This 6-move yoga is the perfect recovery routine for runners – Tom’s Guide

Getting yard work done, whether digging in the dirt or picking up a basket full of vegetables, is physical activity. It’s an aerobic workout that gets your blood pumping and helps strengthen muscles and improves your flexibility.

Gardening also reduces your stress level, which is a major contributing factor to many illnesses and diseases. It also boosts your mood, sleep and overall health.

Whether you’ve just completed the Boston Marathon or you’re competing in your first 5K, you might have already thought ahead to your recovery routine. Regardless, consider adding this yoga for runners regime to your plans.

Runners, rejoice. Developed by well-being and yoga gurus at Ark (opens in new tab), this short and restorative yoga practice comprises six yoga poses and stretches for runners to help recover after long runs or short sprints. Even if you’re not competing this year, or you’ve just begun your foray into running, these yoga stretches for runners could boost flexibility, soothe sore and aching muscles, relieve tightness, and improve muscle recovery.

best yoga mats could make all the difference on your next run. You can perform these six moves as part of a morning yoga routine or after a run as a cool-down. Hit play on a relaxing playlist, and flow through these relaxing yoga stretches for runners.

Yoga for runners: benefits

Many runners are notoriously quad-dominant and tight in the hip flexors. According to our fitness editor (an avid Marathon runner), quad dominance often occurs in runners who favor high-mileage plans, skip hill training, or prefer the treadmill to clock up miles.

Quad dominance isn’t exclusive to runners, either. Weightlifters could also experience a lack of glute and hamstring engagement (depending on the exercise regime and recovery plan). Stretching, mobility, and the best foam roller exercises are popular ways to relieve tightness, but among them is yoga.

Tight lower body muscles, including the hamstrings, quads, hip flexors, and calves, could cause pain and weakness somewhere else, like your lower back or ankles. These six yoga poses are a brilliant antidote for easing tight hips, hamstrings, and glutes and boosting flexibility across your lower body.

In conjunction with this simple stretch for quads (our editor swears by it) and the 6 best strength and conditioning exercises for runners, you could develop strength and increase your range of motion, helping you to become a stronger and more robust runner.

Six yoga stretches for runners

Holistic yoga practitioners Summer and Zinzi — Ark founders — share their best yoga poses for runners. Hold each stretch for 15-30 seconds per leg and flow through all six as a sequence or several times, if you prefer. Breathe throughout, practicing expansive breathing into your belly rather than your chest.

1. Low lunge

Woman performing a low lunge with arms overhead — (Image credit: Ark)

Muscle target group — hip flexor, hips, quads, and muscles across the front body.

How:

Step one leg behind you and lower your back knee to the floor
Slowly lift your arms above your head, reaching your fingertips toward the ceiling
Keep your hips square to the front of the mat and shoulders relaxed
Gently draw your tailbone down and engage your inner thighs and glutes, then push your front knee forward over your heel
Tuck the back toes for extra balance if you’re feeling unstable. Swap sides.

2. Half split

Woman performing a half split on a yoga mat holding a block underneath both hands — (Image credit: Ark)

Muscle target group — hamstrings

How:

Send your hips back toward your heels, your front leg now extended
Keep hips square to the front of the mat
Flex your front foot with toes pointed toward the sky
On your inhale, lengthen your spine and sit tall. On your exhale, draw your chest towards your thighs with a flat back
Bring blocks or books underneath your hands for support
Inhale to lengthen and exhale to draw your chest towards your thighs
Fold the mat to create extra padding under the back knee. Swap sides.

3. Lizard

Woman performing lizard pose with right leg forward and hands down — (Image credit: Ark)

Muscle target group – hip flexors.

If you have wrist pain or need a lift, make a fist with the hands rather than having them flat on the floor.

How:

Move back to your low lunge and gently shift your back knee further back to achieve a deeper stretch
Explore arm and hand positions. Options include hands on the floor or a block, or forearms resting on your mat
Keep your thigh close to your body or roll onto the outside blade of the front foot to open your hip
Inhale and draw your chest forward. Exhale and gently fold forward
Keep the front knee roughly over the ankle.

4. Forward fold

Woman doing a forward fold with hands on elbows — (Image credit: Ark)

Muscle target group — hamstrings and glutes.

How:

Make your way to a standing position with feet hip-width apart and a soft bend in both knees
Take a deep breath and reach both arms overhead
As you exhale, slowly fold over your legs, chest to thighs
Relax through the back of your neck when folding
Experiment with foot position and explore what helps you breathe best
Arm variations include holding your elbows with your hands or linking peace fingers around your big toes.

5. Halfway lift

Woman doing a halfway lift on a yoga mat with hands on shins — (Image credit: Ark)

Muscle target group — hamstrings and posterior chain muscles.

Move between the forward fold and halfway lift to encourage space and explore the stretch. Inhale lift, exhale fold.

How:

As you lift your chest, draw shoulder blades together and engage your core
Hands can rest on your shins, blocks, or the floor
Think of drawing your belly button towards the spine and encouraging length through the side of the body, maintaining a flat back.

6. Downward facing dog variation

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Woman doing a downward facing dog with right foot behind left foot — (Image credit: Ark)

Muscle target group — calves, hamstrings, and Achilles.

From your forward fold, step back into downward facing dog
Spread your fingers, press through your hands, and draw both shoulder blades down your back
Maintain a soft knee bend with feet hip-width apart and encourage your stomach towards your thighs with weight evenly distributed between your hands and feet
Send your hips back
Wrap one foot around the back of the opposite heel
Drive the standing heel towards the floor to deepen the stretch
Draw armpits towards one another.

If you fancy something extra, explore inhaling onto your tip toes and exhaling the heel back towards the floor.