Standing Yoga Poses To Relax The Legs

If you're a runner, you probably know the importance of stretching and relaxing your legs. Start this short standing session in the mountain pose (plain standing pose) and breathe through the nostrils slowly.

Standing Forward Bend

Weight is evenly distributed on both hips and legs. Take a deep breath, and raise your arms up. Keep the back flat and bend forward. Relax the back as you're hinging. At the same time, you should be feeling your legs relaxing. Go back to the standing position, raise the arms to the sky again as you're inhaling, and hinge again towards the knees. Repeat this movement for five breaths while breathing through the nostrils only.

Wide Squat

Bend the knees and get into a wide deep squat. Arms should be extended in front of you as far as possible, and your head relaxed naturally. You should feel the stretch in your hips and lower back. Stay in this position for five breaths as with the other poses, and stand up slowly.

Dancer Pose

Bend over in a 90 degree angle. Lift the right leg behind you by holding the toes with your right hand. Reach with your left arm in front of you to keep the balance. Try keeping your chest open and standing leg straight. Stay in this pose for five slow breaths, and repeat on the other side.

Inside Thigh And Hamstring Stretch

From dancer pose, step forward like you want to make splits, just stay half way towards the split. There should be about 40 centimeters between your feet. Bend forward over the front leg, resting your hands on the hips or — if you're more flexible — on the floor. Breathe deeply for five slow breaths. Do this on the other side too.

Chair Pose

Our last movement will be a little sequence on its own. Stand up and bring your feet together. In this pose, everything comes together — feet, knees, thighs, and even your hands are joined on the chest like for the prayer. Bend forward a little, and go down with the hips like you're about to sit on an invisible chair. Bring the arms up, and relax your shoulders. Make sure that you're breathing, people often concentrate solely on the pose and forget to breathe.

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Bring your hands in front of your chest again. From here, take your left elbow to the right knee for a twist. Look up towards the ceiling and breathe five times. Keep all the weight on the right leg, and step back with the left leg. Try not to lose your balance. Hold this pose for five breaths again. Go back to the chair pose with the hands in the praying position again. Repeat the same process on the other side, meaning this time you lean your right elbow to the left knee, and after few breaths you step back with the right leg. After five breaths, go back to the chair pose, and then stand up slowly.

All these poses relax the muscles in your legs, improve flexibility and balance. You can do this sequence before your running session to warm the muscles up and prevent injuries, and of course after the running — to stretch, relax and recover the muscles, joints and tissues.