piece of it . So for them it's just letting go and finding that breath and they're going to see the benefits so much faster and that's so exciting .
Literally where you are when you start a class , where you want to touch your toes , and where you are where you end the class . You're going to notice a difference if you tap into your breath .
Yeah , and like a lot of things I know this word is used quite a lot is that journey and it's that improvement . It doesn't matter where you're going or where you're going to be , sort of thing . It's the experiencing that journey and being able to see the improvements along the way .
Yeah . And then also , how are we talking to ourselves ? So when we're in this class , if it is challenging and things are sore and things are tight , are we being kind to ourselves ? Are we judging ourselves ? Do we have some grace with ourselves ? Are we able to tap in the breath ? Are our thoughts going a hundred miles an hour ?
This is really the benefit of yoga is to give us a glimpse of what's going on in our monkey mind and to take an opportunity to slow those down and to notice if we are comparing ourselves to others or if we're being really critical of ourselves or if we need to give ourselves a little bit more grace .
Yeah , I mean you pretty much preempted . My next question was that , in a world of where mental health has come to the forefront of the conversation and health conversation , this is an excellent exercise or excellent discipline where you really are able to take stock of yourself and kind of re reevaluate yourself . Do you , do you agree with ?
that , yeah , I mean , there's been so many studies about breath work and anytime we tap into our breath it calms our nervous system down . So by doing yoga and tapping into that breath , then we're going to .
It's going to be a stress reliever , we're going to be able to release some anxiety from our day and some tension from our body and it can help with insomnia and sleep disturbances and things like that , because we're calming our nervous system down just by our breath , which is super , super powerful .
And I think we don't take time in this day and age to just sit with ourselves , sit with our thoughts and to sit with our feelings and to sit with our breath , and yoga is a really great opportunity to do that .
¶ Discovering Yoga Practice and Ego
I was jumping around here , but how was your experience in India ?
Oh gosh , you know interesting . I went to India . I spent many , many months studying yoga in India and I was 32 , 33 when I went , so I was a little bit younger . What I found in the Ashtanga world was really interesting . First of all , there's about a hundred people in a class and the class goes multiple times a day .
So there's a couple of sessions with with Patabi Joyce it was smaller with Sharath , his grandson , and Ashtanga is a very type A yoga and so there was a lot of ego in there . There was a lot of competitiveness and it was really fascinating . People were getting injured a lot because they were pushing themselves too hard .
I studied under a couple of different teachers there . I studied Iyengar yoga , which is slow and it uses props . I studied under a Hatha teacher there and then I studied Ashtanga , and all those experiences were vastly different , but the ego that popped up in the Ashtanga world was really fascinating and the… .
Was this ? Students from different parts of the world .
All over the world . Yeah , do you think it ?
was that you know , or did you find ? Were they because they're in this so-called I don't know this space , which was they were there to learn ? But I don't know , maybe , like you said , their egos kind of got the better of them .
Yeah , I think yeah , there's this whole . Like I'm studying , this is a great master in India , so there's this whole . I'm studying .
It was showing off .
Yeah , and there's yeah , but I didn't find that in the other styles . There was an Iyengar teacher . That was really amazing that I was studying under over there and I really dove into Iyengar and started to understand it and that's the one that uses props , straps , blankets , blocks , chairs , and it was incredibly challenging .
But I learned so much from that and there was a lot less ego in that style . So it's interesting . But I find that too , I've . I've gone , I belong to lifetime fitness here and it's a huge gym and I've gone to classes there and , and depending on the style , you yeah , you're going to jive with some of the students and some of the teachers there .
Everyone's going to have their different personalities that they bring to it and and some are more breath focused , some are more goal oriented , some are more like we're just going to sweat and move and we're going to kill you and you're going to have a crazy workout and yeah , I'm not here to judge . I think it's whatever you resonate with .
It feels good Either way . You're getting into your body , you're moving your body in different ways and hopefully eventually exploring the breath in the , in the movement and hopefully eventually exploring the breath in the movement .
No-transcript .
I loved my experience in India . I loved really diving deep into three different styles , and not just a little bit , but really really deeply , hours and hours and hours .
I would practice for months at a time and so I really enjoyed diving head on into these different practices and learning what they were about and from some of these masters and some of these teachers were about , and from some of these masters and some of these teachers and , I think , every teacher .
I learned so much from .
I think everybody's got something to offer . That's completely different . Their focus and where they , what they paid attention to and their practices were so different right .
So it was . It was definitely a journey that you you felt it was well spent yeah .
But I think here's the thing A lot of yoga teachers end up going to India because they want to study with the masters , and I actually think that there's really amazing people over here , yeah . Yeah here , and that we don't need to travel all the way over the ocean to get that .
There's tons of good teachers here and I think , as a Westerner , we want the theory sometimes with it as well yeah , and we're going to get more of that from western teachers than we are from from ones across the ocean yes , yeah .
Do you have any sort of you know success stories of people who've come to your class , who are complete novices ?
I mean I love working with beginners . I love working with triathletes and marathon runners and athletes as well , but it's really rewarding for me to see somebody that can't come and touch their toes and then they're super excited where three , four months down the road they can actually touch their toes for the first time .
Or people that are just not a stereotype , where they come into a class and they're really stiff and they can't move and then they really get the benefits of wow , I feel so good , I didn't know I could feel so good in my body .
And so I get that feedback all the time that people feel really good in their body and they get really in touch with their bodies . I've had marathon runners come and they've improved their time .
I've had , I mean , the intense athletes are are the trickiest to work with because they're so tight and they're so bound up in their body , and so I I just love working with like all the different ranges , but with beginners you can see it the most .
You can see like the joy where they're discovering their body and how they can move and how they can feel and how it makes them feel so different .
And then also those athletes where they come in and they've been really good at everything their whole life and they come into yoga and they really struggle but really like it and really feeling their body in a different way and and learning to let go of that ego and to be in the flow of the practice has just been really beautiful to watch
¶ Yoga's Impact on Confidence and Community
.
Yeah , and also do you see kind of the confidence people you know who maybe were ? Either a little timid or a little , not , not that confident .
And then how that kind of grows , you know , as the more they they do the exercise yeah , I mean , yes , I I used to teach this huge class and I would focus on those warrior poses .
And those warrior poses are those standing poses and it's about standing with strength and and power and courage and and conviction and and not just standing in this lazy stance but like shooting energy out of your arms and really stepping into the ground . And so I do .
I feel like you know , especially women , seeing them stand with a little bit more confidence and we do all these heart openings and this chest openings and just stand a little bit taller and a little bit prouder and in their body and confident .
And yeah , and I think it's , you know , when we can build strength in our bodies , I feel like it builds strength in our character too .
Yeah yeah . I think with that they're kind of like symbiosis . You know they're symbiotic sort of thing . It's very different .
I know that all my life health has been quite an important thing to me and I know that if I don't do some form of exercise week or a couple of weeks , then you , you , I think you , you feel you become more closed in the kind , maybe become negative , but it's good to .
Whatever it is you're doing is to just to see , to be moving about and just to have that sort of much more positive , positive outlook well , and I think yoga is different than running , because running is typically a solo activity , where yoga is more of a community activity and so it's a being around other people and being in that space and struggling together or
, you know , standing in our power together and breathing together . That there is really nice sense of community . And I think it is a welcoming community . For the most part . A lot of the classes I've been to they just welcome , welcome people that are new , welcome people that come back , and so it's a really great place to connect with others .
What do you think of the misconceptions about sort of yoga and you know what people ? What do people find that ? Oh , I thought he was like this , but it's not .
I think a lot of people I mean you've , you've . I think men tend to think , oh my gosh , it's too hard , but a lot of people think it's too easy .
I was on another podcast with a male interviewer and he , you know , his conception was you sit with the sun setting in the background on a mountain or whatever , doing yoga , and it's very Zen and it's very easy and it's very simple and I think that the movement sometimes the most simple , easiest movements , or sometimes the hardest .
You know you see people doing these crazy poses and that's just a lot of strength , but sometimes that forward fold is one of the hardest poses .
Or the down dog , which looks really easy , that inverted V pose is incredibly hard , and so I think and then there's this conception about it's for women and it's not there's a lot of yoga and a lot of men finding benefit from it , and so I think that that's used to be a lot of men finding benefit from it , and so I think that that used to be a
misconception , but maybe not so much anymore . Or that you need to be flexible to go , but no , that's why we go is that we need to increase that flexibility and also that weakness about . It's a weakness to use props where it's not .
It's about having really good alignment and feeling good in your body , and it's not about that's not a crutch to use a prop , it's a strength well , you know , you people who go into the gym use props , one could argue even props .
Either you know weight training or whatever . Then yeah , they are using using props , and do you feel that over the time that you've been teaching or practicing yoga , has the popularity increased ?
oh yeah , yeah , I mean , when I started doing yoga , I don't think there were . There weren't any men coming . Yeah , now , and while there's more and more men , it's more mainstream . It's in gyms . There's a lot of athletes doing it . There's a lot of teams sports teams that are there . Their athletes are going into it as part of their regular routine .
I think that , yeah , I think I think the hardest hurdle is really just going into that first class , just knowing it's going to be out of your comfort zone , it's going to be something that's out of your box , and maybe going with a friend would be something that would be .
My advice to somebody is just so that it's not so overwhelming , but I think it's just taking that first step . That's the hardest . And maybe it is going to that gym class . I don't think that gym classes typically give the best instruction , but it's a good way to just get a feel for it .
And then I also think you know , if you go to one teacher and you hate it , don't give up .
Go to five teachers and figure out yourself like yourself . You said yeah . So you didn't like the first one , but then you tried other ones as well .
Yeah , or go , but go to a studio . A lot of them have a 30 day pass . It's really reasonable . And try , you know 10 different teachers and you're going to see really quickly which ones resonate with you and which ones you like and which ones you never want to go back to .
Before we go . I mean , I know it's , we could have talked for ages or whatever , but I know you do . Is that right ? You do a podcast , is that right ?
I have a podcast , yeah .
So do you want to talk about what made you decide to do the podcast and what sort of things do you cover on the podcast ?
Yeah , I had wanted to do a podcast for a while and I was just really terrified to start and so finally I got over myself and just got it out there . But it's called the Connected Community and it's about exploring possibility through mindfulness , movement and self-discovery , and I've been doing it for over a year and I love it .
I'm having conversations with people that I wouldn't otherwise have . Um , so is it just yourself or do you ? Is it you and someone else who do it with ? Yeah , I always interview .
Yeah , I always interview guests and it could be something from diet , nutrition , gut health , um , how to reverse aging , all the way to spirituality , plant medicine , how to talk to introverts and extroverts , non-violent communication , human design , feldenkrais .
So it's just all across the board , but the main theme is about self-improvement and my goal is always to go 10 layers deeper than the normal podcast , and my goal is always to go 10 layers deeper than the normal podcast . So I find like we go really , really deep and I'm loving it .
It's been super fun having my podcast . You don't make people cry or anything like that .
I don't think I've had too many people cry , but they do go really deep .
I always find that when people sort of explore their feelings and they get , I always find that when people sort of explore their feelings and they get , sometimes they kind of get to depths that maybe they didn't want to go .
Yeah , I haven't had that , but I mean , I've had people that were in cults , that were sex trafficked as really crazy stories where they've come out of it and like they're these incredibly amazing , beautiful humans that are here to tell their tale um so it's been really interesting , I love it .
Oh , brilliant , that's good . So there we are . We'll . We'll put a link to that in the show notes , whatever , and then uh and any um links . Are you on instagram ?
I take it um , I'm not super popular on instagram . I I I intentionally not on instagram , I'm on facebook and then I have a website , it's okay , why yoga ? So it's n-i-c-k-y-y-y-o-g-a dot com .
It's got three y's in it um , yeah people can find me there and I do online and in person yoga classes and and I think I can really help people online I can see their body , I can see their shape , I can even see their feet , and so I can help with alignment and help them feel good in their bodies .
And I work from beginners people have never done it before to professional athletes , so okay , so , and is that so ? I mean , do you have international clients , or I've done I don't any right now , but I have definitely done clients from all over the world . So , yeah , it doesn't matter where you are , we'll find a time that works for everybody .
Yeah , uh . All I can say is I've . I've learned a hell of a lot today .
If not to try some of your , some of the moves , maybe on my own , or even maybe I might go to my local gym and find and find out a bit more about it what was most surprising for you to learn um , I just think that , well , I think the thing for me , as I've said , I'm getting older , that I'm not sort of able to accomplish the same things in terms
of fitness goals that I was able to do beforehand .
And also I think and I don't know if this resonates with other people , with other listeners is that if you are looking after relatives who are older , like , say , for , for instance , my father has dementia and I see him I think that tends to make you , in a sort of way , interesting way , connect with your future , if that kind of sounds , and that it's like
you know and also how friends and families are going through different health concerns , something . And I think you really have to think about the here and now . So then , to try to make the most and I mean I do a job which is pretty much , you know , desk bound but to try to become more aware of movement and to do try different things .
I think that's you know , just from what you were telling , saying has maybe given me a few ideas of what I could be doing um yeah and trying different things .
You know , and I think that's , and I think that that's the main thing and obviously to to keep you know , to to you know , to keep mentally sharp and mentally aware , and I think that's the main thing that I've that's come across from today .
but it's just nice because I know I've interviewed people who are , I don't know , pilates or body movement specialists , but I was really keen to to speak to someone specifically about yoga and I think definitely from today's episode I definitely got that . So yeah , and I just hope everyone else does when they listen to it .
So yeah , yeah , thank you .
Thank you . Thank you very much . Okay , right , I'd like to say thanks very much and come to that and , as I said , I'll split the episode in two then . And come to that and , as I said , I'll split the episode in two then . But maybe , if you're open to maybe coming on again , then hopefully I can ask you on again . It'd be great . Yeah , okay .
All right , cheerio , bye-bye , bye-bye , bye-bye .