Christine Felstead's Yoga For Runners: Intermediate Program

Christine Felstead’s gentle instruction will introduce runners to yoga postures specific for their tight areas. The postures taught in this workout will help runners gain strength and flexibility and lessen pain. This practice is easy to follow and although it references runners frequently, any person with tight hamstrings and glutes will benefit from this practice.
Optional yoga block and strap.

This practice is taught by an instructor who is a runner as well as a yoga enthusiast. Her coaching is runner specific: “The plank will make your body strong and a strong body makes a strong runner,” she says. She references how runners compress the lower spine and focuses on opening up that space while teaching the downward dog. She does not do the practice. Instead she walks around the class and makes corrections. She helps the customer understand the difference between being deep in a pose or having bad form. Her hands-on instruction is easy to see and hear and that makes it easy to understand. Her cues are very descriptive: “get the wrinkles out of the back of your neck” to lengthen the spine and “draw the belly in” to create more space. The instructor is more than just yoga for running. She wants the customer to have better posture, to have better strength, to have better quality of life. Her compassion is genuine and her instruction comes across as lessons she has learned while living life.

This is a practice made up of yoga postures and some vinyassas but the majority of the workout involves getting in and out of runner specific postures and learning about how the posture is benefitting the runner. The nice part of this workout is that the instructor holds each posture for at least 30 seconds. That is 30 seconds to stretch and breathe and most runners do not do that. The moves are yoga but it does not feel like the lights need to be off and candles lit. The workout starts with an easy warm up that focuses on breathing and basic stretches. A lengthy sun salutation follows with lots of freedom to modify poses and take extra time to hold postures. Standing hip openers are next followed by seated poses and a six minute closing sequence. The instructor has released a prequel to this workout for beginners, but this workout was easy enough to modify for any level of exerciser. The best part of this workout was watching her make hands-on corrections while she was teaching. The mistakes that the participants were making are the common mistakes so it was helpful to see what the problem was and how to correct it, even if it meant lessening a stretch.

As a runner I appreciated this workout because it was so specific to a runner’s body. Tight hips were opened up, sore low backs were addressed and the viewer learned how to decompress the spine and lengthen hamstrings. Most runners know the importance of these stretches, but do not find time to do them. This relaxing workout did not feel like a chore to do. The postures felt good and I became better educated as I did them.

Christine Felstead's ''Yoga for Runners: Intermediate Program'' - the follow-up to her best selling ''Yoga for Runners: Beginner Program'' - is a complete yoga workout designed to deepen flexibility while also including key strengthening work for runners. It includes an energetic sequence of yoga poses including details on how they benefit the runner specifically. While this is a program aimed at an intermediate level, Christine's instructions are precise and clear enough for anyone to take part. Participants are encouraged to stay within their limits while being given the tools to explore deeper. This yoga program will result in greater balance and symmetry by stretching tight areas (hamstrings, hips, lower back) and strengthening weak areas (inner quads, adductors, core, upper body and back). Equipment needed: yoga mat, yoga belt, yoga block (optional), towel (optional).

Yoga = 82 minutes.