Moving with the Grade
The Yoga of the Uphill
If you’ve ever stood at the foot of a 1,000-meter climb in the Chamonix valley, you know the feeling. The trail turns skyward, the heart rate begins its quick ascent, and the mind often reacts by tightening. We tend to "attack" the hill, hunching our shoulders and shortening our breath, treating the incline as an opponent to be overcome.
At yoga • mountain • run, we look at the climb differently. We see the uphill not as an obstacle, but as a practice of asana in motion.
Finding Your Mountain Drishti
In yoga, Drishti is our point of focused gaze. It’s what keeps us stable in a balancing pose like Warrior III. On the trail, your Drishti is just as vital. When the terrain becomes steep and technical, the temptation is to look at your feet or, worse, to look at the daunting summit far above.
Instead, we practice a "soft focus", looking three to five meters ahead. This allows the body to subconsciously map the terrain while the mind stays calm. By keeping the neck long and the gaze steady, we prevent the "closed-off" posture that restricts our breathing. We aren't just running; we are maintaining a moving meditation.
Pranayama: The Engine of the Ascent
The most common mistake on a long alpine climb is "over-breathing", that gasping, chest-focused breath that signals the nervous system to enter a state of fight-or-flight.
On our retreats, we explore the power of Pranayama (breath control) to regulate our effort. By focusing on deep, diaphragmatic breathing, and ideally keeping the breath through the nose for as long as the grade allows, we stay in the parasympathetic "rest and digest" state. This keeps the muscles oxygenated and the mind clear. When the breath remains rhythmic, the pace becomes sustainable. You stop fighting the mountain and start moving with it.
The Art of Yielding
There is a beautiful paradox in both yoga and trail running: to find strength, you must find softness.
When the trail kicks up to a 15% or 20% gradient, the instinct is to tense every muscle. But true mountain craft is about yielding to the grade. We practice "soft knees" and a relaxed jaw. We allow the power to come from the glutes and the core, our physical centre, rather than straining the smaller muscles of the calves and feet.
This is where the physical strength of the trail meets the intentionality of the mat. The stability we cultivate in our yoga sessions is the exact same stability that allows us to climb with grace and descend with fluidity when out on the trail.
Beyond the Vertical
When we redefine the uphill as a practice of presence rather than a test of speed, the experience shifts. The "burn" in the lungs becomes a reminder that we are alive and participating in the landscape.
We invite you to leave the GPS watch behind on your next climb. Find your rhythm, find your breath, and remember: we don’t climb the mountain to prove our strength; we climb it to find our stillness.