Yoga is a Secret Weapon for Endurance Athletes
There’s a term in Buddhism called Samma Vayama or “Right Effort”.
It’s something that’s often difficult for endurance athletes to grasp. We struggle with this concept on our yoga mats (if we even choose to do yoga), but we also struggle with it in training.
The reason for our struggle is simple: we’re chasing a goal and WANT to be at point B when we’re currently at point A. In fact, most of us want to be at point Z and we’re only at point A. Most often we have issues accepting this and try to “fake it until we make it.” The intention is fine; it’s okay to want to improve! Unfortunately, attempting to skip steps often has us falling even further backwards.
Right effort is about meeting yourself exactly where you are, and focusing on the next best step.
On our yoga mat, this is key in helping us actually connect with our bodies. The secret weapon of yoga is learning to fine tune this connection. Our bodies speak the language of sensation and we try to translate those sensations into a language we understand. While it’s never going to be a perfect translation, we can get closer and closer by learning to listen.
The trouble is, as endurance athletes we often try to ignore these sensations. Our ego speaks louder and on our yoga mat it becomes about trying to prove we can force ourselves into a pose we certainly aren’t comfortable in. In training it’s about trying to push to hit certain targets when the body isn’t prepared for it - both in the short term mid training session and long term by maintaining high volumes of training. In all cases, at best our ego gets a temporary sense of satisfaction and at worst, we push ourselves too far and end up broken down and burned out.
Yoga helps us as endurance athletes because in our training the targets are hard to ignore; races are measured by time after all. But on a yoga mat, there is no “goal”. It’s an opportunity to tune out the outside metrics and focus on the internal sensations. We can learn to meet ourselves where we are and understand that progress isn’t linear. Some days simply feel better than others, and the days where we need to back off a little are just as important as the days where we feel we can press forward.
The important part is showing up and figuring out what your body needs that day.
This isn’t to say that you’ll never push yourself or work hard, it’s about increasing the ability to listen to the body so that you push just the right amount to make forward progress without falling apart.
When you execute this well it leads to consistency, and consistency leads to progress.
Happy Training!
Griffin
