For most of the 20 years that I’ve been a competitive runner, I’ve intentionally disregarded yoga. I assumed that it wouldn’t offer anything meaningful to my workout routine. But as I’ve become older—and, it seems, wiser—I’ve found the exact opposite to be true. Especially when it comes to the benefits I experience from core-strengthening exercises in yoga and what they contribute to my training.
After racing competitively in college, I shifted my focus to intense training for half-marathons, marathons, and other road races. It wasn’t until after I began incorporating core-strengthening exercises from yoga into my gym workouts that I began to feel stronger than ever.
Yoga poses engage the less-obvious core muscles often ignored by runners, hikers, cyclists, mountain bikers, and other outdoor athletes. Those include the transversus abdominis and other deep core muscles, the side abdominal muscles, the spinal stabilizers, and the overlooked pelvic floor muscles.
Although the benefits of incorporating yoga into your training aren’t limited to making the shapes. It’s also how you hold…
