Fitness Swellness: Nike’s new yoga workouts on the NTC app

Last weekend, Nike partnered with Sport Chek to bring the Brahaus pop-up to Yorkdale Mall in Toronto. I had a chance to learn about the new bras in the collection and learned that while the sport bras are divided into low-, medium- and high-impact categories (with sports slotted into each one — Pilates would be under light impact and running under high impact), your personal preference and the comfort and support you feel should be what ultimately determines the sport bra you wear. For example, if a medium or even light impact bra feels supportive enough for you for running, you can go ahead and rock that one. Besides actual construction and design elements of the sport bras, the level of elasticity of the fabric content also varies.

To more about the new Nike sports bras, check out my post over at iRun; this is the Nike Pro Indy Logo bra I have on here.

Besides learning about the new bras and the other fun they had planned for the Brahaus, I also sat down with Master Trainer Eva Redpath to talk about my marathon training. To complement my training for Chicago, she recommended I take advantage of the new expanded yoga offering on the NTC app. There are currently nine yoga workouts (Nike consulted with both yogis and three Nike Master Trainers) with more to come and they range from ones that focus on mobility (concentrating on recharging the body), endurance (where the focus is strength and holding poses for a long time, and flows that will build heat and make you sweat) and restorative.

Eva knows I have no problem getting my miles in but that I slack on the restorative part of my training. She recommended two of the yoga workouts for me on my non-run days: Deep Restorative Yoga and Ultimate Strength Yoga (which was created by Traci Copeland, a runner herself). Like the other NTC workouts, you get a preview of each movement, and the app is designed so that you can follow along like you would with a yoga teacher in a class by having them lead you through without a visual.

One of Eva’s aspects of the yoga workouts is the diaphragmatic breathing (there is at least two minutes of breathing at the beginning of each workout), to help you tap into your central nervous system’s fight or flight response and help manage that; she noted that anxiety could happen mid-race and deep breaths can help me get that response under control.

This training season, I’ve upped the frequency of my training, so I’m finding timing pretty limited in my schedule but I hope to incorporate at least one yoga workout a week, so I’m looking forward to trying out these new NTC yoga workouts. Given my limited time in my schedule, I do appreciate the ease of working out at home, with zero commute-to-a-yoga-studio time , and I’ve always found the NTC app to be super well designed and motivating so will soon  namaste with Nike.

How ’bout you? How’s your training going?

Leave a Comment August 4, 2017

Fitness Swellness: Marathon training tips from Nike Master Trainer Marie Purvis

One fall 2013 marathon down, one to go!

Yeah, you read that right. About two months ago, I decided I’d run not just one marathon, but two, this fall. One month apart.

I ran the first one a week and a half ago — the Nike Women’s Marathon in  San Francisco. And I PB’d! Sweet!

My next one (which will be my fifth marathon — me. the girl who struggled with one minute of running in 2007!) is on November 17 in Philadelphia. I was a bit nervous about racing four weeks after NWM so I spoke to Nike Master Trainer Marie Purvis for some advice.

1. “You only have three more weeks of work,” she said. Purvis recommended one week of recovery post-NWM (Ah, a blissful week of rest and two massage appointments!), and then looking at the following three weeks as tapering. Let me tell you, framing it as a month of tapering sounds most excellent to me!
2. “Run the three times a week as you have been doing, and add some cross training.” The distances for the once weekly long runs: 18 miles, 13 miles and 10 miles (that’s 29k, 21k and 16k). For cross training, she suggested yoga and swimming.
3. “Decide which race is more important for you.” If it’s Nike San Fran, then go all out in that one, and then just recover and do what you can in Philly, said Purvis. If it’s Philly, then use NWM as a training run.
4. “Eat clean.” Purvis followed a mostly paleo diet for one marathon and drank wine and ate non-paleo for another marathon and found it made a huge difference in her performance.

Most of this sounded great to me…until I realized that one week post-NWM, the 18 miles she told me to run is practically 29k (I had to whip out my little metric conversion app). Faced with running 29k a week after NWM was daunting mentally, so I decided on 27k instead last Sunday.

I’m also not so thrilled about the eating-clean  bit…and I just can’t. I  love all sorts of food (healthy and the occasionally not so healthy dishes) too much to give it up. Plus, I’m traveling the week prior to the Philly Marathon and I’m not willing to give up eating the delicious meals I have in store for that trip. If that’s what’ll keep me from a fast marathon finish, you know, I’m ok with that.

And with that — there’s 18 days to go until the Philly Marathon…!

6 Comments October 31, 2013