I've been considering yoga lately. As I run more often and longer my body is start to react less than great, and I think yoga might help with recovery and preventing some creakiness and pain? (Maybe WanderingEng can attest to something like this too?). Beyond meditation, do you find yoga helps you physically? Are you taking a guided class or doing it on your own?
I think yoga has helped me with the creakiness and pain. I do still have it, and other stuff like rest and not overdoing it is still really important for me. Even if it doesn't help or if it's a placebo, it certainly doesn't hurt. I've been using Yoga With Adriene on YouTube. While it's my only real exposure to yoga, I think she's brilliant. The 30 Days series is a great place to start.
That's a good one. I've used Yoga Practice Videos for a while now, and as long as you keep out of the woo-woo aspects, they have some really good routines.
So, most of the time my yoga isn't super meditative. I put a lot of focus into my breathing and getting a good stretch in. Once I get to the point where I'm not wheezing while holding a pose, then i'll think about meditation during the process because at the moment it's a purely physical effort. I do it all myself, I have a few routines that I do regularly that I found on youtube, and I try to do lotus flexibility exercises as close to daily as possible. I'm not opposed to doing a class, but I want to see what I can get done on my own first. I do know that yoga is so highly thought of medically that they have versions that are adapted for people in wheelchairs. I can definitely see why it would benefit any kind of endurance athlete. Some bodybuilder guys will say you shouldn't stretch too much before a hard, heavy weights workout because you don't want your joints as loose as they can be, but that hardly seems like a problem for cardio.