If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen me looking graceful and elegant in some awesome yoga poses. Or, you may have seen me looking awkward and stiff in some standard yoga poses. I guess is just depends on how fast you scroll through your feed 🙂 As a side note, it’s so great to have family members to take pictures of me in a pose before I fall on the floor!
But seriously, what is up with me and yoga? I’ve never really gotten into yoga. I went to one class and I giggled the whole time I was supposed to be silent and focusing on my third eye. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t relate to that concept. So when I saw Angela over at Happy Fit Mama talking about a yoga challenge happening, I was intrigued. I especially liked the name RunnersLoveYoga. I’m a runner! I want to love yoga! Well, I want to be able to stretch out and reap the benefits of yoga!
So each day I’ve been following along and trying to follow the instructions and mimic the poses presented on the Instagram feed.
I’ve done this:
And this:
And this!:
It has been quite enlightening to see pictures of what I look like. I mean, I might think I’m making my back straight, or sitting up tall, but actually it might not really be the case. This is the pose I found my funny – I’m supposed to be laying with my back on the ground, “if that’s comfortable”. ha! I was getting no where near the floor. The sad part was that my husband was actually able to lay with his back on the floor easily!! Dang. I definitely need to get more flexible.
None the less, even though I lack slightly (a lot!) in the flexibility department, it has been fun following along with this and challenging myself. I need to get in the habit of stretching after my morning runs before work – I need to make the time to fit in the post-run stretch – and having a “go-to” set of routines really helps.
I doubt you will see me busting out handstands any time soon, but who knows 😉
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How about you?….
Q) Do you practice yoga?
Q) Do you have a standard set of stretches that you do post run?
Q) How’s your holiday shopping going?
I haven’t really started mine, but I did finish a Christmas gift (calendar) at Shutterfly, and I think it turned out beautiful!
I have enjoyed seeing your yoga poses on instagram!
I have a set of stretches I do before and after each run. It definitely helps me to have a specific set that’s just worked into my normal routine. I don’t even think about stretching anymore. It’s just like brushing my hair – a thing I do because it’s part of my routine and needs to be done. Most of my stretches focus on my hip flexors since they tend to be problematic for me… although last night I was thinking about how they haven’t bothered me in a couple of months! 🙂
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Doing those Hansons warmups did teach me how important it is for me to warm up. And is definitely feel it when I don’t stretch afterwards. Kudos to you – it’s a great habit!
You look like Sydney in front of that Christmas tree. 🙂
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Ha, that’s true. I should have had her fill in as my yoga double. That would have been more impressive!
I have done yoga, but find the Runners Love Yoga too complicated and fast… I don’t’ remember her name, but she is crazy flexible!
My favorite yoga pose after running is happy baby, it releases any pain in my hips.
Not done shopping at all, and starting to panic.
Oh good, it wasn’t just me that thought she was really fast! I could never do a downward dog that fast. I kinda have to ease into all of them. 🙂
No worries – plenty of shopping days left!!
I joined a local gym so I could train over the winter with a friend who was a member. We decided to take a yoga class since the instructor was a marathoner. We faithfully attended every week until the Spring when we started running outside again, but I really felt the stretches and poses helped with some of my running tightness. At first it was a little awkward because it was a morning class and my buddy and I are both retired and in our 60s. Everyone else in the class was female and in their 20s. Thankfully, they didn’t burst out laughing when one of us would fall over which was at least once or twice a class.
That’s funny – I totally fell over doing one of those poses! I had my daughter snap a picture really fast. I’m guessing that’s not really how yoga is done. Haha
I love the fact that you do yoga at home – I get lots of laughs out of watching you do it! ha
Bahahaha!