Colorado Runner

A recent New York Times Magazine article rocked the yoga world by reporting that, despite its popularity, yoga may be too high-risk for most people.  When instructors get overly persistent and extreme poses are held for too long, yoga can cause a wide range of skeletal and muscular injuries, like nerve damage or torn cartilage. Now that an estimated 20 million Americans practice yoga, many critics are pointing to training programs that prematurely graduate their instructors without proper training in injury prevention.  Such instructors could easily teach students proper technique, but often fail to recognize when their students’ bodies have gone too far. So exactly how risky is the practice of yoga?  And how can one prevent injuries and determine their own physical limits when doing [...]

Nationally known endurance sports coach and yoga instructor Sage Rountree has published the first book of yoga routines for athletes. The Athlete’s Pocket Guide to Yoga: 50 Routines for Flexibility, Balance, and Focus offers runners, triathletes, and cyclists a convenient way to gain the benefits of yoga. When endurance athletes attend yoga classes, they bring tight muscles and even tighter schedules. At the height of the season, athletes often disappear from the yoga studio, yet it is then that yoga can be most beneficial. The Athlete’s Pocket Guide to Yoga makes it easy for athletes to continue reaping the benefits [...]

The onset of winter needn’t bring a seasonal halt to a runner’s enthusiasm or routines. Outdoor exercise in the winter can be a pleasurable experience. The major risk posed by running in subfreezing air is frostbite and minor irritations to the respiratory tract. With some minor precautions these risks can be eliminated. 1. Wear clothing in layers so that warm air can be trapped between the layers. Depending on the weather conditions, 2 to 4 layers on the trunk and 1 to 2 layers on the legs are appropriate. It is helpful if the outer layers have vents and zippers [...]

After many long hard months of training, recovery prior to that awe-inspiring long distance race is essential. Many runners follow the recommendations of rest, lighter workouts, proper nutrition, ice, stretching and massages, but all too frequently some minor aches and pains just don’t go away. Serious runners and triathletes are always tempted to “work through” that pesky knee pain, that stabbing foot pain, or that calf pain on those arduous hills. I am a victim of that very concept. Although tempting, this runner’s attitude far too often delays recovery and promotes more serious repetitive overuse types of injury. So when [...]

Patello-femoral joint dysfunction syndrome, also known as “runner’s knee”, refers to tracking problems between the knee cap (patella) and the upper leg bone (femur). The underside of the patella is shaped like the bow of a ship, and rides in a groove created by the femur (upper leg bone). The contact between the patella and the groove (femur) is called the patello-femoral joint. The knee cap slides up the groove when we straighten our knee and down the groove when we bend it. A normal functioning patella runs down the center of this groove. If the patella begins to run [...]