Guest post by the lovely Rachel from Fitness for Mommies. Rachel is a mom, wife and athlete passionate about fitness, running, cycling, yoga & pilates. I am always inspired to push myself further after reading her blog. She is currently training for the St. George Marathon (October), with a goal to qualify for Boston. I know she will do it! Go Rach!

Yoga. You can either love it or hate it. But, we all need it in our lives. Whether you are a seriously fit gym goer or an avid athlete, you need yoga to balance your body. I learned an incredibly tough lesson recently that I’d like to share with you. A little background, I have been an athlete my whole life. If I wasn’t running, I was cycling, if I wasn’t doing either of those things, then I was hiking 10,000 peaks with my lifetime sierra club member Dad. When I was young, my dad ran his first triathlon at the young age of 43. This has a profound impact on who I am today. Currently training for my fourth marathon and Coach Al always SAID to pay attention to any tightness or twinges that you feel. I paid attention, I just didn’t know what to do about it! Twinges can turn into a serious injury. On a 20 mile run last weekend, I had run 15 miles and then. my. knee. went. out. (Knee pain is never the true cause of the problem- it usually starts in the hips!) Turned into three miles of jog/walking before I got picked up by hubby. Not sure I could have seen this problem coming, but the truth is I have felt weird twinges all through my body on every single long run. Stress, impact, mileage will turn a weakness into an injury. What is the solution? Yoga. But, specifically, yoga and stretches to strengthen YOUR weaknesses. Felt like I was given a piece of cake, when Coach sent me this link. Wish I had been doing this all along!!

Introducing Sage Roundtree: endurance athlete, cycling coach, triathlon coach, and a registered yoga teacher and author of the Athletes Guide to Yoga. I have been particularly excited about the Podcasts on her site. Most are only 5 -10 minutes long (FREE) and they are specifically designed with an athlete in mind. Of all the yoga DVD’s I have been doing, NONE focus only on the hips! Three Cheers for that! Check out Yin Yoga- only 3 or 4 poses but held a really long time for a deep stretch in the hips. Also, check out the Core and More workout. Challenging plank poses that can be done anytime anywhere with your yoga mat or not.

Lesson learned: Listen to your body! It is telling you something. Try to figure out the weakness and work on that!

photo: Tony George