Yoga: A Compliment to Hiking

When I was in recovery for my ankle injury I joined our local yoga studio, Sage Yoga, to help try and get back some of the range of motion I lost to my injury. I directly attribute yoga to allowing me to heal my injuries enough to start hiking again. What I found in addition to yoga helping me to recover better, was it also made me feel better. My stress and anxiety levels went down and I felt balanced again. Once I was recovered, I continued my practice and yoga became a perfect compliment to my hiking. It improved my balance, strength, flexibility, endurance, recovery time, and mental fortitude. It also deepened my spiritual practice and opened me up to an expanded perception as well as fostering deep kindness and compassion.

I was able to connect with Reyna Beckler E-RYT 500, and get her expert tips on how to use yoga as a compliment to hiking. Reyna’s passion for yoga began over twenty years ago when she took her first class as a means to cope with her Marine husband’s constant deployments. She quickly found that a regular yoga practice kept her grounded and calm. In 2015, she realized her dream of becoming a yoga studio owner. Reyna owns and operates Sage Yoga in her hometown of Fallbrook, CA and most recently opened a second location in Bonsall, CA.

Before we dive into Reyna’s tips, let's explore what yoga is. According to Reyna, yoga is an ancient practice that originated in India thousands of years ago. This practice includes postures that help us to become healthier, balanced, and can create the opportunity to enter into a state of meditation. A yoga practice can be both a physical and spiritual practice. Yoga helps us to become flexible, release tension, and burn toxins so that one can experience peace, calmness, relaxation, and clarity.

Beneath the surface, the philosophy and spirituality behind yoga goes much deeper. For thousands of years, yoga was taught to help purify the body and mind, so that a practitioner can burn karma and awaken their soul. This included breathing techniques, concentration, meditation, practicing nonviolence, discipline of mind and body, fasting, truthfulness, and non-attachment among others.

Reyna also explained the physical and spiritual benefits of yoga. She says some of the physical benefits of yoga include increased flexibility, increased muscle strength and tone, improved respiration, maintaining a balanced metabolism, helps maintain a healthy weight, cardio and circulatory health, improved athletic performance, helps reduce chronic pain and inflammation, promotes sleep quality, helps reduce stress, relieves anxiety and helps fight depression.

A regular yoga practice can also help a person to become aligned with body, mind and spirit. Although yoga is not associated with religion, meditation and breathing exercises are particularly helpful in creating more wellness in the mind and body and a deeper connection to the authentic self and/or a higher power. Yoga can help one work through psychological changes, emotional stress, and achieve blissful states of being.

So let's dive into Reyna’s expert tips on how to use yoga as a compliment to hiking!

Tip #1 Regular Yoga can improve your hiking experience.

Regular yoga can improve hiking experiences. It builds strength and stamina and helps hikers trek longer more intense trails with ease. Hikers will notice:

Improved Flexibility- Taking big steps over boulders is something that can be dangerous and lead to serious injury. Since yoga improves flexibility, these precarious positions will be easier to pull off.

Better Strength- Yoga puts some strain on all the muscles in the body, which means they will start developing and build more strength. Carrying heavy backpacks will be much easier.

Better Endurance- Holding yoga poses for prolonged periods helps build endurance. Longer trails will be a little easier to take on and hikers will be able to cover longer distances without feeling exhausted.

Improved Balance- Since hiking requires a lot of core strength, just a few minutes of yoga a day, is enough to give you enhanced core strength and better balance.

Improved Lung Capacity- Yoga helps to correct your breathing. It also teaches your body how to relax in stressful situations.

Fewer Injuries- Yoga forces the body to work on weaker muscles and tendons, thus helping reduce the risk of having to deal with sore muscles or, even worse, an injury like a sprained ankle or tendonitis.

Tip #2 You can use yoga before your hike to clear your mind and help reduce tightness.

Reyna recommends the following poses before your hike to help clear your mind and reduce any body tightness.

Standing Forward Fold before a hike will wake up the hamstrings. The inversion will clear the mind for the work that lies ahead.

Downward Facing Dog is great for stretching out calves and will reduce tightening that happens after a hike.

Standing Wide Leg Forward Fold is a great way to stretch the hamstrings, calves, and glutes before hiking. Interlacing the fingers behind the body opens the back, chest, and shoulders. This is especially important if carrying a backpack.

Tip #3 Yoga builds strength.

Chair Pose strengthens the thighs and ankles, while toning the shoulders, glutes, hips, and back. It stretches the Achilles tendons and shins. It also stretches the shoulders and opens the chest.

Plank Pose tones core muscles of the body, including the abdomen, chest, and low back. It strengthens the arms, wrists, and shoulders. Plank also strengthens the muscles surrounding the spine, which improves posture.

Tip #5 Yoga helps with recovery after a hike.

Yoga helps improve the muscle tissues’ ability to regenerate and repair and helps reduce the risk of being sore after a long hike. The actions in hiking often cause muscles to tense and shorten. Many yoga poses involve deep stretching which lengthen muscles and tendons helping them recover and develop more mobility and flexibility

Pigeon pose is the perfect pose after a hike because it releases tension and helps maintain hip flexibility by stretching both the hip rotators (buttocks area) and the hip flexors (the muscles that run along the front thighs and pelvis).

Low Lunge is a great stretch to release the hip flexors after a hike since they work hard to support every step during the hike.

Legs up the Wall will reverse the blood flow and increase circulation throughout the body while resting the legs and feet.

Child's Pose helps to stretch the hips, thighs, and ankles while reducing stress and fatigue. It relaxes the muscles on the front of the body while softly and passively stretching the muscles of the back torso.

If you’d like to sign up for virtual classes offered at Sage Yoga, you can sign up here. Sage Yoga Studios has two full-service yoga studios. Sage Yoga - Fallbrook is located in downtown Fallbrook which has one heated group yoga room, one unheated group yoga room and one children's yoga room. Sage Yoga - Bonsall is located in the River Village Shopping Center and has many group classes to include Yoga Wall Straps classes. They offer over 20 different styles of yoga from beginner to advanced and everything in between.