YogaVibes is a great website that offers full length yoga classes online – and you can trial these for free for 15 days!

They also offer short introductory videos on different poses and mediation and the image below links to a great Meditation introduction! If you are unsure about where to start with mediation this video is only 4 minutes long and can help you find your feet… or your lotus pose!

Yoga Pose Out Take!

In the meantime though, I thought I would share some great short warm-up and cool-down sequences that I found while doing some research for a guest post I wrote for Run Fast Mama.

Warm-Up

It’s important to warm up your muscles before heading out for a run to avoid injury, and yoga is a great way to do this!  While you don’t want to do static poses or stretching when your muscles are cold, dynamic poses & movement are a great way to get your body ready to head out!

I learned this short routine at a workshop I took with Sage Rountree, an internationally recognized authority on yoga for athletes – she actually called this “Parking Lot Yoga” since you can do it as a warm up right in a parking lot before a run and not have to worry about sitting or putting your hands down on the ground!

Repeat this series 5 times on each side moving fluidly with your breath.

• Begin in mountain pose (standing)
• Lift arms over head and lift one knee so that thigh is parallel to floor
• Step back with raised leg into an arrow lunge position
• Transfer weight into original standing leg for warrior III
• Bring raised leg forward back into knee lift
• Lower leg back to mountain pose

You can view a video of this sequence HERE.

Cool Down & Flexibility

Let’s face it, runners aren’t usually known for being the most flexible bunch, but a little extra flexibility can go a long way when it comes to muscle recovery and preventing injury.  This short post run sequence targets the hamstrings, quadriceps, piriformis and hips and is a great way to end your run!

Hold each pose for 3-5 long deep breaths, repeating the sequence on each side. 

• Triangle
• Triangle Forward Bend (Pyramid)
• Lunge
• Pigeon
• Head to Knee Pose
• Happy Baby

You can view a video of this sequence HERE.

Here are some of my favorite resources for additional information on yoga for runners:

• Any of Sage Rountree’s books, as I mentioned I took a workshop with her and I just love her!

• You can also find Yoga for Athlete’s specific classes with Sage on YogaVibes.com (and they offer a 15 day free trial!)

• The videos I provided are from Runner’s World website and there are a lot more where they came from (they are under Training & Plans / Stretching) – while I haven’t tried this IT Band specific one myself, I sent it to Christine from We Run Disney to try the other night and it sounds like it worked well for her!

**GIVEAWAY TEASER**

Stop back on Monday and I’ll be giving away

a 1 year membership to YogaVibes.com!

Extinction Burst – “the conditioning phenomenon in which a behavior that has been previously reinforced no longer results in the reinforcing consequences and, therefore, the behavior stops occurring in the future.” – Miltenberger, R. (2012). Behavior modification, principles and procedures. (5th ed., pp. 87-99). Wadsworth Publishing Company. (from Wikipedia)

For more detail on how the extiction burst applies to diet and exercise see this link: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/07/07/extinction-burst/

I started phase 2 today with Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. My goodness, talk about getting your butt whooped And I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ab Ripper X was much easier after my 2 weeks of Yoga. I am still tweaking my nutrition, trying to consolidate the Whole30, my love of Vegan food, and the P90X guide. I really love this simple guide from Melissa Costello of Karma Chow :

Vegan P90X Guidelines

Tony Horton’s chef, Missy Costello.

“In the vegan diet you will get your fat, carbs and proteins sometimes from the same source, so just watch the calorie intake and try to eat as clean as possible.

Here is Missy’s suggestions:

A.m. H2O upon waking up
Drink greens mixture about 30 minutes after waking
Breakfast: High fiber, whole grain cereal
Snack: Nuts (handful)
Lunch: Protein and green veggies
Snack: Fruit and Veggie
Dinner: Grains and Veggies
Optional: Fruit, Veggie Starch

You’ll get your protein from Quinoa, legumes, nuts, you’ll also get your healthy fats from nuts too. Don’t worry too much about how to label the food as to get in a nice, healthy variety.

Sub in legumes and nuts for proteins and green veggies for dairy.”

This Plan is much less confusing to me than the P90X guide. And It’s easy enough add in eggs and lean meat.

On tap for later today : Homemade Sugar-free Sunflower Butter And Homemade Coconut Macademia Nut “Lara-ish”" Bars

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts (probably like 5 times now!) I was at Kripalu for a weekend of Yoga for Athletes with Sage Rountree. Sage is an internationally recognized authority on yoga for athletes and sports endurance coach as well as author of several yoga for athletes books (all of which I own!) and contributor to Runner’s World and Yoga Journal – so basically she knows her stuff!

Sage’s Books (click on the photo to go to her Amazon page to purchase)

Our first program session was Friday night just a few hours after we arrived. We all gathered in the room we’d be using for the weekend, sat in a big circle and introduced ourselves – name, hometown, sport we were interested in and yoga experience. There were about 30 people and it was so interesting to hear each person’s background and why they were there, we had everything from Ironmen to casual runners, PE teachers, people coming back from injury, yoga instructors and even one or two with no previous yoga experience at all. (My favorite was a woman who taught a class called “Yoga for Creaky People” and proclaimed she was not a runner, but had run 7 half marathons and 2 marathons…ummm, I hate to be the one to break it to her, but she’s a runner!)

Yup, Holly and I are both big dorks and made sure to put our mats right up front!

After our group introductions Sage told us a little bit about herself and her background with yoga, can you believe she basically hated yoga after her first couple of classes?! Lucky for us she eventually had a better experience and stuck with it! We finished up the night with a short stretching practice on the floor – I could tell already I was going to love practicing with Sage!

Ready to practice and learn!

Between Saturday and Sunday we had three program sessions scheduled, Saturday 9:30am-12:30pm focused on strength, 2:45-4:45pm was yin and restorative yoga and Sunday morning 9:30-11:30am was flexibility. Since there is way to much information to share all of it I’m just going to highlight a few of my favorite things we learned, how I plan on applying them to my practice and where you can find more information on them.

The Importance of Recovery

Many athletes are “type A” personalities (of course they are – that’s why they’re so competitive!) and are hardwired to want to go through their training full speed ahead at all times. Our bodies work in cycles, and it’s important to find a balance between work and rest that will ultimately allow you to access your full potential. (I’ll admit this is not a problem I have, I am more than happy to take lazy recovery days during my training!)

Sage’s book The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery covers everything from determining the amount of rest/ recovery you should be doing to different recovery techniques. I’m working my way through this book now and find the information so interesting!

The Six Movements of the Spine

Our spine is our foundation, so naturally it makes sense to take some time to focus on it! Sage had us start each practice by working on the spine’s range of motion by doing what she called “the six movements of the spine”. These movements can be a number of different yoga poses, but it’s important to address each direction: extension (backbend), flexion (forward bend), side bends left and right and twists to each side.

The six movements of the spine is something I’ll definitely be conscious of incorporating in my own practice and when I teach! You can find short warm-ups with the six movements of the spine in The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga.

Parking Lot Yoga

So many types of yoga…Vinyassa, Kripalu, Bikram, Ashthanga, etc. and now Sage brings us Parking Lot Yoga!

Ok, so parking lot yoga isn’t exactly a new type of yoga, but it’s a series of poses that Sage has put together specifically for athlete’s that got it’s name because it’s meant to build heat and warm the muscles and it can be done right in the parking lot before a run or workout! (It’s great for a parking lot because it doesn’t involve any sitting or having to put your hands down on the ground!) I am definitely going to use this for myself and when teaching yoga to other athletes, it’s just a nice short sequence that really anyone can learn and incorporate in to their training!

The parking lot yoga sequence is actually going to be included in the February issue of Runner’s World (which should be out any day!) so I’ll be sure to share the link to it as soon as it’s available!

Sage and I at the end of the weekend!

I can’t tell you enough how much I enjoyed this experience! I learned a lot and really enjoyed getting to practice with Sage, she was really nice, very funny and a wonderful yoga teacher. Being the total dork that I am I had her sign my books for me before I left (yup, all of them!).

I’m really hoping to eventually do Sage’s weeklong Teaching Yoga to Athlete’s program that she hosts twice each year, once at Kripalu and once at her studio in North Carolina. In the meantime I’ll be digging through all the information in her books and practicing “with” her through her online classes on YogaVibes!

I’d love to know: do you incorporate yoga into your training and has it helped? do you have a favorite yogi or yogini you’d love to have the chance to practice with?

As always, happy to answer any questions about yoga or my Yoga for Athlete’s weekend!

free class – Mobile

►

Done with shopping? Black Friday wear ya out?

Well, this here is free.

Free is good.

My FREE online class is still up for a little while longer. Here is the link. http://yoganonymous.org/take-a-free-class/

Let me know your thoughts!

Thank you Yoganonymous and Yogavibes. Love you both!

Feel free to pass on the free-ness: http://yoganonymous.org/take-a-free-class/

Dear Manifesters,

Thought I would send this out as it just popped into my world this morning. My partners at Yogavibes and Yoganonymous have done it again. You can enjoy my online class for Free. For a limited time only. Feel free to share the love. Here is the link.

The following is from Yoganonymous’ site:

Enjoy a free full length yoga class compliments of our friends at YogaVibes

How could the internet’s best yoga lifestyle website possibly get any better? Well, we could offer you some free yoga classes to start…

That’s right homies! Our friends at YogaVibes have been kind enough to exclusively hook up the YOGANONYMOUS network with a free, full length yoga class for you to rock right from your computer. We will update the class twice a month, making sure to give you guys a full glimpse into an array of various yoga styles, teachers, and studios from around the country.

First up, a special “Manifestation Yoga” class served up by our gal, Santa Monica’s Jennifer Pastilioff. In her own words, “Manifestation Yoga is all about having serious breakthroughs in your life, with out being too serious.” Sounds pretty good to us! Enjoy!

Thanks to our friends at YogaVibes for supplying this week’s class!

Whatever your practice, wherever you are, you’ll find the yoga you need on YogaVibes.com. Welcome to your new favorite studio!

So take the class and let me know what you think.

http://yoganonymous.org/take-a-free-class/

Manifesting Your Life,

One Laugh at a Time,

Jennyjenp