Sage Rountree: Yoga for Athletes, Training for Running and Triathlon

Active Yogi: Stress and Rest

2012-01-31T07:14:00.002-05:00

Greetings from the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Rest, where I am leading an intensive on teaching yoga to athletes. Yesterday, we talked about progressive overload—the proper application of stress and rest. And fittingly, that's the topic for the latest blog post at Active Yogi at Yoga Journal. Please check it out.

Yoga Shelter Grosse Pointe Recap

2012-01-24T16:29:00.001-05:00

What a wonderful group of yogis practice at Yoga Shelter Grosse Pointe! I had an absolutely wonderful time with all of them. As I promised them, here's a recap of what we did.

I hope these practice notes will help jog your memory. When there are online depictions, I've included a link. Underlined sequences appear in The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga.

Friday Night: Restoration

Child's pose/prone corpse
Lateral child's pose
Cat/cow
Prone twist
Pulsing lunges:
-low lunge
-psoas stretch (back-leg side's arm lifts overhead)
-psoas stretch w/twist (look under raised arm)
Wild camel
Reclining twists: reclining figure 4, half Lord of the Fishes, cow-face, eagle-leg twist in both directions: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2009/9/24_Reclining_Twists.html
Bridge articulations
Corpse

Saturday Morning: Strength and Flexibility

Supine single-legged warmup
Rolling like a ball
Tall mountain flow
Arrow lunge: Arrow lunges: http://www.yogavibes.com/videos/watch/carrboro-sage-rountree-vignette-1-010810/ and http://blogs.yogajournal.com/activeyogi/2011/05/dynamic-warm-up.html
Planks/core: Static core/alternate with stretches, and table core, both described in detail here: http://sagerountree.com/blog.php?id=1795128332860940338 and illustrated in part here: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2007/7/19_Core_and_More.html and here: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2006/8/11_Quick_Fix.html
Backbends
Inversion
Corpse

Saturday Afternoon: Focus (Yin Yoga)

For more on yin yoga: Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers
Dragon
Sleeping swan
Dragonfly
Wide child's pose/frog
Saddle/sphinx/seal
Shoelace
Twisted roots
Pentacle

Sunday Morning: Core Fun/Wall Fun

Child's pose
Inchworm flow/alternatives to the standard vinyasa: http://sagerountree.com/blog.php?id=6187322280526524089
Core plank series
-swing leg forward/balancing crescent lunge
-swing leg to opposite elbow/ITB stretch or side plank variation
-swing leg to same-side elbow/lizard or tripod twist or quad stretch
Half moon on knee (table core): http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2006/8/11_Quick_Fix.html
Wall folds: http://blogs.yogajournal.com/activeyogi/2011/08/multitasking-recovery-for-hips-and-hamstrings.html
Legs up the wall or corpse

Grosse Pointers and everyone: I'll be teaching a weekend of yoga for athletes at Kripalu for Labor Day weekend—registration will be online soon.

Active Yogi: Set up for Success

2012-01-16T13:50:00.005-05:00

In my latest post for Active Yogi at Yoga Journal, I consider mat placement. Where do you set up and why?

Active Yogi: Train Your Focus, Part 3: Mantra

2012-01-06T14:37:00.001-05:00

My latest post for Active Yogi is on mantra. You probably use it already, whether or not you have thought of it as official.

Thoughts on the RW Run Streak

2012-01-02T14:07:00.004-05:00

As the author of a book (The Athlete's Guide to Recovery) and a column (Serious Recovery) on recovery, I take rest seriously and hold my rest days as sacrosanct. But as a coach, I like to try out various approaches to see how they feel. With an open mind, then, I joined my colleagues and readers for the Runner's World run streak (#RWRunStreak), and ran at least a mile every day from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. Some days I ran exactly one mile, others I ran 22 or more. But I got out there every day, however I felt. (Happily, I wasn't sick or hurt during this period.) Some highlights:

I knew I was going to run every day. Not going wasn't an option. This was appealing.
I got to try out different shoes on the short-run days, some of which I'd never wear for a typical hour-long run. A favorite are the Brooks Green Silence, which were perfect for a jaunt around the block with the dog.
The dog really liked these runs! A mile was just right for her to burn off some energy but not be exhausted (a terrier mix, she has short legs and is decidedly not built for distance).
A mile of running would break a light sweat, just enough to make clothes nominally dirty. Reticent to add to our wash load, I found myself heading out in interesting outfits, from preworn workout clothes to street clothes from the hamper. New Year's Day, I wore my pajamas.
On the first Sunday of the streak, I headed to the middle-school track a block away to knock out a token mile. My daughter Lily came along, planning to run with me. We found the infield was the site of a soccer tournament, and the track and bleachers were full of the families of the players, all Korean. Wearing the minimalist Merrell Gloves, I was determined to do my run on the track anyway, and to Lily's horror, I wove through the crowds, high-fiving the toddlers and drawing confused looks from everyone else.
One of the best runs was in 38 degrees and pouring rain. I'd have hit the bike trainer if it weren't for the streak, but I went out anyway and really enjoyed feeling tough. (By the end of the day, it was sunny at 60 degrees.)
A mile run makes a lovely warmup for yoga, weights, or riding the bike. Usually, we run off the bike in triathlon training (though duathletes will run first, too), but starting with the run feels good, especially when the weather is cold out.

Today, I dressed to run and took about a dozen steps before bailing. The bruises from my fall during Saturday's long trail run are really blooming, and I obviously used my right quads to brake my fall. While I shuffled through yesterday's finishing mile without too much pain, the DOMS has set in two days postrun and post-fall, and I was happy to stop my watch, come inside, and hit the yoga mat.

Now it's back to my usual five runs a week, and Sundays will resume their privileged spot as the day of total rest—just in time for the NFL playoffs.

Active Yogi: Balancing the Lower Legs

2011-12-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

My latest post for Active Yogi is on balancing strength and flexibility in the lower legs. Please click through and check it out at Yoga Journal! I included this video:

Active Yogi: Can Athletic Traits Hinder Yoga Practice?

2011-12-05T15:18:00.001-05:00

My latest post for Active Yogi, my blog at Yoga Journal, investigates the athletic mindset on the mat. Do you see yourself in it?

Active Yogi: Train Your Focus, Part 2

2011-11-22T11:11:00.001-05:00

My latest post for Active Yogi is on using drishti toward dharana. If that doesn't mean much for you, please click on over and let me explain!

Active Yogi: Injury Prevention

2011-11-07T14:03:00.004-05:00

My latest piece for Yoga Journal's Active Yogi blog is on injuries you shouldn't "train through" on the mat. Please have a look and capital-L Like it!

Sneak Peak: The Runner's Guide to Yoga

2011-11-02T08:48:00.001-04:00

If you like to plan your 2012 season way ahead, you might also like to order my newest book, The Runner's Guide to Yoga, which will be out in April. It's now available for preorder on Amazon (you're guaranteed the best price when you preorder). Please check it out! I hope it is a useful guide to runners looking for balance in their bodies. As the subtitle explains, it's "a practical approach to building strength and flexibility for better running." It covers breath exercises, meditation, and yoga philosophy, as well as poses, offering you tools to improve your running and your connection with your body, mind, and spirit.

Active Yogi: Train Your Focus, Step 1

2011-10-24T14:28:00.003-04:00

The first in a series, this piece describes pratyahara, the first step toward the mental focus that separates good athletes from great ones. Please scoot over to Yoga Journal and like it, and share on your Facebook page!

Impromptu Post-Long Run Recovery

2011-10-15T18:14:00.004-04:00

Steps to recover from your long run:

1. Cool off your legs.

2. Consume a post-run snack rich in carbohydrates.

3. Get off your feet.

For more: The Athlete's Guide to Recovery

Active Yogi: Twist and Squat

2011-10-10T16:48:00.001-04:00

This is as close to catchy headline writing as I'll get: "Twist and Squat," my latest post for Active Yogi, my Yoga Journal blog. Depth in a squat, as in every asana, is dependent on both your soft tissue and your skeleton. While the model (my handsome husband, Wes) wouldn't self-identify as flexible, he's a good squatter; his ankle bones let him keep his feet flat as he squats. In fact, it's his go-to position for tense football games.

Kripalu Post-View, September

2011-09-26T13:20:00.002-04:00

Yes, I was in Seattle,
however briefly!

I am happy to be done with my whirlwind travel week, which began with a trip to Seattle on Wednesday–and a trip back on Thursday! In between, I loved meeting the affable, laid-back, but sharp leadership of REI and of prAna, and teaching them yoga. What a nice crew, and a pretty town. While it was a short trip, I did get to the market for a peach, an act documented, somewhat randomly, by Univision cameras.

The next morning I headed to Kripalu to lead a weekend of yoga for athletes. As usual, the students were fantastic. I got to learn about curling from one, which was a blast; we also had an Olympic skater, a martial artist, and a host of all-around fit people and yoga teachers. There were two couples and two parent-child pairs. You should consider coming, alone or with a loved one, in February! Here are details and registration—there's a weekend, but it's preceded by a five-day intensive on teaching yoga to athletes.

In contrast to the ice and snow in the Berkshires in February, we had the start of the fall foliage, and I got to run on both trail and roads while I was there. What better way to get to know a place? Yesterday's run finished at the labyrinth, which I walked slowly for a wonderful cool-down experience. Every time I go, I love the place more. It's always rewarding to see the staff and volunteers, many of whom I've known for years now, and to watch the guests begin to relax into the inner space you find when you get away from your usual routine.

Speaking of fall foliage, my next travel is to ZAP Fitness for the fall yoga and running retreat October 21–23, now in its fourth year! We have about four spaces left, so be in touch if you're interested. Details are here.

Two Supported Bridges

2011-09-26T13:07:00.001-04:00

This week's entry at the Active Yogi blog talks you through two lovely approaches to supported bridge. Please check it out, and share!

Sage Advice: Shin Splints

2011-09-18T09:03:00.002-04:00

A reader asked me for advice to share with a yoga student on shin splints. Here, my yoga books are less germane and The Athlete's Guide to Recovery is more useful. Shin splints usually result from an imbalance between work and rest—too much mileage, too soon, and sometimes on too hard a surface.

Things to check when shin splints arise:

Amount of mileage relative to recent experience. If it's shot up, why? (In this case, it's the start of high school XC season.) When possible, pull it back and build again more slowly.
Shoes. Are your shoes fresh enough? When the cushioning wears out, the shins take more stress.
Surface. If you're suddenly running a lot on a hard surface, you may be over stressing your lower legs.

As a work/rest imbalance, shin splints should encourage the runner to lay off and focus on recovery. Icing can help, too.

There are some nice stretches for the shins. Easiest is simply kneeling. If kneeling is hard on the outside of the knees, lay a blanket under your shins. If it's hard on the inside of the knees, lay a blanket between your hamstrings and calves, to decrease the compression at the knee.

A favorite of mine is half kneeling, half squatting, illustrated on page 130 of The Athlete's Guide to Yoga. From kneeling, take your right foot alongside your left knee. This stretches the lower leg on the right while releasing the shin on the left. For even more of a stretch, push your hands into the floor and lift the left knee—you'll feel it in the left ankle and shin.

There's a whole chapter on the lower leg in my next book, which will be out in spring 2012. (I should be able to reveal its title pretty soon!)

About Competition

2011-09-12T14:10:00.003-04:00

My latest Active Yogi post, on competition, is up at Yoga Journal. I worked very hard on this one, and I hope you like it. Thanks to Pascual in Mexico for writing with the question that planted the seed that grew into this little plant. If you'd like to comment on the piece, comments are open at Yoga Journal's Facebook page.

Active Yogi: Recovery for Hips and Hamstrings

2011-08-29T14:49:00.000-04:00

Please scoot over to Active Yogi, my blog at Yoga Journal, for my latest post on ways to multitask from legs up the wall. If you don't feel like reading, there's a video!

But I'm Not a Teacher

2011-08-29T11:45:00.001-04:00

I was delighted to have a few students at my intensive in San Francisco on teaching yoga to athletes who were not themselves yoga teachers. They bravely, and correctly, presumed that there'd be content germane to their personal training work and their own practices. And I just had an e-mail from a non-teacher student who's planning on coming to my five-day intensive at Kripalu in January. She asked whether there was any reading she should do to prepare, and here's what I suggested:

John Friend, Anusara Yoga Teacher Training Manual: you can find this at some studios or probably online at Anusara.com--it's a pretty clear treatise on both form and the function of the teacher in class

Mark Stevens, Teaching Yoga: Essential Foundations and Techniques: I haven't looked at this in depth but it's promising

Donna Farhi, Teaching Yoga: this is about the ethics of teaching—I found it fascinating! It is not, however, a handbook on what to teach; rather, a prompt to consider the duties of the teacher.

Erich Schiffmann, Moving into Stillness: this is a beautiful book about yoga, the asanas, meditation, and developing a home practice.

Legs up the Wall

2011-08-15T17:02:00.001-04:00

My latest post for Active Yogi, my blog at Yoga Journal, is on legs up the wall, my go-to recovery pose. Do you have a favorite?

Sage Advice: IT Band Boilerplate

2011-08-12T14:53:00.000-04:00

I get questions from y'all sometimes, and they are usually interesting and often good fodder for a blog post. IT band problems are so frequent that I created a boilerplate response in Evernote, ready to whip out at a moment's notice. Here it is.

Caveat: I am not a PT or medical doctor. Just a coach and yoga teacher.

The likely problem: weak hip muscles. Solution: strengthen your glutes, as explained here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/when-the-diagnosis-is-dead-butt-syndrome
Secondary approaches:

No. 1: Check your shoes. Are they old? Are they right for you? No investment in running is more important than your shoes. Go to a specialty store like Fleet Feet. They should watch you walk barefoot and run in various shoes. Go for FIT over color or price.

No. 2: Look at your mileage. Has it risen steadily, or are there big jumps? Add no more than 10 percent per week.

No. 3: Ice. Brr. 10-15 mins., 2-3x/day.

No. 4: Massage, incl. self-massage on foam roller.

Yoga works because it helps strengthen your glutes while promoting balanced flexibility. Try adding these:

1. Pre-run warmup as shown here: http://www.yogavibes.com/videos/watch/carrboro-sage-rountree-vignette-1-010810/
2. Post-run strength routine as shown here: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-409--13813-0,00.html

Hope that helps. The ITBS isn't a problem per se, unless it's altering your gait. Instead, it's a symptom of a bigger issue. Get to the root of that issue, be it hip strength, worn shoes, or too much mileage/not enough recovery, and the ITBS will disappear.

Yoga for Runners

2011-08-06T16:18:00.000-04:00

I enjoyed working with a fun, jolly, game group of runners, many of them new to yoga, at CYCo. this morning. (If you couldn't make it, the class will be on Yoga Vibes soon; meanwhile, check out the Yoga for Athletes page there, which grows each week!) Here's what we did, for their reference and to give you a sense of a good hour-long postrun routine.

Centering: mountain pose
Balance work: dancer, standing pigeon, pyramid in both active and passive spine variations (this is pretty much the Standing Stretches podcast episode), squat
Core: plank, side plank, reverse table or upward-facing plank (Static Core in The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, aka APGY)
Hips: low lunge, balancing low lunge, tripod lunge with optional quad stretch, runner's lunge (Lunge Series in APGY)
Kneeling
Bridge
Windshield-wiper twists and knees-together twists
Corpse pose

Revising Your Goals

2011-08-03T17:37:00.000-04:00

I enjoyed giving a webinar called "Your Perfect Race Day" for USA Triathlon today. (If you missed it, it's archived online, along with its predecessor on race week and its cousins on yoga for triathletes and on recovery. Each offers CEUs for USAT coaches.) There was a great question that came in after I'd logged off, so I'm sharing the answer here.

Q: How should I adjust if training has been subpar or something horrible (e.g., work blow-up, death in the family) happens in the days before the race?

A. Provided you are still committed to the race, revise your goals. Remember why you do triathlon in the first place--maybe even list it, e.g., "Health, fun, camaraderie with training partners"--and form a new goal that feeds those reasons. Or set a fun minor goal, like "Thank every volunteer" or "Push hard for 2 minutes after every turn on the bike." You get to set your own parameters for success.

This points to the main themes of the webinars: goals and pacing. Set appropriate goals, continuously remember them over the course of race week and race day, and pace, pace, pace.

Pace Yourself

2011-07-21T07:05:00.001-04:00

This is the day we move cross-town into a house that's four minutes' scooter trip to the studio downtown, less than three minutes' run to the trailhead (16+ miles of single track bliss!), and just a short trip down our gravel road away from going wheels-down into the most gorgeous riding in the Piedmont (see Rides: NC for proof).

It's been a familiar process: planning, putting in the physical work, dealing with the psychological ups and downs, knowing there's learning and happiness ahead. I do all of this in my running and in my yoga practice, too. Here are some thoughts on pacing yourself for Teachasana, a great new resource for yoga teachers.

Pigeon Angles

2011-07-19T12:54:00.000-04:00

My newest Active Yogi blog post for Yoga Journal looks at pigeon pose from many directions. When I opened this post to link to it, I remembered having written on the subject before, as part of my video series for Competitor.com. See that link here.

Marathon Training Time

2011-07-12T16:27:00.001-04:00

It's time to start training for fall marathons! One of my yoga students just asked me whether I have a plan online. Indeed I do, more than one.

There's a "paper" version at Athleta Chi. This is great for those who want to print a schedule and stick it on the fridge. There's also some disquisition on the demands of the distance.

And there's an interactive version online at Training Peaks. Use the code "sagetwit" and it's only $26.20. If you use a GPS, you can upload your data into Training Peaks. You can also rearrange things easily by dragging and dropping, and you can upgrade your marathon plan by adding in the yoga plans, to boot.

Do you have a fall marathon planned?

You Are Breathing

2011-06-28T07:11:00.002-04:00

My latest post at Active Yogi, my blog at Yoga Journal, is on breathing during workouts. Hint: you're doing it.

Maintenance Mode

2011-06-24T16:39:00.000-04:00

My athlete Erin, who discovered a surprising, if fleeting, taste for Marmite during Ironman South Africa, is entering her first year of emergency-medicine residency. Given the demanding schedule and her plans to enjoy the spring triathlon schedule in New Orleans, she asked me what she should be doing now. Here's what I prescribed; I hope it might help you during those times when your life is busy but you want to maintain fitness.

-run 3x/week

-one run has strides/pickups or short intervals

-one run has a tempo middle section of 10-30 minutes

-one run is a little longer, ideally building to then maintaining 90 minutes

-ride as you can, keeping your bike on the trainer so you can do 30 min. 1-2x/week

-focus on keeping your rear end conditioned

-do pedaling drills (spinups, single-leg pedaling)

-swim 1x/week

-drills to warm up

-descend 400-300-200-100

-a few fast 50s

-pushups/situps/squats/lunges/yoga 2-3x/week. Even 10 minutes of at-home weightless strength stuff matters.

-REALLY push quality of life when you aren't at the hospital [or wherever you find work/relationship stress]. Sleep a lot and eat well. Don't be afraid to take 2-3 days per week OFF of workouts in favor of lying on the couch, legs up, reading a novel.

Does . . . Not . . . Compute

2011-06-21T09:35:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had moments of great confusion followed by moments of clarity? They might have happened in a lecture or a workshop, when your preexisting beliefs were shattered and the reorganization of the pieces led to a more full picture of how things work. I talk about this vis-à-vis yoga teaching (with application for more) over at Teachasana, a lovely new site for yoga teachers. Please check it out and comment.

Fresh or Frazzled?

2011-06-09T15:41:00.000-04:00

My newest installment in the Serious Recovery series at Lava Magazine talks about ways to qualify the state of your recovery. Are you tired all the time? It could be the heat, or it could be your training. Listen to your body, your family, and your friends—they have valuable insight that your ego might not like to hear.

Yoga for Athletes Online at YogaVibes

2011-06-08T13:51:00.001-04:00

I'm happy to point you to YogaVibes's new Yoga for Athletes page, where you can stream dozens of instructional videos I've recorded over the last two years. One of my classes (Thursdays at 5:45 p.m. at Carrboro Yoga Co.: join us if you want to be an Internet yoga star!) is recorded each week and appears online a few days later.

What an honor to have a whole channel to showcase the work I love so much! I feel doubly honored to have this channel next to its neighbor, classes from Exhale in Southern California, where you can stream practices with Erich Schiffmann, Annie Carpenter, Saul David Raye, Hala Khouri, and many more fantastic teachers.

Please check out the free vignettes and try a class or two. They come in various flavors and levels (1 or 2, nothing too crazy) and can fit your training cycle no matter whether you're just getting started (go for a harder class) or close to a race (try a class for athletic recovery).

A little trivia: the models in the banner photo are, L to R, my coach's husband (a cat 2 rider); my running partner (a crack tennis player); me; my babysitter (varsity track & XC runner as a sophomore); and a running buddy's son (60-minute-man in high school football). Nice crew! My husband shot our picture on the elementary school field. Not a mountain was in sight. Hooray, Photoshop!

On Barefoot Running

2011-06-05T17:42:00.002-04:00

I said Friday I didn't want to open the barefoot running can of worms. Ross Tucker does it beautifully on the Science of Sport blog, in a recap from the ACSM meeting in Denver. Great reading.

In Praise of Juil Sandals

2011-06-02T16:13:00.000-04:00

Regardless of my thoughts on minimalism in running shoes (a can of worms I greatly prefer not to open), I am a wholehearted advocate of letting your feet move naturally and, in yoga, in running, and in general, using only what we need to get the job done and nothing more (with a few aesthetic exceptions). It's a big part of why I've been wearing my Kigos daily for months now. So when Juil sent me a (darling!) pair of sandals to try, I was grateful for their offer.

Remembering new worries that flip-flops aren't great for your feet (for example, this and this), I went with a pair that offer plenty of upper, so my toes don't have to clench to hold the shoes on. The pewter upper is lined with hot pink, and the soles have copper insets. (My colleague Diane describes this feature here.) I'm enjoying these cool shoes during our heat wave.

They came, beautifully, in this lovely green box with a yoga mat bag. I put the bag to good use last month, trotting from my family's apartment to the Yoga Journal Conference, and I left it there with my favorite mat for future trips.

You can browse Juil's line on their website and like them on Facebook. Their style is evident there. I hope you like yours as much as I like mine. Thanks, Juil, for the lovely gift.

Kripalu Perspectives

2011-06-01T09:22:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to be featured in this episode of Kripalu Perspectives, talking about yoga for athletes of all kinds. Please join me for a weekend workshop at Kripalu this September 23–25. We'll do yoga, eat gloriously, enjoy some quiet time, and explore the fantastic trail system at the height of autumn's glory. Read more about my past workshops:

If September doesn't work for you, registration will be open soon for my 2012 workshops:

Teaching Yoga to Athletes, five-day intensive, January 30–February 3
Yoga for Athletes: Strength, Flexibility, and Focus, February 3–5

Call Kripalu at 1-800-741-7353 for more information.

Active Yogi: Dynamic Warm-Up

2011-05-31T14:01:00.002-04:00

Check out my latest Yoga Journal blog post, on the dynamic warm-up. Your running buddies might laugh to see you bust out some yoga at the trailhead, but you'll be priming your body to work and preventing injury.

Sage Advice: How Much Is Too Much?

2011-05-26T16:58:00.001-04:00

Scott, a cyclist in Brooklyn, asked me a very interesting technical question about proper back position for snap accelerations and sprints on the bike. I deferred the specifics to my friend Victor Jimenez of the Bicycle Lab, a fitter, bike-builder (his line is called Karma, which I love; he built my husband's Guru bike, too!), and all around great guy. Victor was able to help and might take up the issue over on his site.

Scott's question boiled down to one line, which he put beautifully:

Are there particular yoga practices or postures that can negatively affect performance on the bicycle?

The answer is, "Sure." It's a question of stability and mobility (in yoga parlance, sthira and sukha). We need a certain amount of stiffness to transfer power. This could be a cyclist pushing power to the pedals, or a runner driving a leg into the ground (and using the recoiling force for forward motion), or a swimmer anchoring a shoulder from which to generate force against the water. We also need mobility so we have full range of motion for our sports and to prevent overuse injuries. The key is to find the right balance between the two. Too much stiffness, you get brittle and hurt; too much laxness, you get loosey-goosey and hurt. Either way, you won't reach your full potential.

Part of the beauty of a sport-specific yoga practice, either in classes geared toward athletes and taught by athletes or in home practice, where you can customize everything, is this recognition that extreme flexibility is not the goal. Instead, you need to strike a balance between the hard and the soft. Happily, I find that concerted training is a good antidote to any limp-noodle feeling we'd get from doing too much yoga asana practice. Your body will naturally move toward equilibrium if you push some, back off some, and listen.

Here are some steps toward finding the right combination of stability and mobility.

Consider your intention. What is your goal in sport? What is your goal in yoga? What, for that matter, is your goal in life? If you are trying to be competitive, you might have one set of needs; if you are trying to have a fun time and feel good in your body, you might have another. Having a clear vision of WHY you are doing anything makes the task, and any connected decisions, simpler.

Recognize your limits, and determine whether you can change them or not. If you are playing basketball and can't dunk because your muscles are too tight to swing your arm over your head, you'll have one course of action to follow. If you can't dunk because you're under five feet tall, you'll have another: practicing acceptance. These limits can be muscular, skeletal, or mental. The limits might be in your schedule. Some limits are changeable; some aren't. Again, having a clear vision of what you can do to change things makes tasks and decisions easier.

Identify the actions and postures needed to perform relative to your intention and your limits. If your limits involve stability, work on strength. If your limits involve mobility, work on flexibility. Depending on your sport, you might need to target very specific actions.

Finally, remember that you can receive yoga's benefits—as an athlete and a human—without any asana practice at all! If your limits are limits of perception, belief, or attitude, try meditation.

Well, this became a highly philosophical answer! To recap, and to rephrase, "Are there particular yoga practices or postures that can negatively affect performance on the bicycle?" "Yes."

Sage Advice: Bridging the Gap

2011-05-25T15:21:00.002-04:00

This question comes from Tracy.

I found your training program for the half marathon on the Athleta website and I was interested in trying it because I liked that it combined my two favorite workouts, yoga and running. I have been running for a little over two years now and after having used your program, I just completed my fastest half ever, 2:07. I ran the Capital City Half Marathon on May 7 in Columbus.

This fall I plan on running the Chicago Marathon, my first marathon, and I was thinking about using your program again for the full. My training however doesn’t start until mid-June, and I am struggling with knowing how much I should be running, resting etc. and I wondered if you had any tips.

We can unpack a few issues from this good question. First, how long would recovery from a half marathon take? Second, what is a good maintenance schedule? Third, what should your baseline be as you start a marathon training program?

My advice, then:

Recover from the half marathon. I'd say two weeks for Tracy. (There's a handy table in the appendixes of The Athlete's Guide to Recovery charting time to recovery from races of almost every distance.) In those two weeks, which have now passed, I hope Tracy had a few days of no running, a few of really short and easy running, and a gradual ease into a week of easy, conversational running. Rest days are important in there, too!

Maintain your base of fitness. Tracy should run a weekly schedule that looks pretty much like the half marathon training, without the midweek intensity. Her long runs should be 90 minutes to two hours, depending on how much she likes them. As her time between races is actually pretty short, this part will last only a week or two. If the break were longer—three months, say—I'd suggest she choose a weakness to work on. That could be strength on hills or speed in shorter races or core strength.

Get ready for marathon training. The end of your maintenance phase should look a lot like the first few weeks of marathon training, so that your body is ready to handle the increase in volume. You can leave out most of the intensity, or keep some short pickups to keep your form sharp.

Throughout, be sure you enjoy the lighter parts. This break between concerted training cycles is really important for your physical and mental freshness as you start the marathon buildup. Consider it a summer vacation for your legs, lungs, and mind.

Sage Advice: The Warm-Up

2011-05-24T14:21:00.000-04:00

My athlete Donnie has found his niche in mud runs, which let him use his whole-body strength from years of work with an elite trainer and his somewhat newfound running endurance and growing speed. After his most recent race, he asked this good question:

One thing I'm wondering about is proper amount of warmup for a race like this as well as *when* it needs to happen. Part of the problem of these races is the large amount of people per wave on relatively tight courses means you *have* to get near the front of the start line. That generally means getting in the start area 15–20 minutes before the start of the race. So I'm still trying to learn what will work best for me in terms of not using up too much energy before the start versus getting myself ready. I'm not sure how to best know that. It's just hard to do enough to not burn much energy but still be warm and limber 20 minutes later, too.

There's not much academic research on the right warmup protocol. Instead, we have to go on individual response, using trial and error during workouts and lower-priority races to see what works. The shorter the race, the more important the warm-up becomes. For a short, hard, full-body workout like a mud run, I'd say to do a 10- to 20-minute run, starting easy and speeding up. (This can be a great time to preview the finish of the race course, so you'll know when to kick.) At the end, include 4 x 20-second accelerations to race pace, with a minute or two between them. Some light push-ups against a wall, car, or tree can help warm up the muscles, too. And a dynamic yoga sequence like some sun salutations or the arrow lunge I show at YogaVibes and will describe in Active Yogi next week can help get all the muscles firing right.

There remains the question of how to be in place at the right time. I'd do the warmup described above, then seed myself. While you wait, you can still march in place every minute or two, swing your arms, and focus your breathing. You might look weird, but you'll be ready to start harder off the line.

Sage Advice: R+R

2011-05-23T16:44:00.000-04:00

I have a healthy stack of questions building up in my e-mail inbox, things readers and athletes have asked me. Thinking the answers might apply more generally, I'll be posting them here in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, please see my Q+A over at Another Mother Runner, Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell's fantastic site for running moms. I talk about recovery and, if you comment soon, you could win a copy of The Athlete's Guide to Recovery. (Of course, you can order your very own copy on Amazon, or pick one up at Carrboro Yoga.)

Big Sur Race Report

2011-05-09T14:59:00.007-04:00

I've posted a Big Sur race report. My intention when I write such things is to share something of use to those who might run the same event, or approach another from a similar angle. (This race's angle: watchless running.) Since the blog seems too ephemeral for such a goal, it's up at sagerountree.com.

New Blog at Yoga Journal

2011-05-03T16:41:00.000-04:00

I'm slowly starting to find words to describe the virtually indescribable joy of running the Big Sur International Marathon on Sunday. When they come, there'll be a race report here.

Meanwhile, I'm delighted to point you to my new blog at Yoga Journal's site, Active Yogi. I'm very serious when I say I want the blog to serve you, so please post your questions on the comments over there!

First Read: Sage Rountree's "The Athlete's Guide to Recovery"

2011-04-25T08:27:00.000-04:00

With The Athlete's Guide to Recovery widely available now, my virtual book tour has begun. First stop: LAVA Magazine, where I talked with Jennifer Ward Barber about the art of doing less. Jen asked fantastic questions that prodded me to consider why I do what I do. I especially liked her question about which type of recovery tool my athletes resist. Read the interview here.

Teaching Yoga to Athletes

2011-04-21T09:23:00.003-04:00

Jessica, a marathoner, triathlete, and yoga teacher, wrote me from San Diego, asking about how to get started in the field of teaching yoga to athletes.

I was heartened to hear that she actively trains and competes. It’s certainly not a prerequisite for teaching a great class for athletes, but it definitely helps to be able to feel in your own body the demands of training for endurance sports, to feel the fatigue, to notice the tightness and strength incurred in training. (The same thing goes, of course, for team sports athletes.) When you are in training, your own personal practice will give you some valuable insight into what feels good and what is too demanding.

The central question of the field—one I come back to again and again as I schedule workshops—is whether to bring the yoga to athletes or the athletes to the yoga. That is, do you go to where the athletes train to teach, working at a health club or directly with teams, or do you offer a class in a yoga studio and invite the athletes to join you there? As yoga becomes more and more accessible in America, the latter is easier to do. Many of the barriers that made yoga seem intimidating and offputting to athletes have now fallen, so a studio class may be more successful than it would have even five years ago.

At the start of a career in this field, however, I’d suggest going to the athletes. This could mean teaching at a gym, visiting a team sport during practice, or offering a stretch-out after group runs or rides. This helps you build a client base that will come to you when you do offer studio classes.

I explore this question in depth in my weekend workshops on teaching yoga to athletes. We discuss the needs, abilities, and limitations that athletes bring to a yoga practice; investigate ways to modify classes for athletes of various sports and levels of experience; discuss the pedagogy and business of working with athletes; and work on sport-specific sequencing. (Read more on my approach on teaching yoga to athletes.) I’ll be offering one at Yoga Tree in San Francisco this August, and another at my home studio, Carrboro Yoga Company, later this fall, with advanced trainings in the works for 2012 (e.g., at Kripalu in late January).

New Site Design

2011-04-18T16:55:00.002-04:00

Realizing that I have a whole lot of content online, I set out to redesign my website so that my articles and videos—many housed on various magazines' sites across the web—would be more accessible and, hopefully, of more use to readers. As a control freak, I wanted to be able to constantly tweak the site. But as I don't know a thing about design, I thought I might need to hire someone to do it for me.

Then it struck me: a central principle of my teaching (and coaching, for that matter) is efficiency. Are we using more than is needed to get the job done? Is a slick design really necessary?

The new sagerountree.com is extremely minimal in its design. With each iteration of my site, I'm learning to cut more words and use less color. I hope it actually delivers the content more clearly. Will you please have a look and give me your feedback? (If you've visited my site lately, you might need to refresh your browser.) I'm still working out folder hierarchies and link connections, so if you see anything amiss, I'd love to hear about it. Thank you!

Recovery Matters

2011-03-26T11:50:00.000-04:00

One of my yoga students asked me an interesting question after class Thursday evening. She's taken up breakdancing (it's a natural fit with yoga!) and is finding her forearms aren't recovering well. "Is it possible," she asked, "to have shin splints in your arms?"

Indeed it is, and as another of my breakdancing yoginis added (yes, two in one class), you can push yourself into a stress fracture. The shin splints feeling is a sign that you're applying too much stress without enough time for absorption.

It's good to notice this pain and to heed it, so you can ward off a serious injury. Slot in an extra day or two of rest between sessions that stress the forearms (or the shins), and if they are in pain, you can ice them. Beware pain that becomes localized to one particular spot; that can be the sign of a stress fracture.

Much, much more on recovery appears in The Athlete's Guide to Recovery, which is shipping to bookstores near you right this minute! You can still get the preorder price guarantee at Amazon.

In Praise of Kigos

2011-03-23T17:38:00.001-04:00

I'm relaxing in post–long run happiness. (Remember: recovery is key!) While it was too hot to keep on my compression socks (we had an early taste of summer today in North Carolina), my feet feel great in these Kigo Star shoes. Elevating them on the ottoman helps, too.

One of the three women who runs Kigo Footwear is a fellow Wake Forest alumna, and she graciously sent me this sample pair to try out. They're minimal shoes, and while I wouldn't run in them, I certainly plan to wear them a lot for everything else. They're ideal for keeping your feet healthy and strong—once you get them healthy and strong. And healthy, strong feet will be less susceptible to injury, as I pointed out in my post containing thoughts on plantar fasciitis.

Sidenote: another minimalist shoe that's good for foot strength, believe it or not, are Ugg boots. Whatever you think about their aesthetics (and they are certainly not vegan), they are little more than a platform and a cozy upper, which means your feet can move however they like inside the boots. This is preferable, I'd say, to something like flip-flops or clogs, where your foot must actually work, sometimes pretty hard, to keep the shoe on. Working too hard can lead to foot problems, just as not working enough can. This ties back to one of my central teachings in the yoga classes I teach to athletes: where can we work less and accomplish the same amount?

But back to the Kigos. My samples are seconds, which means they wouldn't ever have hit the virtual shelves. What a great way for the company to enact their principle of minimalism, by reducing waste! The shoes have a sole that's simultaneously thick and thin. I feel comfortable riding my Vespa in them, as they really grip the ground when I stop, yet they weigh very little at all and you can certainly feel the ground through the soles. The uppers are made of recycled plastic (wow!) and are soft with a slight give.

If you order some—and I hope you will—be advised that they run quite small. My pair are a size 10 while I usually wear an 8.5 dress shoe and a 9.5 running shoe. Guys, they have men's versions, too.

Thanks, Kigo, for the treat for my feet.

Sample: The Athlete's Guide to Recovery

2011-03-18T15:06:00.004-04:00

My new book, The Athlete's Guide to Recovery, will be on bookshelves in the next few weeks. (You can preorder it on Amazon now.) The book is a treatise on rest: what to do when you aren't training so that you can support your hard work and reach peak performance on race day. Recovery is a critical element of training, and it hasn't yet been covered in a book written for athletes. The book is a culmination of a lot of research and interviews, as well as my own experience as a coach and athlete. I'm very excited to share my findings and advice with you.

If you're excited, too, you can get a sneak peek of the book by downloading this sample. If that inspires you to learn more, watch my video series on recovery topics produced by Competitor.com or read my column, Serious Recovery, at Lava Magazine.

The sample doesn't include the epigraphs, but here's one that makes me smile every time:

"Training = stress + rest. The most important component of this equation is rest, but no one is going to get rich writing a triathlon book about rest." —Tom Rodgers, The Perfect Distance

Maybe not, Tom. But I'll get by with a little help from my friends. Preorder here.

Southeastern Collegiate Fitness Expo

2011-02-28T08:09:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I had the privilege of teaching at the Southeastern Collegiate Fitness Expo at N.C. State in Raleigh. The expo, which brought together rec center workers from across the Southeast, was held at State's lovely Carmichael Recreation Complex. I taught three classes: a Yoga for Athletes class, Spin and Yoga, and a master class at 8:00 (!) on Sunday morning to the entire group, over 300 people. What a fun experience! This was my view from the stage was the yogis moved through Supta Ardha Matsyendrasana.

As many of the students asked for a breakdown of what we did, I'm posting one here. I've linked to online examples where I can; most of these sequences appear in The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga.

Saturday, Yoga for Athletes

Inchworm flow (reverse vinyasa: http://sagerountree.com/blog.php?id=6187322280526524089) with cobra and locust

Lunges from down dog: high lunge; balancing high lunge; low lunge; balancing low lunge; tripod twist; tripod twist with cross quad stretch; flipped dog (in part as here: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2006/2/19_Lunge_Series.html)

Pigeon to head-to-knee to revolved head-to-knee: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2006/4/2_Pigeon_Sequence.html

Happy baby

Corpse

Music: Stevin McNamara, "Prana Groove"

Saturday, Spin and Yoga

Q: Where can you relax more, especially in the upper body, while maintaining efficient effort in the lower body?
5 min. easy, 3 x :30 @ 100 rpm, :30 @ 80 rpm
3 x (3 min. @ 90–95 rpm; 1 min. easy; 2 min. @ 70–80 rpm; 1 min. easy; 1 min. @ 110+ rpm; 3 min. easy). All "on" efforts are moderate, zone 3 feeling: i.e., you can talk in full sentences.
Standing stretches: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2006/2/5_Standing_Stretches.html
Boat pose/seated cross-legged fold/boat with twist/seated cross-legged fold/boat with lift & lower/seated straight-legged fold/reverse table/reverse plank
Seated twist and side stretch
Music: Jai Uttal, "Bhakti Bazaar"

Sunday, Master Class
Supine single-leg warm-up: hip circles, tree pose on back, cross-body twist, shoulder circles
Rolling like a ball to tall mountain, balancing in the squat to tiptoes
Arrow lunge: http://www.yogavibes.com/videos/watch/carrboro-sage-rountree-vignette-1-010810/
Planks/stretches: http://sagerountree.com/blog.php?id=1795128332860940338 and illustrated in part here: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2007/7/19_Core_and_More.html
We did plank/half bow, half locust/plank with leg lifts/half bow, half locust/plank with lift to downward-facing dog or dolphin/full bow/side plank/easy twist, mermaid stretch, "wild camel"/boat/bridge/boat/wheel
Reclining twists: reclining figure 4, half Lord of the Fishes, cow-face, eagle-leg twist in both directions: http://web.mac.com/sagetree/sagetree/Podcast/Entries/2009/9/24_Reclining_Twists.html
Happy baby
Corpse
Music: "Shakti Rhythms with Shiva Rea"

D.C., NYC

2011-02-17T14:18:00.000-05:00

A few yoga for athletes options for you cosmopolitan East Coasters. I'll be in Washington, D.C. (well, technically, Chevy Chase) this weekend to lead my intensive on teaching yoga to athletes at the Yoga Fusion Studio. As part of the weekend, I'm offering a 90-minute class open to all athletes—no yoga experience required! It's this Saturday, February 19, 1–2:30, and you can register here.

Meanwhile, if you are in D.C., my assistant/colleague Emilie Smith is teaching a FREE yoga for athletes class at Lululemon Lincoln Square on Sunday morning, February 20, at 10 a.m. The Fashion Week crowd should have cleared out by then!

Me & Emilie with some bona fide athlete/yogis, Mike & Kathy

Au Contraire, Mon Tea Bag

2011-02-15T16:00:00.001-05:00

"Mantras you shouldn't say: I don't know; I'm not ready; I can't do it."

While I'm not usually a fan of the tea-bag statement—they are often reductionist New Age yada-yada—this one especially ticks me off. Let's dissect quickly, through the lens of yoga/training:

"I don't know." What better thing to say, especially when followed by, "But I can try to find out"?
"I'm not ready." Then don't waste our time or put yourself in danger! (Not being ready for an asana or a race but doing it anyway is sure to lead to injury.) Be with where you are, and work on getting ready.
"I can't do it." Learning to say "no," as in, "I won't do it," is critical for your well being.

Surely these can be spun in the other direction, but I was struck by the need to read critically. And now my tea is ready.

Ward Off Dead Butt with Yoga

2011-02-11T12:36:00.001-05:00

It's all in the butt; even the New York Times agrees. If you've had an overuse injury lately, you were probably advised to strengthen your glutes. These are the largest muscles in the body (I'm not saying your rear end is big, just saying the muscles are big relatively!), and when they aren't working right, not only are we missing out on power for the running stride, we are asking smaller, deeper muscles like the piriformis and connective tissue like the IT band to work overtime to keep the hips stable while we run.

Solution: get your glutes going. Yoga is great for this; in fact, it's probably one of the most direct ways the asana practice complements training—more helpful, even, than stretching, which is what we often think of when we think of yoga. (We yogis know there's so much more going on, but that's another post.)

Before your run, include a quick dynamic warm-up to fire your glutes. This video I've made for YogaVibes shows one that works well even in a parking lot. (Sun salutations in a parking lot, not so great.)

Then, right after your run, when you're warm and pretty loose, move through some lunges and standing work that targets your glutes again. This piece I wrote for Runner's World shows one option, which I demo here.

Kripalu Postview

2011-02-09T17:58:00.001-05:00

As predicted, the participants in my workshop on yoga for athletes at Kripalu were great. We had a huge range of sports and yoga experience, from longtime teachers to first-time yogis. With such a turnout, I've scheduled an encore weekend in fall, when the leaves should be glorious and the trails ripe for running. It'll be September 23–25, and I'll post here when registration goes online.

A theme for the weekend emerged spontaneously, in addition to my usual teachings on "form and breath": WHY? Why do you need to be flexible? Why do you need to know how many calories you're burning? Why do you need to do that extra workout? Why do you need more, more, more? If you have a clearly set intention, your answer to the question why should be clear. If it isn't, investigate your goals; rephrase and realign where necessary.

Back to Its Natural State

2011-01-28T15:19:00.000-05:00

I had my hair blown out today, for fun and because I had the time after my semiannual haircut. It's been two years or so since I've seen it straight. The children were alarmed. "You look like a mom," I thought Vivi said, but she explained, "No, you look like your mom." (A not unhappy fate growing closer every day.)

The lovely apprentice stylist who did the blowout asked if I got them often. No, no, but I used to dry my hair straight, then put it on hot rollers, to achieve a look very similar to my natural curls. And when I dyed my hair in my twenties, I was always describing a color that we could never quite match—until I stopped dyeing it and realized it'd been there all along.

What lengths we go to working to get back to our natural state. In yoga, we call the state moksha, freedom, liberation. Which of your rituals and habits are layered one over the other trying to take you back to your self? What if you removed them and just rested in that place to begin with?

Training for the Krispy Kreme Challenge

2011-01-26T13:58:00.002-05:00

Three of my athletes are training through the Krispy Kreme Challenge, en route to bigger events, including Ironman South Africa and a six-hour mountain bike relay. This is good, as they can afford the calories (2,400 of them!), and their training for their target races will even be served by running nauseated, as coping with nutrition issues is an important part of long distance racing. As I had the pleasure of explaining to UNC men's basketball coach Roy Williams yesterday morning, and as I enjoyed hearing my older daughter tell my younger daughter at the dinner table yesterday evening, the race involves a two-mile downhill run from the bell tower on the North Carolina State University campus to a Krispy Kreme store, consuming a dozen original glazed doughnuts, and running back uphill to the bell tower—two more bucket-lined miles—all in under an hour. (Vivian was disgusted; Coach Williams was intrigued, and assured me he'd have no problem with the doughnut-consumption part!)

At the original Krispy Kreme store
in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC

The event raises some issues about the specificity of training for a race. To really peak in a race, you need to be prepared for the conditions you'll have on race day. If it's a race with a lot of downhills, like the Boston Marathon, you should be ready for the stress. If it's an open-water swim in rough salt water, getting into the chop in training is critical. And you'd better know exactly what your intended goal pace and effort feel like if you hope to hold them on race day.

But you don't want to oversimulate, either, because (a) that will wear you out (remember: recovery, recovery, recovery!) and (b) if you can do the whole race at your projected intensity beforehand, you aren't training hard enough! Race day is special—it's when all the elements of your training converge with your perfect execution of your race plan. So I've been having Donnie, one of the athletes, enjoy up to three doughnuts just before his training runs. More than that would be counterproductive, I believe, and contrary to the season's ultimate goal, as it would become a weight-gaining workout, and endurance athletes need to be at a pretty lean racing weight to have a peak performance (on which much more in Matt Fitzgerald's book Racing Weight). But doing the race itself, as nasty as it might be, is certainly in service of the overarching reasons to train and race: because you can, to test the limits of your body's abilities, and for sheer, sometimes sugary fun.

Thoughts on Plantar Fasciitis

2011-01-25T15:20:00.000-05:00

Last week, Gina Kolata had an interesting piece on orthotics in the New York Times. After I tweeted on my own experience moving away from orthotics, I had a number of enquiries from students and friends who've suffered from plantar fasciitis (PF) asking my thoughts on them. Now, remember: I'm a doctor of philosophy (worse still, in English literature), not a medical doctor, and what worked for me may not work for you.

I've had bouts of PF over the years, usually related to my tight calves. This tightness came not only from running, but from a more unlikely source: the balance ball I'd taken to using as a desk chair. I was always bracing myself with my feet, holding my calves in an engaged position. Deep in my lower legs, my posterior tibialis, which attaches to the arch of the foot, was way too tight. It's tough to get at this muscle with massage or self-massage.

Enter orthotics, both over-the-counter and custom. Supporting the arch from underneath helps prevent its collapse in the load portion of the running stride, reducing strain on the connective tissue that runs the length of the feet. This is palliative care, reducing the inflammation that leads to pain. But in my line of work, going barefoot is normal. Without my orthotics, my feet would feel pretty beaten up at the end of a long weekend teaching yoga.

The solution: strengthening the lower legs and feet slowly, and moving away from the orthotics gradually. I've been paying much more attention to standing balance poses than I used to—in fact, to standing poses in general—and up at the other end of the leg, working to strengthen my glutes. The side-kicks series from Pilates is very useful here, and you can find it beautifully illustrated in Alycea Ungaro's book Pilates: Body in Motion. When my athletes complain of PF, I have them do some basic foot-strengthening stuff, like writing the alphabet with their toes, before moving on to standing work. Stretch the feet and calves frequently (there are some ideas in The Athlete's Guide to Yoga). In time, we can build up mileage without orthotics in.

If you're having problems with pain in your heels or arches, the first step is to check your biomechanics, ideally with a well trained coach or PT used to working with runners. They'll help you devise a plan of treatment that might involve some of these things that have worked for me. Expect no miracles; these things take time and work, much of it dull.

Look at your footwear (is it fresh and right for you?) and your training plan, too. Maybe you aren't allowing adequate recovery between workouts. This will be covered in detail in my new book, The Athlete's Guide to Recovery, out in April. For that matter, if you are a cyclist, check your bike fit. (In the Triangle, I recommend Victor Jimenez of the Bicycle Lab.)

And please let me know what has worked for you in the comments.

Kripalu Preview

2011-01-21T13:08:00.002-05:00

Talking about Agnistambhasana

There's still time to sign up for my upcoming weekend at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, February 4–6. If you're worried that it's too much yoga for you, rest assured! First, yoga for athletes is not athletic yoga, as I explained below. Second, each year we have had a fantastic mix of yogi/athletes. Some are runners who have never done a single yoga class. Some are yoga teachers who are interested in working with athletes. Some are athletes who already use yoga as part of their training. All are universally fantastic! In past years, we've had some hard-core power yogis; a really fun crew coach who rode his fixie bike to and from the bus station; a woman who teaches yoga to a collegiate basketball team; Ironmen; and a sixty-something brand-new triathlete, who was the life of the party.

Being at Kripalu is a special treat. The food is delicious; the healing arts services are nurturing; finishing your yoga session happy and relaxed with nowhere else to be is a revelation. You can see my rundown of last year's weekend here, and if you have any questions or would like to hear from former participants before committing, feel free to write me. To register, click here.

Yoga's Benefits for Athletes

2011-01-18T16:18:00.001-05:00

I've got a piece on yoga's benefits for athletes running on the prAna blog today. Check it out! And please leave a comment if you have one.

Never Fear

2011-01-17T12:34:00.000-05:00

A central paradox of my career is the name of what I do: teaching yoga for athletes. It's really just yoga, presented in ways that complement what athletes do, and that also work for most folks with tight hips and shoulders (read: Westerners). It's not, as the name might imply, athletic yoga. Athletes get their workouts in, well, their workouts, so their needs from a studio class differ. My experience as a coach and athlete myself certainly informs my teaching, but ultimately, it's yoga.

One of our good, long-term students at the studio came in to my class last week for the first time, and I was happy to read her take on the class. Like many people, she'd been avoiding it out of an expectation that it would be a tough, athletic practice, and because she hesitated to self-identify as an athlete. If that sounds like you, never fear. I invite you to join me: Mondays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 5:45 p.m. If you aren't nearby, stream a class on YogaVibes.

Unscheduled Rest

2011-01-11T09:10:00.001-05:00

In this piece for Lava Magazine, I write on the benefits of scheduled rest. We need to build downtime into our training and life plans, so that our bodies have time to cope with the stresses we throw at them.

Sometimes—as when, say, a winter full of inclement weather keeps icing the roads—we have unscheduled rest thrust upon us. (Illness is another period of enforced unscheduled rest, but it's often the direct result of not putting in deliberate rest periods.) This can be stressful in and of itself, as we fear losing fitness and sabotaging our training plans. While we have to get creative, rearranging workouts, making do with the equipment we have in the house (the bike trainer and even the rebounder trampoline can help here), we shouldn't worry too much. Why waste energy fretting about things beyond our control?

Instead, do what you can (might I suggest streaming a yoga class on YogaVibes?). Direct excess energy into other projects that will not get your attention come spring. Declutter. Deep clean. Focus on your family. And enjoy the unscheduled rest.

Tough Call

2011-01-10T20:20:00.000-05:00

I spent the first ten years of my life in Buffalo, New York. These years included the Blizzard of '77, which buried our AMC Pacer so much that not even a hump of the car was visible in the snow. While these years calibrated my snow tolerance meter, I was not old enough to be driving during them and don't feel especially comfortable on the road in wintry conditions.

My Monday evening routine is so ingrained that with the prospect of wintry conditions this afternoon, I drove to Carrboro after walking the girls to school so that I would have our usual supply of Weaver Street Market bread for dinner tonight even if I couldn't make it to the studio for class tonight. So by 4:30, with the roads still dry, I planned to head in to teach tonight, and posted my class plan to Twitter. At 5:30, I headed out, but before I even made it out of the neighborhood, I had second thoughts. Despite the brine on the roads, Highway 54 was showing signs of snow accumulation in the gutter. I called home and had Wes cancel my class; I called Lies and had her tell Alexandra to cancel Pilates. By the time I got to the studio, the Carr Mill lot was covered in snow. I went up to find a few students waiting.

As the rest of class filed in, I apologized and sent them all away with a free class pass. Anyone serious enough to show up for yoga in the snow deserves a treat! As I explained to them, with conditions worsening, I didn't want to get them relaxed, inhibit their reflexes and reaction time, then send them into the wintry mix with other drivers who may not have learned to drive in conditions like those I grew up in. The decision I made as studio owner had to trump the one I made as teacher. Driving home, with the roads growing covered and traffic sporadic, I felt confident in my decision.

When you're frustrated at the cancelations—especially if you are from colder climes—remember that precautions often seem silly until something bad happens. We can't call it a Black Swan when predictions are for bad weather. Best remember the very first yama, the first principle of yoga philosophy: nonharming.

Functional Core Sequence

2011-01-09T15:53:00.001-05:00

What a nice group joined me yesterday at Carrboro Yoga for a core-strength workshop! Our theme was finding mountain pose, the neutral and stable alignment of the pelvis and the spine, and holding that even as our arms and legs were moving and our orientation to gravity shifted. As I promised the students, I'm posting the sequence here.

Warmup: Finding mountain pose, using the glutes

Mountain pose
Dynamic tips into and out of Warrior III
Prancing pony (lifted leg, knee bent) to arrow lunge (diagonal spine) to balancing high lunge to side stretch in lunge to Warrior III. This is, in part, demonstrated in my column for Runner's World this month and its accompanying video. It will also soon be posted at YogaVibes in its entirety. The sequence is a fantastic pre-run dynamic warmup.

Balance/core: Table Core Flow in The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, also in the Quick Fix podcast

Bird dog
Cross bow (hand to opposite-side foot)
Side plank on knee
Half moon on knee
Side bow (bound half moon on knee, hand to same-side foot)

Core: Triple plank series, alternating three trips to plank with three complementary stretches

Arrowhead plank (on forearms)/half bow
Arrowhead plank, marching feet/half bow, other side
Arrowhead plank to dolphin pose, flowing with the breath; full bow
Side plank on elbow/mermaid stretch
Side plank on elbow, lifting top leg and lowering it with the breath/bharadvajasana
Lifting both legs while lying on side/hip flexor stretch from Z legs (students, do you have a name?)
Repeat side planks on other side
Reverse table/easy cross-legged fold
Reverse plank/easy cross-legged fold, other leg in front
Reverse table or plank, marching legs/seated forward fold
Boat pose/bridge
Boat pose with twist/wheel
Boat pose to half boat ("lower something"), flowing with the breath/bridge or wheel with leg lifts

Closing

Cross-legged reclining twist
Happy baby/shoulderstand
Corpse

We get tastes of these moves in my ongoing drop-in classes, Mondays at 6 p.m. and Thursdays at 5:45 p.m. Join me when you are in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, NC, or come along for a workshop!

Magazine Favorites

2011-01-07T16:51:00.000-05:00

Today, I enjoyed a nice lunch with Joe Nuss, managing editor of Endurance Magazine, where my yoga column has been running since 2004. (Wow.) Joe says he and Steve Lackey, the publisher, often speculate about what part of magazines people like the most. Joe favors long, personality-driven features; Steve prefers the shorter, pithier tips you often find in the early pages of a magazine.

My answer was different. I like regular monthly columns written by authors whose voice comes through in each story. Think Cyndi Lee's basics column in Yoga Journal, or Peter Sagal's semiregular essays in Runner's World. The one magazine I regularly buy on the newsstand, always when I am traveling, is O: The Oprah Magazine, and I turn there to the column by Martha Beck (she's fantastic!) and to Oprah's last-page essay. Obviously, this is a reflection of my own, smaller-scale work, but it's interesting to see how I project my work onto my preferences, or vice versa.

What is your favorite element of magazines, and why?

Mopping the Floors

2011-01-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

Tuesdays and Thursdays, I arrive at Carrboro Yoga midday to sign in and enjoy Ruth's noon Power Flow class. One of my first chores, and my most favorite, is cleaning the floor. I slowly push the wide dust mop back and forth over the century-old wood. When nails are lifted out, they snag a piece of lint. After the twenty or more slow passes, I come through again, this time with a hammer, to remove the lint and realign the nails. Beyond any analogies about making and overview and addressing the rough edges, it is a contemplative, centering way to begin my time in that space, and a real highlight of my move from teacher to studio co-owner.

Christmas Tree Yoga

2010-12-24T17:51:00.001-05:00

I was honored to teach a lovely group of yogis and yoginis for an all-levels, all-ages holiday practice today. In honor of the season, we enjoyed tree pose in a number of orientations: on our backs, standing, on our sides, and on our bellies. With 26 bodies and students' age ranging from the teens to the sixties, I offered a myriad of options. For example, downward-facing dog can always be table or child's pose. A balancing twist can morph into side crow. A flipped dog can be three-legged or transition to wheel, or can instead take the form of a side plank on the knee with a bind hand to foot.

Here's the practice, with links to some resources of mine that might inspire you to try new things.

Opening:

Corpse

Warm-Up: Six moves of the Spine, Supine, in The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga [APGY]

Knees to chest
One knee to chest, stir the thigh in the pelvis
Tree pose, supine
Single leg crossover twist, shoulder circles

Balance Work

Rolling like a ball, with variations
Chair, tree, twisting chair, tree, twisting chair (Tree and Chair in APGY)
Toe squat, twisting toe squat (side crow option), standing forward fold

Vinyasa: Lunge Series in APGY, and some of the Lunge Series podcast

High lunge
Low lunge
Lizard lunge
Tripod twist
Pigeon fold (side bend and twist options)
Pigeon backbend
Flipped dog or side bow (as in the Table Core Flow in APGY and the Quick Fix podcast)
Tree in side plank
Runner's lunge/splits

All with variations between (more in this blog post on the options and this one with a video)

Hip Openers: Reclining Twists podcast and in APGY

Reclining half Lord of the Fishes
Reclining cow-face
Reclining twists with eagle-pose legs, both sides

Finishing:

Bridge or wheel
Inversions
Corpse

If you're interested in learning more about sequencing and deepening your practice, consider joining me for our Carrboro Yoga Teacher Training program, which begins in September 2011. The application will be online in the new year.

My music was wonky, so I never got to share Martin Sexton's "O Christmas Tree," which I'd planned to slip in as we settled down for our final corpse pose. You can find it on iTunes; it's a soulful, sweet version.

All my best for your Christmas. May it be full of comfort, joy, and peace.

It's Always Been Here

2010-12-16T09:38:00.000-05:00

One of my regular private yoga lessons is to a couple in their home. I see the wife more often; the husband travels a lot for his busy job, and when he's in town, he joins. This morning during practice, he remarked on the sounds of the house: an imbalanced washing machine clacking through the spin cycle, the heating system vibrating the floorboards, the ticking of the grandfather clock. Eventually the wife said gently, "It's always been here, you've just never been this quiet."

Creatures of Habit

2010-12-15T15:34:00.004-05:00

My dog, Manta Ray, accompanies me on my twice-daily walk taking the girls to and from the elementary school down the street. Morning departure is hectic and broadly telegraphed, with increasingly insistent instructions about the packing of snacks and donning of coats and hats and backpacks and "Lord, child, why am I just getting this field trip form now?" Her excitement is lost in the hubbub.

Afternoons are a different story. Sometimes I'm lost in my work, so I have set a timer that rings on the computer, the phone, the iPad, a quick round of chimes sounding through the house. Manta's response to the sound is predictable, and evidenced in the video above: clear joy. But she is ready before the alarm goes off. She's followed this Pavlovian reaction all the way back to the earliest possible cue that I'm about to stand up and reach for my coat and the leash: the uncapping of the stick of lip balm that sits on my desk. At other times of the day, this action holds no meaning for her; at pick-up departure time, it means everything.

There must be some lesson here for us creatures of habit as we move into the holidays, with the concomitant visiting with old friends and family. What gesture or actions are laden with weight given the patterns we've established? (These, in yoga, we call samskaras.) Are they serving us? What are we doing unconsciously that might carry greater import for those around us? Are there times you react, happily or, more likely, unhappily, to actions or gestures that have nothing to do with you?

On another holiday note, if you're in the Triangle on Christmas Eve, please join me for a free class at Carrboro Yoga at 2 p.m. All levels, all ages (if they are old enough to stay interested, they are welcome!), with some play, some hip opening, and lots of time and space to create peaceful openness and self-awareness as we begin the holiday weekend. You can sign up here.

Holiday Gift Ideas

2010-12-13T13:25:00.000-05:00

If, like me, you are just thinking about holiday shopping, I submit a few ideas for yoga-themed gifts for the athletes (or anyone) on your list.

My Products
My books and DVDs can help your friends begin or deepen their yoga practices. The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga will even fit into a stocking! You can find them on Amazon as well as both big bookstores and specialty bike and running shops. They are:

The Athlete's Guide to Yoga, a how-to for any yoga practitioner, athletic or not
The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, a lay-flat what-to-practice guide
The Athlete's Guide to Yoga DVD, with two hours of customizable multilevel content
RIDES: NC, a virtual training ride through the farmland of Orange County, NC

YogaVibes

You can also give someone a subscription to YogaVibes, which will let them enjoy fresh yoga-class content in the comfort of their homes or wherever they might go with their laptops. You'll find my newest class, Yoga for Athletic Recovery, as well as DVD content and much more. Use the code sage20 for 20 percent off!

My next YogaVibes taping, focusing on yoga for the core, will be at Carrboro Yoga at 2 p.m. on January 8. Sign up now—it's free, but space is limited.

Give the Gift of Experiences
Better even than things are positive experiences. A yoga retreat, workshop, or teacher training is a fantastic way to give your friends the gift of balance. Better still, join them! You can give a passcard for classes at Carrboro Yoga (these never expire, and you can share them with a friend), or choose a special event. Here are some of my upcoming programs:

YogaVibes taping: Yoga for the Core, January 8, Carrboro Yoga, Carrboro, NC
Yoga for Athletes Workshop, January 14–16, Wilmington Yoga, Wilmington, NC (early bird discount!)
Yoga for Athletes Workshop, February 4–6, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Lenox, MA
Yoga for Athletes Master Class, February 19, Yoga Fusion, Washington, DC (registration available soon)
200-Hour Yoga Alliance Yoga Teacher Training, Carrboro Yoga, September 2011–January 2012
Yoga and Running Retreat, October 21–23, ZAP Fitness, Blowing Rock, NC

While my coaching roster is totally full, you can still structure your training through my plans on TrainingPeaks. You'll find a half marathon plan and a cool yoga-based plan for core strength, sold in conjunction with Runner's World.

Give the Gift of, Well, Gifts
If you prefer giving a concrete item, I can help you out. My sponsors Rudy Project and XTERRA Wetsuits allow me to share my discount on sunglasses, ski goggles, bike helmets, wetsuits, and speedsuits, so be in touch and I'll share my code.

Here's an unsolicited endorsement of a few items that I've really enjoyed in the last year. These might be just the thing for that special someone:

Lotus Pad yoga mats. Super sticky, incredibly light, and eco-friendly.
The also eco-friendly, light, and comfy Brooks Green Silence performance racers.
Jai Uttal's Bhakti Bazaar album. Download an eco-friendly electronic copy.
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Great present not only for young adults but for any reader. Download to your Kindle/iPad, snuggle in, and you'll be hooked.
The Kickbooty yoga pant, now in a thermal run option, made by my friends at Athleta. Today only, use code SNOWDAY for 20 percent off. You can wear these as you enjoy the great outdoors.

Finally, remember that service—whether it's eco-friendly service to the environment, or making a donation in honor of your loved ones—benefits us all far more than anything we could wrap in paper and ribbon.

Best wishes for the holidays and a glorious 2011!

Letter to a First-Time Marathoner

2010-12-01T17:39:00.002-05:00

My best friend since childhood, Dr. Francesca "Kika" Tronchin, is running her first marathon this weekend, St. Jude's in Memphis. She's weathered the training with her usual blend of gusto and wit, and she's going to have a great day on Saturday. I wish I could be there; I'll be thinking of her as I run in Central Park. We're hatching plans for a buddy ultra in the near future.

When I visited Fleet Feet Carrboro's No Boundaries group last night, they'd just received t-shirts reading RUNNING CHANGES EVERYTHING. Hyperbolic? Perhaps. True? Well, yes. Here Kika and I are sixteen, sitting down to a meal of french fries and soda. We might still do that today, but we do it with a different perspective on our bodies and our lives, in great part due to endurance sports.

Here are thoughts I sometimes share with the first-time marathoners I coach and teach, and which I enjoyed talking through at Runner's World's Marathon Challenge panel in Richmond.

First, set an intention. For the first-timer, this is, obviously, "Survive," with a secondary goal of "Finish." Time goals are for the next race. Having a clear goal when you go into any major undertaking eases the decision-making process once you're in it. When you're faced with a choice between X and Y, ask, "Which is in line with my goal?" The answer gets clearer.

Second, FORM AND BREATH. At the beginning, when things are easy and slightly boring, find the most relaxed, efficient form you can, and breathe as fully as you can. At the end, when things get hard, do the same. Let go where you can, work only where you need to, and continually return to the most efficient form available. Into that space, breathe.

Third, be open to what comes. Don't shut out the experience around you. You might take in energy from the crowd, fellow runners, a pretty view. You might investigate discomfort, parsing it down to simple sensation instead of pain. In my first marathon, I took a Tootsie Roll from a spectator and held it like a magic baton, all the way from mile 15 to mile 22. If the proverbial wall comes sooner than expected, don't be surprised. Relax your form, deepen your breath, and remember your goals. (And eat something.)

Finally, if you find yourself wondering about whether you are going to be able to do it, swap that thought for this one: "I am doing it." The narrative is not over; you are in control. Stay in the present tense. And when you're done, you will forever be able to conjugate the verb differently: "I have done it." Kika, you can keep yourself busy conjugating in Latin! FESTINA LENTE, make haste slowly, as your tattoo reminds you. lvoe yuo rots/

A Humble Proposal

2010-11-26T10:59:00.002-05:00

Whether you observe Black Friday or National Buy Nothing Day, at some point you're going to need a new pair of shoes. I found myself at our local Fleet Feet Sports, which smartly opened after the turkey trot yesterday. They had a range of shoes on sale, and I tried some on, but I wound up going with my usual Adidas Supernovas and a light pair of Brooks Green Silence that felt fantastic. I'd tried some Nike Lunar Glides that looked great and were pretty light, but they felt all wrong to my feet.

And you should listen to that voice in your feet, as it were, when you are trying on shoes. They ought to feel comfortable immediately. If something doesn't strike you as right, you probably won't be striking the ground just right, so move on. This means you have to ignore brand, color, and even price and let your feet do the talking. My colleague Matt Fitzgerald has made this case eloquently, notably in The Runner's Body.

Thus here's my proposal, which I passed on to the clerks and owner. When customers walk in to the specialty running shop, they should be outfitted with an Elizabethan collar, similar to what dogs have to wear post-surgery. They can then try on a range of shoes appropriate for their stride and let their feet make the choice, blind to brand, color, and price. In fact, this could be expanded to buying bikes, clothing, even wine. Why not make more decisions based on how things feel, rather than how they look, what the brand is, the price point? We'll look odd shopping in our Elizabethan collars, but we'll probably be happier with our purchases.

Thank You, Wellness Center

2010-11-24T17:17:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday evening and getting dark, and I'm feeling nostalgic for the class I've just retired from: a Yoga for Athletes class at the UNC Wellness Center. I taught the class for the last six years (and also taught indoor cycling there for four). In conjunction with my standing Monday night class at Carrboro Yoga, it's given me the room and the students to think through much of the material that became my first two books, my DVD, and my ongoing teaching. I've added a Thursday night class since becoming studio co-owner, though, and three nights a week was one too many to be out of the home at dinnertime. As I told my students, I'm honestly using the explanation that I'm retiring to spend more time with my family.

My first class at the Wellness Center wasn't planned. I'd shown up to take Bryan Carey's Tuesday evening class. (Bryan now owns Patanjali's Place, a lovely studio in Durham, which is a testament to the hiring practices at the Wellness Center—they get the best!) When Bryan didn't make it in for transportation reasons, I volunteered to lead the class instead. I was finishing up my teacher training program, and as I'd just taught my first yoga class ever the night before, this was a little like offering to land an airplane after having once played a flight-simulation game. But it went pretty well.

The next day, I saw two of the students in the class at the Wellness Center. Both schoolteachers, they said they'd just been discussing the class and asked me if I'd like some unsolicited advice. "Sure," I said, steeling myself.

"Don't apologize for not being Bryan," one said.

"We can tell you aren't him just by looking at you!" the other added. "You're a great teacher as is—so don't worry about who you aren't. Be who you are."

Wednesday evenings over the last six years have given me the space to be who I am. Often, this was the easiest hour of my professional week, when I felt like a conduit for the teachings I explored on Monday nights and refined by Wednesday. It was never work; it was always play. I walked over from my home 150 yards away and into a welcoming room, opened my mouth and let the teaching flow through me. Often, my husband would take the kids to the Stay and Play so he could swim laps, then let them run a loop on the indoor track. I'd look through the glass-brick wall to the track as the students were in savasana to see my daughters' faces pressed up near mine and give them a silent smile and wave.

During the eight months of the year when the angle of the sun was right, we'd set up with students facing that glass-brick wall. It made a lovely metaphor for the practice. People would come by on the track, at various speeds and with various interesting gaits, somewhat indistinguishable because of the thick glass, then pass on by. If we really needed them, we could run out and get them, but instead we chose to stay on our mats and reconnect breath, body, and mind. Sometimes they returned and we let them pass again, over and over.

My students were uniformly wonderful, and quite loyal. I've seen them train for longer and faster events, or try their hand at triathlon after talking to their classmates. Many have been with me for my whole six-year career there. Both the models for my DVD have Wellness Center affiliations. Of the twenty-plus faces I saw in class each week, I may not have had every name right (there's no cheat sheet enrollment list like we have at the studio), but I had pet names in my head! I look forward to seeing many of these faces at Carrboro Yoga—and getting the names down right.

On a not-unrelated note, a new commitment for 2011, and a reason to free up a night each week, is a one-weekend-a-month 200-hour yoga teacher training I'll be leading beginning next September. If you'd like to find your teacher's voice and learn to be who you are in front of a classroom, click here to read more.

Reverse Vinyasa

2010-11-09T10:08:00.005-05:00

This is a follow-up to my variations on vinyasa post, as well as the story of a lightbulb moment. During my fantastically fun intensive on teaching yoga to athletes (there's still room for a few more in New York next month), I was bemoaning the monotony of the standard vinyasa from plank through chaturanga to upward-facing dog and downward-facing dog. It's great, to a point, but it's always moving in the same direction.

Shortly after making this observation, I took my students through an "inchworm warmup" from child's pose inspired by one of Kate Potter's sequences. We came up to table pose, then slowly lowered down to the ground, hips first, passing through upward-facing dog before pushing back through table. Aha! This is the reverse action to the usual, especially if you keep your knees up and do a push-up. You could throw this is as one of the many variations you choose, or stick with it for every other flow through.

Here's what I mean. (My eyes and forehead are cut off in the opening frames, à la The Athlete's Guide to Yoga cover, and my back isn't as straight or flexible as I'd like, but you'll get the picture.)

The Case against Hot Yoga for Athletes

2010-11-03T08:21:00.002-04:00

I'm often asked my opinion on the benefits of hot yoga for athletes. Recently, I was approached by a national magazine to write a story on the topic, and I had to decline because I have serious reservations about mixing hot yoga and serious athletic training. (I'll confess, it was gratifying to take a stand and feel like a real journalist!) As I won't be writing that piece, I'll lay out my case against hot yoga for athletes here. This is not a condemnation of hot yoga as a whole. For some people, it's revelatory and life-changing—great! Here, I am considering its applicability for a specific group: serious athletes in aerobic sports.

The heat itself. Most athletes exist in a state of fatigue and semidehydration already. Adding heat to the mix only exacerbates the problem, impeding recovery. Depending on the studio and the style, "hot yoga" can mean a room of anywhere from 85 to 105 degrees.

The heat comes from the outside in. In yoga, we work to cultivate tapas, or internal heat and discipline. It's hard to be in touch with that internal heat when heat is already being imposed from the outside.

The heat imposes the illusion of flexibility. Proponents of hot yoga say that the heat loosens them up so they can stretch further. Indeed. And is that what we want? Not necessarily. We need stiffness to be efficient runners (and all athletes run), and we need integrity through a reasonable range of motion for our sport. Hyperflexibility is not the goal. In the heat, it's easy to push too far and overstretch—obviously, that's detrimental to your training.

The heat limits the range of poses one can practice. In extreme temperatures, you can't spend much time with your head lower than your heart, which means you won't get to enjoy inversion poses in hot yoga. Often, even downward-facing dog is a no-go. My studio co-owner, a lifelong Ashtangi, went to a hot class a few months ago and commented, "If it weren't for the heat, the sequence would have been far too easy." Now, yoga for athletes doesn't need to be hard—in fact, "easy" is often best—but it's a shame to miss out on the variety of asanas that have tangible benefits simply because they can't be practiced in the presence of external heat.

Practicing yoga in the heat is probably not going to acclimate you to compete in hot conditions. It sounds like a good idea to use hot yoga to adapt to hot conditions, but the physical demands of a yoga asana practice are different from the cardiovascular demands of endurance sports or team sports. Unless you are acclimating to do gymnastics in the heat, I don't think there will be much cross-over. (Here's a New York Times piece on acclimating.)

The sequence is often the same. Depending on the style of hot yoga, you'll find the same poses (usually 26 of them) practiced in the same order every time. This can be gratifying, as you'll measure your progress, but it will soon become redundant. Once you're adapted to those poses, you'll need to shake up your training and get a new stimulus to create further adaptations. It's a rule of athletic training, and it applies to asana practice, too. If you could have only one running workout to do for the rest of your life—say, 12 x 400 on the track—you'd improve at it, plateau, cease adapting, and get tired of running entirely.

The languaging can be extreme. Again, this is style-dependent, but some hot yoga franchises (and yes, they are franchises, as you can read in this fantastic Yoga Journal article) use a set script with phrases along the lines of "lock out your knees" and "push beyond your flexibility." Ouch.

The mirrors. Mirrors draw you out of your internal experience and, even for those with the best intentions, into an external orientation. (Rebecca Pacheco has a nice piece on mirrors here.) This can open the doorway to competition, with yourself or others.

Hot yoga is just feeding the competitive fire. Athletes who work to push themselves in training are only going to have this fire stoked in a hot yoga class. Instead, we need more insightful, quiet practices. Restorative yoga—which is about as far from hot yoga as you can get—suits the bill nicely. (Here's a routine to do at home; for maximum benefits, pause the player and stay in each pose for ten minutes.) Look to bring balance to your system, finding the right mix of effort and ease for your body, mind, and spirit. Don't play up only the effort.

It's bad for the environment. Consider the fuel costs of heating rooms. (Thanks to the lovely and wise yogini Ingrid Yang for this germane point, which applies to all hot yoga, not just for athletes.)

There is a time and place for hot yoga for athletes. It's called the off-season. For many, it's right now, just as your season is over, the weather is getting cold, and a hot studio is appealing. Try it for yourself and see what you think. And let me know how it goes: I welcome discussion on the issue, especially if you are a fan of hot yoga for athletes.

Midnight Train to Georgia

2010-10-22T08:57:00.001-04:00

I very rarely run with an iPod. I'd rather listen to ambient noise: traffic, birds, my breath, my training partners! But today I took a short run, just a few miles (with a stop at the grocery for allergy medicine) as I am leading a yoga and running retreat at ZAP Fitness in Blowing Rock this weekend. The Shuffle is loaded with songs that have 90 beats per minute (I have a nifty program called Tangerine! that analyzes BPM, really useful for indoor cycling classes). This helps me keep my cadence up—180 steps per minute is ideal for efficient running.

At the end of the run, "Midnight Train to Georgia" came on. It struck me, as I ran back from the grocery store, Claritin in hand (it made a great percussion instrument!), what a wonderful running song this is. Not only is the rhythm compelling, it's not too forceful. It rolls along, not too fast, not too slow. But the lyrics are also powerful, about committing to something even when you are unsure where it will take you, because it feels like the right thing to do. What a great message! And, of course, nothing beats singing the backup lines. Woo woo!

Seminar on Multisport Training

2010-10-18T14:06:00.001-04:00

Join me and some other great area speakers for this two-day clinic, which offers five or ten CEUs for USA Triathlon coaches, and which will be very useful for athletes, too! —Sage

Multi-Part Seminar for the Multi Sport Coach and Athlete

November 20–21, 2010
1:00 PM – 6:00 PM
5 or 10 USAT CEU Credit Course
Human Performance Consulting Athletic Lab
Cary, NC
Minutes from Raleigh & Durham & RDU Airport

November 21, 2010
Injury Prevention Strategies for the Multi Sport Athlete—Brian Beatty
Recovery: How to Enhance and Measure It For Better Triathlon Performance—Sage Rountree
Running Form and Technique for Triathletes—Andrew Allden

November 22, 2010
Auxiliary Training: Means & Methods for the Multi-Sport Athlete—Mike Young
How to Improve Bike Split Times—Victor Jimenez
Key Running Workouts for the Multi-Sport Athlete—Andrew Allden

Registration fee: $150.00 USAT Certified Coach; $175.00 USAT Member; $200 General Public for each session (one day counts as a session) or $25.00 discount for those signing up for both sessions ($275.00 USAT Coach, $325 for USAT Member, and $375.00 General)

Registration: http://www.sportoften.com/events/eventDetails.cfm?pEventId=6087
Or mail check: Andrew Allden, 77 Lily McCoy Lane Pittsboro NC 27312
Include Name, Address, Email, Home and Cell Phone and USAT # if applicable.
Questions? Contact: Andrew Allden, aacoaching@aol.com 919-619-3426 or see http://athleticlab.com/triathlon/

INSTRUCTORS

ANDREW ALLDEN, MEd, is the head coach of endurance events for the Human Performance Consulting Elite Team. He joined the HPC staff following a successful 20-year collegiate coaching career in track and cross country at the Division I level. As a college coach, Allden served as the cross-country and distance coach at the University of North Carolina, the University of South Carolina, and Tulane University. He also served as head track and cross-country coach at Tulane University and Coastal Carolina University. Allden has been a successful coach of elite runners for a number of years. His current top charge is the #5 ranked 800m male in the U.S. (outdoor, 2009). Allden has coached athletes ranging from an Olympic 4 x 400 silver medal winner to a top-10 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials finisher. Road running athletes coached by Allden range from a state masters marathon record holder. Nationally known as a USATF Level I Coaching Educator for the endurance events, he has directed and instructed in 20 USATF Level I coaching schools in the past dozen years. As a cross country coach he earned coach-of-the-year honors on North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana. While at Coastal Carolina Allden was the Southeast Region coach of the year and a finalist for national coach of the year. Allden was the men's distance coach for the U.S. men's track and field team at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in 2004. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Allden directed the distance practice facility. Allden currently serves as men's long distance running and coaching education chairman for NC USATF. A 1986 graduate of Emory University and he has a master's in sport administration from the University of Georgia (1991).

BRIAN BEATTY, PT, CFP, CSCS, the son of physical therapists, received his physical therapy degree from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brian has been working in private, orthopedic based practice for his whole career, and founded Balanced Physical Therapy in 1999. He is an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association, a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner. Brian has a particular focus on endurance athletics, spinal issues and 'hard to solve' movement problems. An avid cyclist and runner, he enjoys almost any outdoor activity, and regularly presents on topics related to endurance athletics. Clinically he strives to combine physical therapy expertise with his interests in motor learning, movement arts and healing techniques so that his clients not only resolve their discomforts, but become smarter and more efficient in everything they do. Currently Brian spends most of his time in the Carrboro location of Balanced Physical Therapy www.balancedpt.com a space shared with Balanced Movement Studio www.balanced-movement.com, owned by his wife, Elizabeth Towe.

VICTOR JIMENEZ, is a professional bicycle fitter and owner of Bicycle Lab. Bicycle Lab specializes in bicycling fitting and teaching people how to improve their cycling skills. Victor is an expert at understanding bicycles and how people interact with the machine. Victor has been fitting bicycles to cyclists for over 20 years. After years as a Triathlete, then Bike racer, American College of Sports Medicine trainer and fitness testing specialist he now applies his ideas to bicycle fit and cycling effectively. Victor has been a presenter for USA triathlon coaching certification and works regularly with many coaches and athletes to improve technical skills on the bike. He also teaches workshops and training camps for cyclists and triathletes. Victor can be found at his website bicyclelab.com

SAGE ROUNTREE, PhD, is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher and USA Triathlon level 2 certified coach. She holds certifications from USA Cycling and the RRCA, as well. Sage is author of The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga (VeloPress, 2008) and The Athlete’s Pocket Guide to Yoga (VeloPress, 2009); creator of The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga DVD (Endurance Films, 2008); and a contributor to USA Triathlon Life, Runner’s World, and Yoga Journal. Sage has competed for Team USA at the Short-Course World Triathlon Championships, run the Boston and New York Marathons, and completed Ironman Coeur d’Alene last year. Her coached athletes compete at all levels, including duathlon long- and short-course World Championships. Athletes of all sports and levels—from former Olympians to professional triathletes to the University of North Carolina football team—praise Sage’s practical, straightforward teaching style. She teaches workshops nationwide, including annual retreats at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and at ZAP Fitness, an elite training facility for postcollegiate runners. She trains, teaches, and coaches in Chapel Hill, NC.

MIKE YOUNG, PhD, is director of sports performance for Human Performance Consulting. Mike serves as the group’s primary biomechanics and strength and speed consultant. Mike is also the head coach for the HPC Elite team. Mike has an undergraduate degree in exercise physiology, a master's degree in athletic administration, and a PhD in kinesiology, with an emphasis in biomechanics. He has studied extensively in anatomy, physiology, sport psychology, motor learning, training theory and biomechanics. Mike coached collegiate track and field at Ohio University, Louisiana State, and Army, Mike's athletes rewrote the record books with 9 school records and 24 conference championships. He has been a guest at all three U.S. Olympic Training Centers as an athlete (Lake Placid), sport scientist (Colorado Springs and Chula Vista), and coach (Colorado Springs). Mike has worked with several Olympians, national champions, and collegiate national champions in the sport of track and field. In addition to working with track athletes, Mike has also trained athletes from a variety of other sports. A Level 1, 2, and 3 instructor for USATF, he also serves as the director of technology and biomechanics chairperson for USA Track and Field's Coaches’ Education division. Mike is certified as a USA Track and Field Level 1, 2, and 3 coach and is only one of two people to be a Level 3 instructor in three different disciplines. In the field of strength and conditioning, Mike is an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist as well as a certified USA Weightlifting Club Coach. He is well versed in coaching the Olympic lifts and creating specialized strength, speed, and conditioning programs to help maximize the performance for any sport.

Soul Run

2010-10-13T08:17:00.000-04:00

One of my coaching clients, Tara, wisely labels some runs as "soul runs." These may not be the fastest, but they feed your soul in some way. Another of my athletes, Erin, had a soul run on Monday. A fourth-year medical student training for Ironman South Africa, she's on rotation in New Orleans. Here's an entertaining excerpt from her log.

SUPER AMAZING RUN OF AWESOMENESS!!! After my first day that was completely free of school obligations and sleeping for 12 hours last night, I felt rested for the first time in 2 weeks. Finally made it to the store to replace defective iPod shuffle purchased 2 months ago. Had a conversation with a radiologist during my last shift that resulted in him recommending good running music, which I promptly downloaded onto said iPod. Hit the road. Perfect weather and I felt great! Fell into an easy pace that felt quicker than usual. Was able to step it up a bit for tempo intervals and fall back to a recovery pace that also felt quicker than usual. Ran through the French Market (paused the iPod, too much good music coming from the bars and cafés), up along the river, and then through the museam/art gallery area, which is less crowded with less traffic and cool art to look at through gallery windows. From there headed back up to the river to catch the sunset, was cheered on by a drunk homeless man, cut back through the Quarter and stopped during my cooldown to pet two miniature horses and a baby goat that were hanging out with their owners at a sidewalk cafe, then ran by a dude with a giant boa constrictor hanging around his neck (didn't stop to pet that). Love this city!

On a side note, I've found that despite what would seem to be an unmanageable workload (see the twelve hours of sleep referenced above!), ultra endurance events and medical careers are not mutually exclusive. There's a rhythm to hospital schedules that nicely complements the training. I've worked with a nurse training for a 100-mile run, and the time he spent on his feet in overnight shifts built his focus and endurance for the ultra distance. Physiologically, too, we were able to send him on easy runs off an overnight (he'd often run home from the hospital), to practice maintaining form and focus while fatigued.

Next time you feel you can't fit your training into your life, consider that it's all a question of balance and perspective. You are only one super amazing run of awesomeness away from feeding your soul and finding a dynamic balance between work and play.

Variations on Vinyasa

2010-09-29T13:17:00.003-04:00

In my class this week (join me for a repeat Thursday night at 5:45), there are a lot of opportunities for the vinyasa from plank through chaturanga to cobra or upward-facing dog to downward-facing dog. This opportunity happens about forty times in the sequence, which begins with warm-up moves, builds to standing poses, and segues into twists and hip openers. Students have the opportunity to move or hold as they see fit, and most follow the flow of the sequence, using smaller movements during the warm-up, taking the "standard" vinyasa in the middle, and toning things down as the pace and energy of the practice shift.

This is something I work with in my own practice when I take classes. It can be tough to make a conscious commitment to doing less—to holding plank while the rest of the room flows around me, to not executing yet another sloppy, misaligned chaturanga and putting my shoulder health at risk. Here are some options that I use; try them and see which work for you. Then deploy them often in your practice, even if the rest of the room is moving through the standard form yet again. Your teacher will be glad to see you responding to your body's needs.

Knees-down plank to chaturanga
Taking cobra rather than upward-facing dog (for a kyphotic body like mine, cobra is tougher than up dog)
Exhale to knees-chest-chin, bottom high; inhale to low cobra (for more work, then exhale to reverse to knees-chest-chin and push up)
Inhale front leg back, keeping it off the ground in a one-legged plank; exhale, one-legged chaturanga; inhale, lower the foot as you transition to your backbend
Hold in plank
Hold in plank and lift one foot, then the other, while keeping core aligned
Lower to chaturanga and push back up—or do two push-ups
Lower the knees for table; hold here
Swap plank/chaturanga for cow/cat
Inhale, plank; exhale, lower the knees for table; inhale and lift the knees to let them hover an inch off the floor; exhale to downward-facing dog
Inhale, knees down plank; exhale, child's pose

Please add any other ideas!

Turn Off, Tune Up, Drop In

2010-09-15T15:59:00.000-04:00

For the last few months, I've been writing a biweekly column on balance for Competitor Running. Sometimes this is literal balance; sometimes the topic is more figurative balance. (Competitor is also running my video series on recovery, my new hobby horse.)

My most recent piece is a play on Timothy Leary's famous "turn on, tune in, drop out." I contend that changing the prepositions yields a useful suggestion for running: turn off, tune up, drop in. (Please try it out and let me know how it goes.) The same strategy works for yoga, for meditation, for mindful living.

When things get loud inside—when the mind is caught up in the fluctuations that keep you from resting in your true nature—seek to turn off the noise (breathing deeply helps), to tune up your form (relax everywhere you can, and recenter in mountain pose), and drop in to your experience of the moment.

Practice, Practice, Practice

2010-08-31T13:23:00.000-04:00

Most of what I do—and, I'd bet, most of what you do—all day is filling in the spaces left out in success-story montages. It's the work necessary between setting a goal and reaching it. Much of it is tough, much is repetitive, and the progress comes in fits and spurts, rather than following a linear path. (And there's no 80s music playing while we put in the work, is there?)

That makes it extra special when you can enjoy the work itself. Today, it struck me that after six months of getting up to speed in my new role as co-owner of a yoga studio, I'm really having fun with all the small moments of the job. I like checking students in for class. I like writing our newsletter. I even like filing our student waivers and copying our paper schedules. Can you find some joy in your routine today?

Recovery Video Series: Part 1

2010-08-26T18:18:00.003-04:00

In March, I spent two lovely days in sunny San Diego (stay classy!) filming a video series on athletic recovery and hanging out with two fantastic and inspiring role models: the preternaturally prolific fitness writer Matt Fitzgerald and the lovely, fiery, and fun yoga teacher/attorney Ingrid Yang. (You can find Matt's books here and Ingrid's classes at Prana Yoga in La Jolla and online at YogaVibes.)

Here's the first of the series. I could have gone with brighter lipstick and glitzier earrings, but I think it's beautifully produced. What do you think?

If you're interested in learning more about recovery and you'll be at USA Triathlon's national championships in Alabama next month, please join me for my two-hour presentation on Friday morning, September 24. If you can't make that, download my hour-long webinar on the subject and read my column at Lava Magazine.

Enhancing Recovery—When You Need It

2010-08-19T18:02:00.000-04:00

Age Group Nationals for USA Triathlon will be held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, at the end of September. For many athletes, this is the A race of the year—the big one. Whether it's your big one or just another weekend in your racing calendar, you'll need to focus on recovering well after the event.

I'll be giving a presentation for USAT on the morning before the race covering what recovery is, how to measure it, and most importantly, how to enhance it. Elite age groupers are at particular risk of underrecovery, as their busy lives don't allow much, if any downtime. Join me for the presentation, and you'll feel fully justified in doing less—less volume, less work—in the service of more—more sleep, more energy, and more impressive race results.

Details and registration here.

Recovery Webinar

2010-08-09T10:58:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, August 17, I'll be leading a webinar on my new pet passion, recovery. There'll be CEUs offered for USA Triathlon coaches, but the content will be useful for all athletes—not just endurance athletes. Those who attend the live webinar can ask questions. If you can't make the time (it's 6 p.m. EDT), you can still register and you'll be e-mailed a link to download the webinar after it finishes. Please join me!

You can register here. The full description:

A USA Triathlon Webinar

Topic: Enhancing Recovery

Presenter: Sage Rountree

Date: Tuesday, August 17

Time: 4-5pm Mountain, 3-4pm Pacif, 5-6pm Central, 6-7pm Eastern

Cost:

USAT Member or Coach: $24.99 (0 CEUs)

USAT Coach: $34.99 (1 CEU)

Non-USAT Members: $39.99 (0 CEUs)

All the hard work put into training is useless if the athlete doesn't take time to recover, absorb the effort, and grow stronger. USAT Level II coach Sage Rountree explains the physiology of recovery, describes ways athletes can track their own recovery, and explains methods to ensure athletes recover fully between workouts and races. These methods include everything from ice baths to compression socks, power naps to powerful massages. You'll learn which methods are proven to aid in recovery, and which aren't worth your time and money.

If you cannot attend this webinar at the specified date and time, you can still register in advance and the complete webinar recording will be automatically emailed out to you after it is completed.

A Wheel within a Wheel

2010-07-26T09:44:00.000-04:00

From the beautiful little book A Wheel within a Wheel, by Frances Willard, which my fantastic athlete Julee gave me a few years ago, a lovely thought on learning and progress:

Once, when I grew somewhat discouraged and said that I had made no progress for a day or two, my teacher told me that it was just so when she learned: there were growing days and stationary days, and she had always noticed that just after one of these last dull, depressing, and dubious intervals she seemed to get an uplift and went ahead better than ever. It was like a spurt in rowing. This seems to be the law of progress in everything we do; it moves along a spiral rather than a perpendicular; we seem to be actually going out of the way, and yet it turns out that we were really moving upward all the time.

A Thought

2010-07-12T15:59:00.003-04:00

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

—Mark Twain

Math Wonkiness

2010-07-02T20:53:00.000-04:00

The New York Times describes the resolution to the ongoing story of my uncle Richard Hamilton's contribution to the solving of the Poincaré conjecture and the interesting personalities involved. I've written about it here, years ago.

The idea of Perelman declining because he didn't deserve full credit is just fantastic. What a renegade! At what point does standing on principle make you an eccentric?

Our Current Whereabouts

2010-06-25T15:02:00.000-04:00

My parents enjoy a month in France each summer. Now that wifi is largely available, we get periodic updates from them, and photos that my mother has taken. Very twenty-first century. Today's e-mail, however, suggests that they are in a place beyond time.

Postmatch Recovery

2010-06-24T10:12:00.000-04:00

Day three of the amazing Isner-Mahut match at Wimbledon, and I'm fascinated to hear commentators' take on recovery techniques (my passionate interest this year). John McEnroe said this would take six months out of the players' careers, because the recovery will be so long. A BBC commentator said, "Two massages a day for two weeks and they'll be ready to play again in three weeks." Both might be right. The science of recovery is still murky and everything depends on the individual.

Ultimately, time is the best thing you can do for your recovery between workouts. Beyond that, sleep (which correlates closely with time) and nutrition are key. Everything else is gravy, but sometimes the gravy makes the meal. The perceived benefit of massage or whatever other techniques these players might enjoy might give a psychological edge that lets them return to court 18 feeling slightly fresher. And in an endurance event like this tennis match, that can be huge.

For a fun read on the physiology of the match, visit today's Science of Sport blog.

Wheel Theory

2010-06-21T05:49:00.000-04:00

This morning, my local paper ran this interesting story about Duke professor Adrian Behan's constructal theory—basically, the concept that wheels exist throughout nature and serve as an underlying mechanism for our motion. (Read much more at constructal.org.) It's interesting stuff applicable both to yoga and to endurance sports, where efficiency is everything and where an off-balance system is doomed to eventual failure.

I'd take exception, though, with Bejan's statement that "taller runners run faster." Perhaps it's out of context and refers instead to taller runners in evolutionary history, but I'm sure we all know shorter runners who demonstrate more efficiency than their taller peers. Sometimes, you can almost see the wheels in action.

Check out the article for some interesting ideas about how nature reaches compromises, finding the balance between apparently competing needs.

Samskaras and Safari 4

2010-05-26T11:44:00.000-04:00

In my classes this week, we've been discussing the concept of samskaras, our habitual actions, and experimenting first with becoming aware of them and second with the idea of moving out of them, to live more mindfully. (If you'd like to read more about samskaras, check out this lovely Yoga Journal piece by Bo Forbes.)

It struck me as I was "working" (I use the quotes but keep the word working because I firmly believe that piddling around is part of the working process, a swing toward rest that brings me back toward more focused attention) and opening a new browser window that the Top Sites feature in Apple's Safari 4 browser is a visual reflection of my habits. It shows the 16 websites I visit most, and by presenting them, it encourages me to continue in this habit. Although I've noticed this, I won't go so far as to disable the feature—seeing these Top Sites gives me a cue to remember and appreciate that most of my actions are born out of habit, and to consider whether the habitual actions are the appropriate ones.

Overhead Is Served from Underground

2010-05-10T08:46:00.004-04:00

A power company sign spotted on my run this morning: OVERHEAD IS SERVED FROM UNDERGROUND. This made a wonderful meditation. First, on the importance of a quick and efficient footstrike in running, and on the importance of a steady base in yoga poses. And broadly: how much of what we "think" with our brains comes from somewhere deeper. Our strong roots serve and inform our intentions. We draw from a deep underground well of experience, and what we imagine with our minds is always an expression of what's below.

Speaking with Intention

2010-04-19T08:54:00.003-04:00

In spare moments over the last month, I've worked my way through Nick Morgan's book Trust Me, on public speaking. It's full of interesting information about the interaction between the verbal and the nonverbal conversation. Morgan explains that the nonverbal conversation dominates; if there's a conflict between body language and spoken language, the audience will default to body language, believing the speaker's movements and gestures over the speaker's words.

At the heart of the book is the message that you must form an intention before speaking. When you are firm and clear on your intent, your body language will convey your message. You won't even have to direct your body language; that would make it seem forced. Instead, know exactly what your intention is, and move from there.

As a yoga teacher, I love this idea. We set an intention before every class, just as we do before every workout. As you begin some task today—your run, your practice, a meeting, lunch with a friend—take a moment beforehand to consider your purpose. What is it you want to convey? How do you want the task to be resolved? What emotions will be in play? Form an intention, repeat it to yourself, and if you can remember, check back and align with it a few times during the task.

And let me know how it goes.

CYCo. Website and Open House

2010-04-08T10:17:00.002-04:00

Here's the last in a chain of studio-related posts for a bit. We've got our beautiful new site online. Please zip over to check it out, and let me know what you think!

We'd love to see you at our open-house party on April 17.

CYCo. Spring Schedule

2010-04-03T09:48:00.004-04:00

It's been a busy month of teaching travel, and while I have some posts brewing, I wanted to share a physical representation of what I've been up to. Click here for the Carrboro Yoga Company's spring schedule, available for downloading and posting on your virtual refrigerator. You can always see the live, up-to-date version of our schedule, including workshops, on our schedule page.

Carrboro Yoga Company, March 2010 Schedule

2010-03-01T08:30:00.004-05:00

You can find the March schedule I've been busy working on online (where you can read more and even register for classes) or by downloading this PDF file, which you can post on your fridge—or the virtual fridge of your desktop.

Practicing Yoga at the Studio Desk

2010-03-01T08:23:00.003-05:00

Ten days into studio ownership, I can see how this role will be an extension of my yoga practice. Amid all the paperwork, getting up to speed on office systems, lining up instructors for the March schedule, working on revisions to the waiver, finding a working VCR for childbirth classes, cutting keys that will open every door at the studio, and dozens of other details, Lies and I have had to keep track of a lot.

The question throughout: What needs attention in this moment? When I can answer that, I can consider: How will this reflect my intention—to make yoga accessible to the people of our community? And when I ask: Where can I find more energy to be open and share and create?, I find the answer: in recognizing what needs attention in this moment.

The same applies both on the mat and on the trail. What is the need of your body in an asana practice? In breath exercises? In meditation? In an interval? Between intervals? A few times over the course of the day, check in. What needs your attention? Where can your energy be of most use? Pause, listen to the answer, and your next action will be clear.

Enjoy the Process

2010-02-17T07:47:00.006-05:00

Last night, over Champagne (don't be alarmed by the picture, there were other people present to aid in consumption!), my business partner, Lies Sapp (at right), and I bought the Carrboro Yoga Company from my longtime friends, Rick and Donia Robinson (Donia's at left, and will be familiar to my Kripalu students as my most lovely assistant). But did the transfer happen last night, with the signing of the closing papers, or did it happen when we came to terms? Did it happen when Lies and I formed a partnership, or will it happen when our training is finished and Donia leaves for California?

Similarly, last week, I signed another important contract, for a new book deal. The actual signing took place in a sixty-second trip to my agent's office, between picking up cookies at the co-op for snack and running to meet my children at the door to their school. That was not the moment when I formally began writing this book. Was that moment when the concept came to me? When I drafted a table of contents and sketched out the direction I wanted to go with the book? When my editor and I began talking? When I opened the first chapter file?

Does your "doing" a race—your first half marathon, say—happen when you cross the finish line? The start line? When you think, "I can do this"? When you pay for your race entry? Or does it happen all along the way, every morning as you lace up your shoes, every evening as you head to yoga class?

Yoga practice teaches us to emphasize the process over the result, because the result is always changing. Any process is a linked series of moments, and while there are key moments along the path, none is the definitive one. The more you can stay aware in each, the more fulfilling your life.

Delays and Detours

2010-02-15T08:43:00.003-05:00

"Delays and detours to my limited vision are actually the perfect path unfolding to a higher eye." —Julia Cameron

I came across that epigraph earlier this week in a funny little book called Blessings, by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way. While I liked it enough to post it to my Twitter feed, little did I know how germane it would be to the rest of my week.

Thursday morning, my husband, Wes, and I headed to the Raleigh-Durham airport for a flight to Colorado Springs, where I was to present on yoga for triathletes at the USA Triathlon biannual coaching conference, Art and Science. We parked, checked our bags, went through security, bought a coffee, hung out at the gate, watched our plane come in . . . and learned that the flight to Dallas was cancelled because of snow at DFW. After a scramble to rebook, we found an incredibly patient, good-humored gate agent (kudos to you, Sean Murphy!) who pulled some strings and got us on a flight early Friday morning. But by Thursday evening, as the snow piled up in Texas, those flights had been cancelled, too. With snow across the Eastern Seaboard leading to massive rebookings and demand for the few flights that were going at all, there was literally no way to get to Colorado in time for my Saturday afternoon presentation.

It was frustrating, naturally, not only for the missed work opportunity, but for the back-and-forth with my wonderful in-laws (come over to babysit; no, don't; no, do!). After some poking around (Valentine's Day had filled most local hotels), we found a room at the Fearrington House just south of Chapel Hill, where we enjoyed afternoon tea, a wonderful dinner, a cozy featherbed, and a leisurely morning with breakfast by the fire. Best of all, it snowed as we were dining Friday night! The time out with Wes was just what I needed in the midst of this very exciting, full, travel-packed 2010. I didn't bring my computer; I did get to read a novel for 90 uninterrupted minutes while Wes napped at my side. And we had time at home to get things done we'd never have accomplished otherwise.

Next time circumstances frustrate you, consider that your detour may reroute you to just the right place.

Kripalu, February 2010

2010-02-08T13:21:00.005-05:00

The people who traveled to Kripalu to study with me in a weekend intensive on yoga for athletes were uniformly lovely. We had the expected array of runners, triathletes, and yoga teachers, as well as a former collegiate rower, now coaching; a seriously competitive Ultimate Frisbee player; and a woman teaching yoga to a university women's basketball team.

The joint was jumping, with many other exciting programs happening contemporaneously. The energetic and beautiful Sadie Nardini was teaching Core Strength Vinyasa; the calm and friendly Mark Allen and Brant Secunda were presenting a workshop based on their Fit Soul, Fit Body. (Mark and I will both be presenting at USA Triathlon's Art and Science of Coaching convention this coming weekend in Colorado Springs.) Some of the sweet people who attended my Saturday evening hip-opening class were there for Retreat and Renewal, couples yoga, and the other awareness clinics being presented. We did a gentle sequence based loosely on my class streamable at YogaVibes.

Along the way, I enjoyed two amazing treatments in the Healing Arts Center: vishesh-shirodhara, with Sadie C., and a great Positional Therapy and deep-tissue massage session with Christopher, who set my SI joint straight, much to my relief and delight. Next time you're at Kripalu, you should seek out these two wonderful practitioners.

If you wanted to make the weekend but couldn't, please consider coming to the five-day retreat I'm leading at Kripalu in May, or to my ZAP Fitness yoga and running spring weekend retreat, also in May. And if you're wondering what we covered in our ten hours together (as well as in the fun 10K we ran through beautiful Lenox, Massachusetts), here are my practice notes, keyed in the most part to The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga.

Friday evening

Practice: Relax and shake off travel. This is appropriate for anytime, including after a hard workout, race, or game; on a rest day; or before a competition.

Supported reclining backbend (knees bent, straight, or cobbler pose)
Corpse
Knees to chest
One-legged knee to chest (apanasana)
Hip circles
Reclining tree
Knee-down twist
Shoulder circles (“disco finger”) from knee-down twist
Child’s pose to bolster
Prone twist, belly to bolster
Corpse with bolster

Saturday pre-run

Engage the core in mountain-pose alignment; warm up the gluteus medius in dynamic tips in and out of Warrior III

Saturday morning

Practice: Strength, appropriate for base period; flexibility/restorative practice at the wall, appropriate anytime.

The breath in space
Six moves of the spine, prone (cat-cow; lateral child’s pose; threading the kneedle twist)
Rolling like a ball, including coming to squat and dropping knees to the floor/toe stretch
Tall mountain flow
Half salutes
Sun salutes with lunges
Sun salutes with standing poses
Static core (plank, side plank, reverse plank), interspersed with stretches (quad stretch, mermaid stretch)
Clock-face stretches
Box pose flow to handstand: down dog at wall, dandasana at wall, box pose (upside-down L at wall), handstand kicking up from down dog
Wall folds: legs up the wall; central, outer, and inner hamstring; half happy baby, reclining pigeon/figure 4
Legs up the wall, reclining cobbler, or corpse, possibly with bolster

Saturday afternoon

Practice: Focus, appropriate for peak period or anytime, at least 24 hours removed from competition.

The breath in time: Ratios of inhale 6 (or 4, or 8) : exhale 6, in 6 : pause 1 : out 6 : pause 1, 6:1:8:1.
Child’s pose inchworm flow: inhale to cow/exhale to child’s pose, inchworm, inchworm with cobra, inchworm with lower body backbend, inchworm with cobra/locust
Tree, dancer
Camel
Lunge series, yin style: lunge, groin stretch, twist; pigeon, pigeon with backbend
Cross-legged reclining IT band twist
Block backbends: fish (blocks to T), bridge

Sunday morning

Practice: Flexibility, breaking out of forward motion. Appropriate in base and build periods and, practiced carefully, toward start of peak for maintaining, not gaining flexibility.

Nadi shodhana (alternate nostril breathing)
Six moves of the spine, leg extended: cat-cow, threading the needle, gate pose
Moon salutations
Half moon at wall, foot to wall, in space
Dynamic core: rollups, rollovers; legs-down metronome twist; bridge with leg lifts
IT band flow: cow-face, seated twist (ardha matsyendrasana).
Cross-legged reclining twists, tight cross of legs, to both directions
Happy baby
Corpse

Powerstroke DVD

2010-01-31T16:39:00.004-05:00

Snowed in at home, across the street from our closed pool, I finally made the time to watch my colleague Marty Gaal's swim-technique DVD, Powerstroke: Speed through Force and Form. On the disk, Marty, head coach of One Step Beyond Multisport, gives a clear, accessible discussion of good form, along with illustrations; this was useful review for me as an athlete. The second section contains shots of swimmers both from the deck and from underwater. This was my favorite feature as a coach, since I got to hear Marty's analysis of swimmers' strokes. Then Marty explains the Powerstroke approach (which emphasizes a very strong pull) and outlines how to practice it correctly, including various drills. The disk finishes with some stretches and strength exercises to practice. Marty has some seriously flexible shoulders—my linemen yoga students, who break into a sweat trying to bring their elbows together in garudasana arms, would be aghast!

Now I'm eager to get in the water and try this approach out for myself—and to bring along my waterproof camera and see just what's going on in my stroke, frame by frame.

Now is the point in your season to improve your stroke. Technique is essential in the swim; you can't fake it in the water, as you sometimes can on the run. Putting effort into improving your technique is the single best investment of your swim training time, and Powerstroke is a great resource both for reviewing good technique and for learning how to safely apply more force in the water. Check it out! Marty and his wife, Bri, lead clinics in which they teach this approach hands-on. (One got snowed out this weekend, in fact.) Find the DVD here and clinic information here.

On Indoor Cycling

2010-01-25T11:57:00.003-05:00

At the end of this week, I'll teach the last of the indoor cycling classes I've led every Tuesday and Thursday for almost four years. It has been a wonderful experience, because my students have been so special. Most came to the class from other indoor-bike classes, expecting a rip-roaring workout, and sometimes they got it. But usually, we went through a workout with more complicated goals and more subtle effects.

Not everyone who dropped in realized it, but the regulars knew that we were going through periodized cycles, laying an aerobic base in the winter, building on it in the spring, riding hard in the summer (we had lots of fun with Tour de France–inspired workouts), returning to base in the fall, and having a blast each December with themed playlist and greatest-hits workouts from the year. Each day was part of a bigger picture, and once students grew used to the rhythm of my teaching—and comfortable with the idea that you don't have to go hard all the time—we had a full class of great people. (I do the same thing in yoga, periodizing the practice, and spending more time encouraging students to relax than I do exhorting them to work harder.)

Best of all, many of my students have been inspired to buy road bikes, or dust off their old ones, and have begun participating in charity rides and races. Who could ask for more as a teacher? At some level, teaching is planned obsolescence. We impart the tools so that students can implement their own practice. (Obviously, this obtains in yoga, too.)

In just the last week, two students who'd taken classes when out of town reported on what a different experience it was. Both had been encouraged to turn extremely high cadences—120 and up—without any breaks. This may be exercise, but it isn't true to cycling, unless you are training for short track races in a velodrome! Jennifer Sage has written a nice e-book, Keep It Real, and created a whole site around this concept: indoor cycling should mimic workouts for outdoor cycling. If you ever ride on a spin bike, or if you teach indoor cycling, you should check out her work.

In pondering my retirement, I reflect that these have been my main points, week in and week out.

Form and breath. Continually come back to the most efficient form you can muster, and breathe as deeply as you can in the circumstance.
Push it down, scrape it back, lift it up, kick it forward, Disco Lady.
Don't stand 80 percent of the time. Stand 8 percent of the time, or less.
A sprint doesn't last for minutes on end. It's a true max effort. A nice workout is to put on some music you like, then sprint the breaks between the songs (presuming they are 8 to 12 seconds or so).
You're either a masher or a spinner; spend some time working on your weakness, and we can meet in the middle, near 90 rpms.
The more you think you need a hard workout, the more you probably need to have an easy workout.
Even if studies show the cool-down isn't that important, it helps you feel closure. We liken it to choosing "Shut down" for your computer, rather than simply unplugging it.
Tuesdays, do pushups. As many as you can with good form. Eight is enough for me.
Thursdays, do core work. Planks are good, but change it up occasionally.
At least once a year, listen to a full hour of ABBA. If you like ABBA, it will be a treat; if you don't, it will be a great way to develop equanimity.

How nice to retire feeling like my work in the cycling room is complete. I'm moving on to other exciting projects, on which more here soon, and looking forward to riding my bike outside during the week!

Yoga Day USA

2010-01-23T07:16:00.004-05:00

It's Yoga Day USA, a day of free or deeply discounted yoga across the country. You can find a local option by searching the map at the Yoga Alliance's site.

If you enjoy your class, consider giving the price of a standard class ($10–$15) to Haiti relief efforts.

You can see my take on gravity's role in yoga on the Yoga Day USA YouTube channel, and at YogaVibes, where all classes, including mine, are half price today.