Halifax is a running city. Most of its runners proudly cite its hills, winds and unpredictable weather as a badge of honour.

It’s a city where yoga studios have mushroomed in nearly every neighbourhood and yoga mats have become a fashion accessory. So it would seem natural that Halifax Yoga (HY) – a studio on the city’s Northwest Arm peninsula – would invite yoga instructor and runner Mike Dennison to Halifax for 5-hour, Yoga for Runners workshop.

“We decided to run a Yoga for Runners workshop because there is a huge community of runners around HRM that we knew could benefit from this system,” says Sherry Zak, owner of HY.

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“If Mike Dennison could choose just two body parts to work on with all runners it would be their hips and their ankles.

That’s right. Ankles.

Not the ubiquitous knee or super-sexy calf. Nope. It would be the lowly ankle.

“A lot of people have tight ankles and tight hips,” says Dennison, who teaches a workshop called Yoga Made for Runners.”

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Q: Is there a big difference between yoga and runners’ yoga?

A: The runners’ yoga approach focuses on activation and counter-contraction of muscles to build strength and to create stability and an increased range of motion in specific joints. The pursuit of extreme flexibility as found in many yoga classes is counter-productive for runners.

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Running is a noble pursuit full of unintended consequences, and the glamour of being a runner can be quickly stripped away when confronted by injury’s rude slap. I began using yoga specifically for runners five years ago, when running’s dark master, the injury epidemic, made me wonder what yoga could do for the hobbling masses. A lot, as it turns out…

Mike goes on to describe and demonstrate 5 important postures.

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Photos by Jay Russell.

There are waves of running-specific yoga programs popping up around the country, including Michael Dennison’s PB Runner’s Yoga in Vancouver, Felstead’s class in Toronto and Donna Davis’s Runners Yoga course in Ottawa…

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“Mike Dennison, a former competitive runner who now teaches yoga specifically for runners, agrees restorative yoga would benefit both elite and beginner runners because they are all feeling the stresses of pushing their bodies beyond what they are used to.

“It helps you deal with the fatigue of intense physical exercise,” he says. “Whatever level you are at, you are experiencing the extra stress and extra fatigue of running,” he says. “What this does is it helps you recuperate faster. I think it is really good.

“Running is very intense. Restorative yoga is very mellow.”

Older people who run for fitness or at the competitive level are embracing yoga in greater numbers, says Dennison. “They understand that the body needs that extra oomph.”

30 & 65 minute Runners Yoga classes with Mike Dennison.

Store listings coming soon.

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