Which is best for runners: yoga or calisthenics?

Yoga is great for strengthening your core and keeping you flexible. I do it after some runs. I find martial arts has a similar effect. Lifting weights on your off days is also a good idea. Not sure about calisthenics... Isn't that sorta cardio as well?

You can combine the two with the yoga styles Ashtanga / power / flow / vinyasa, which are a fusion of traditional yoga and calisthenics

rejectuf wrote: »

Flexibility will help prevent injury from your training.

Actually that's not been shown to reduce risk of injury. Injury usually happens when form is incorrect, execution is incorrect, or something caused one to divert from executing correctly.
Flexibility may help one be more exceptional in their chosen sport versus someone who isn't.

For Dr. Thacker's paper "The Impact of Stretching on Sports Injury Risk: A Systematic Review of the Literature," he and his colleagues pored over nearly 100 other published medical studies on the subject. Their key conclusions: stretching does increase flexibility; the highest-quality studies indicate that this increased flexibility doesn't prevent injuries; few athletes need extreme flexibility to perform their best (perhaps just gymnasts and figure skaters); and more injuries would be prevented by better warmups, by strength training, and by balance exercises, than by stretching.

http://www.runnersworld.com/stretching/does-stretching-prevent-injuries

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KeepOnMoving wrote: »

I like to run, not necessary love running. I decided to train for 1/2 marathon this year since I never did a race at that distance before. Last year I had hopes to do more calisthenics but I never really understood best approach and went about it more aimlessly. Probably need research for better direction. Yoga I know is good for aging but I usually get bored and it doesn't burn calories like high cardio workouts. So I find myself doing more hand weights, pull up bars/push-ups for strengthening.

If the 1/2 is your goal, skip the misc pull up/curling stuff and just add more runs. Specificity is king. Just increase gradually.

By the nature of your question I think you are looking for feedback on what cross training method would provide better results for running. Yoga and calisthenics will both yield benefits although calisthenics can probably provide more physical bang for your time invested. But central to your right answer is what you are looking to achieve out of cross training. It seems like you like running okay and have some goals to do a 1/2M but running is not necessarily a passion that you want to pursue at your highest levels. Maybe you like having more variety in your workout regimen so what you end up doing can be a broader program than just running-specific preparation that a Runners World program might recommend. So in the short term you might focus on training for your event but in the longer term build in more variety (upper body etc. workouts).

Which brings me back to Yoga. I have heard from a wide variety of Yoga instructors that the most important in the yoga practice is breathing. All the movements, flows, and down dogs will indeed contribute to strength, flexibility and balance but one of the great benefits of yoga is learning how to relax and melt away stress from the day. If you approach yoga as just another calorie burning workout it will undoubtedly be dull and boring but if you focus on the breathing it can be a great way to de-stress and revitalize you. Happy travels!