Ready, set, get warm!
Oh baby, it’s cold! As temps drop, your bod will take longer to warm up — especially larger muscles like your quads and booty. There’s nothing badass about dashing out into the frost and pulling a cold, stiff hammy. Luckily, the cold doesn’t have to de-rail your workout. Just don your fave beanie and use this 10-minute (or faster) dynamic yoga sequence to pre-game your winter run. It will wake up your core, establish legit joint alignment, get your blood pumping, and help you say “no thanks” to a cold weather running injury.
Chair — Lunge — Single Leg Balance — Warrior 3 — Chair (switch sides)
Do the entire sequence on one side before switching.
Round 1: Hold each pose for 5 deep breaths.
Chair
1. Stand with your feet hip’s width apart and parallel.
2. Bend your knees to come into a squat with your knees tracking over your ankles, and reach your arms overhead.
3. Engage your core by “knitting” your front ribs together.
Runner’s Lunge
1. From Chair, step your right leg back into a lunge.
2. Keep your front knee bent at 90 degrees, tracking directly over the ankle.
3. Soften common tension spots like your shoulders, neck, and jaw.
Single Leg Balance
1. From Runner’s Lunge, take a big step forward and balance on your left leg.
2. Keep your core engaged as you lift your right knee up to waist-height.
3. Be sure to keep your weight even on your left foot, and think about evenly distributing the work between your quads and glutes.
4. For added challenge, straighten your right leg out in front of you — effing what?!
Warrior 3
1. From Single Leg Balance, lean your body forward and extend your right leg long behind you (while you look at the ground.
2. Reach your arms back along your sides and try to keep your hips squared toward the ground.
3. For added challenge, reach your arms out in front of you.
4. Bend your standing leg more and return to Chair to repeat the sequence on the other side.
Round two: Hold each pose for 1–2 breaths — move faster. Repeat as many rounds as you need to feel warm and strong in each pose.
If it happens to be snowing in your hood, dare we suggest… Snoga? Don’t be shy about busting a pose mid- or post-run out in the snow. We’re trying to see a pic of that! Wishing you happy winter running.
Jasyoga’s next Recovery for Runners Series is coming in January!
