Corpse

How to do it

Lie flat on your back with the legs long and slightly apart and the arms resting a little away from the body, palms facing up. Let the feet roll open. If the low back is uncomfortable, put a rolled towel or bolster under the knees; if the chin tips back, put a folded blanket under the head. Close the eyes, stop directing the breath, and stay.

Why it's good for runners

This is the only shape in the method that asks for nothing, and that is the point of it. A long session raises the nervous system and leaves it raised; a few minutes of genuine stillness at the end is what brings it back down, and it is the one part of yoga whose recovery benefit is not in dispute. Everything else in the method is training. This is the wind-down, and it is a separate and real thing.

It is also the honest ending for a session that has no next chunk after it. Every routine attached to a workout closes standing, because standing is the handshake that lets one flow lead into another. A long-form session leads nowhere — it is the whole practice — so it can afford to end on the floor.

Common mistakes

Don't skip it because nothing is happening. The stillness is doing the work that the last forty minutes earned. Don't hold the pose — there is nothing to hold, and a body still bracing its legs or steering its breath has not arrived yet. And don't lie there planning the rest of your day; when you notice you have, come back to the feeling of your own weight on the floor.