Running is a unilateral repetitive exercise. While running, your muscles and joints are moving in one direction only, forward. At the end of a run, you will feel that your range of movement is restricted. Your muscles and joints are tight as they are being shortened and compressed while you pound the ground.
The cool down is the first and immediate stage in your recovery process. It serves to reset the body to pre workout stage. The objective is to normalise your breathing and heart rate and restore the muscle to its relaxed state. Thus setting up the body for the full recovery stage.
As runners we want to recover from our runs as quickly as possible so that we can carry on with our other activities, become stronger and enjoy our next run session quicker. How then do we that? A post run recovery routine is how we do it. Yoga poses are the best way to do this. For our muscles to recover from our run, they must be resupplied with oxygen, they must return from a state of compression to a relaxed state. Yoga poses do just that, bring fresh supply of oxygen to the muscle and stretches the muscle so as to decompress them.
An intrinsic part of all yoga poses is the focus on breathing as we perform the stretches. Breathing deeply, holding the breath and exhaling slowly while performing the poses, brings oxygen to the muscles. Flooding the muscles with fresh oxygen while flushing out lactic acid from the system quicker, therefore facilitating muscle recovery.
Stretching the muscles as you do in yoga poses restore muscle elasticity and remove pooled blood that has accumulated in the muscles back into the blood circulatory system. As we stretch, blood vessels are subjected by peristaltic waves thus flooding the muscles with fresh blood and removing the pooled ones and lactic acid along with it. Fresh blood brings essential nutrients for the muscles recovery. Any form of stretching will do the same. However with yoga, you are encouraged to perform the poses deliberately, without any jerky and sudden bouncing movements, visualising the muscle being stretched and being mindful of what you are doing. This rigor in being mindful keeps you focused, allowing you to listen to what the body is telling you. You will know when to hold the stretch a little longer and when to release and disengage from the stretch. And this means you are less likely to injure yourself.
I have studied and practised yoga for several years with Real Yoga‘s Rakesh Kumar. It is always a good idea to have a coach to help you; train, motivate and correct your techniques. For reference I have used the App 3D Yoga Anatomy developed by Body Culture LLC. This App gives you a guide on how to perform the poses in 3D. Illustrations in this article were taken and adapted from this App.
R4L has put together a tested sequence of immediate post run recovery routine. This routine includes, deliberate dynamic movements breathing and stretching from yoga practice. There are 3 stages to R4L routine;
- First stage is to restore breathing and heart rate to normal
- Second stage are mobility drills that allows your muscles and joints to recover their complete pre run range of movement
- Third stage, yoga poses that stretches the muscles to restore muscle elasticity and to remove pooled blood that has accumulated in the muscles you have just been using.
These 3 stages do not take a long time to perform. You can complete it in 10-15 minutes. Sometimes, when I am in a hurry, I will perform stage 2, the mobility drills while walking home or to my car. Where I will continue stage 3.
Stage 1 – Breathing
I find that standing still and taking deep breaths works better than walking. This way you are focusing on the breath, inhaling, telling your heart to beat slower and exhaling. Simply stand still and take a deep breath, from the diaphragm and through the nose, hold it and visualise your heart pumping slower gradually, then exhale through the nose, pushing all the air out. You should feel your abdomen pushing outwards as you breathe in and your navel collapsing towards your spine as your breathe out. Repeat until you feel that you are breathing almost normally. The mountain pose is perfect for immediate breathing normalisation.
Stage 2 – Mobility
To normalise range of movement, perform the dynamic warm uproutine. This routine not only prepares you for movement and oils the joints prior to workout, it normalizes the range of movements after your workout. The dynamic warm up routine comprises the high kick, forward lunge with a twist and fall overs.
Stage 3 – Muscle Elasticity and blood recirculation
The poses in this stage must be performed deliberately without any jerking or bouncing movements. Focus on your breathing, taking deep breaths from the diaphragm, holding it before exhaling slowly. You should aim to hold the pose for between 6 and 12 breath counts. This is because we are only intending to normalise our muscles to pre run condition here and not performing deep stretching. Deep stretching should be performed as a separate workout, whose aim is to strengthen. We will shall be discussing deep stretching in another post.
The primary poses for stage 3 are; the mountain pose, the standing forward fold, the triangle pose, the wide legged standing forward fold, the downward dog, the tree and savasana. These primary poses targets the muscle groups that are used while running. The hamstrings and quadriceps being the largest muscle groups. There are secondary poses too which you may choose to perform and these are the warrior poses, twisting side angle pose, the upward dog and the pigeon. These secondary poses are the core of the R4L deep stretch routine for runners.
The Mountain or Tadasana
Stand tall with the arms by the side with the palms facing out. Breathe from the diaphragm, hold and slowly exhale. Hold the pose for 6 breath counts.
The Standing Forward Fold or Uttanasana
Standing forward fold with anatomy the standing fold
From the mountain pose, with the pelvis as a hinge, exhale and bend over to grab your ankles or place your palm flat on the floor. Breathe. Hold for 6 breaths. With an inhale extend up through torso and head back to the mountain pose.
The Triangle or Trikonasana
Triangle pose Triangle with anatomy
From the mountain pose, step sideways so that feet are apart and parallel. Turn the right foot out 90o, this we now call the front foot. Spread your arms out parallel to your front leg. With an exhale, drop your your right hip under your left, rest your bottom hand onto the shin of the front foot. The top hand reaches for the sky. Look up and breathe. Hold the pose for 6 breaths. With an inhale return to standing. Perform on the other side.
The Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold or Prasarita Padottanasana
Wide legged standing forward fold with anatomy Wide legged standing forward fold
From the mountain pose, stand with feet apart. Place your hands on your hips. Root your legs down, and legthen up through the spine. With the pelvis as a hinge, exhale and bend over to grab your ankles or place your palm flat on the floor. Breathe and hold for 6 breaths. A variation of this pose, which I usually perform is with a twist. Grab the opposite ankle with your right hand, hingeing from the hip, on the exhale twist the torso so that the left hand reaches for the sky. Look up. Breathe and hold the pose for 6 breaths.
The Downward Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana
Starting from the hands and knees on the ground, curl the toes and lift the hips and knees up, straighten the legs and move chest towards the feet. Breathe and hold for 6 breaths.
The Tree or Vrkshasana
Tree Tree with anatomy
From the mountain pose, root into your right foot, and place your left foot either: On the inside of your right thigh, the inside of your right shin or the top of your right foot. Bring your hands together in front of your heart. If balance allows, raise your hand(s) above your head and extend your arms up. Focus on a faraway object to aid in maintaining balance. Breathe and hold the pose.
Be mindful to perform these poses in a smooth deliberate action without jerking or bouncing, focus on your breathing and hold the pose for between 6 and 10 breath counts. You may end the session with a savasana or total relaxation. Simply lie on your back, close your eyes and relax. Just don’t fall asleep.
A cool down routine is essential for recovery as it helps the body to regain the full range of movement, remove lactic acid and toxins from the muscle and relaxes the muscles. Once the body goes back to pre run conditions, the muscles will be more receptive to receiving and using the nutrients we will be eating. Making the recovery complete
Do not neglect the post run cool downs and you will recover faster to enjoy your other activities and your next run and of course your will see gains in your performance too.
The full R4L post run routine is:
- Stage 1 – Breathing
- Stand in mountain pose and breathe until breathing is normalised
- Stage 2 – Mobility
- High kicks
- Forward lunge with a twist
- Fall overs
- Stage 3 – Muscle elasticity and blood recirculation
- Mountain pose
- Standing forward fold
- Triangle
- Wide legged standing forward fold. Variation is with a twist
- Downward Dog
- Tree
- Savasana, total relaxation
These below are the secondary poses. These poses will feature prominently in R4L deep stretches, which we will discuss in the next instalment.
The Secondary Poses
Warrior 2 Warrior 2 Pigeon Pigeon Warrior 1 Warrior 1 Warrior 1