Tighten Up with 3 Simple Core Strength Yoga Poses

May 6th, 2015 • BY WM

Feel like core exercises are a bore?

While a stomach-strengthening routine can be tedious, core strength is crucial. Whether you bike, run, ski, hike, or surf, shoring up your core will help you avoid injury and be generally stronger in your sport. Not to mention, give you killer abs for the summer.

Here, we check in with yoga teacher Valerie D’Ambrosio, co-founder of Hanuman Festival and life coach, to get 3 simple and (mostly) easy yoga poses that build core strength. Valerie, who is one of the headlining instructors at the upcoming Steamboat Movement Festival (July 23-26 in Steamboat Springs, CO), uses the Chakra system as a guide when teaching.

 

The Third Chakra is the center for our personal expression of power. It determines our level of decision making, personal leadership, and direction. It is our ability to trust our intuition and take risks that support leading a fulfilling life. 

This chakra governs our self-direction, will, and self control. It affects our self-esteem, how we feel about ourselves, and represents our ability to accept responsibility for ourselves.

There are many different yoga poses that can strengthen the Third Chakra—here are three that I feel most anyone can practice.

1. Plank Pose

Place your hands under your shoulders with legs extended. When you hold the pose for even just a short amount of time, you can feel the heat in your belly starting to increase. Don’t be fooled, it looks like an easy process, but there are a few key steps to this posture that will prevent you from hurting yourself.

• Keep a slight buoyancy in your lower back, kidney/adrenal area to prevent swaying and over-arching.

• Keep the gaze slightly forward toward the top of your mat. (Please pay note to the words slightly and toward.)

• Focus on lengthening the sternum to the wall in front of you and reaching your heals to the wall behind your shoulders, and the thighs pressing, lifting away from the floor.

• To intensify, energetically/isometrically, draw your hands toward your feet and your feet toward your hands.

• If you find that you are unable to keep your thighs and hips lifted, and there is a sway in your back, drop down to your knees and continue all of the above details with conscious engagement.

• If you are unable to hold the pose on your wrists, drop down to your forearms.

 

2. Stretch Pose

Lying on the your back, bring your palms up to face one another at the height of your navel. First, lengthen the nape of your neck and bring the shoulders and head off the ground simultaneously, then pull the chin in toward the chest.

Your upper body is stretching toward the top of your head and your lower body is stretching toward your feet. Press your lower back into the floor as you raise the legs and apply a slight toning of the pelvic floor, keeping the legs straight. This action draws the navel in and keeps the lower back in constant contact with the floor.

Keep your toes pointed and feel the stretch from the belly all the way down to your feet. The breath is “breath of fire,” which is a bringing focus to the exhales pulling the belly in toward the lower back on each exhale. This can be as fast or slow as comfortable for you. The more comfortable you get, the quicker the pace of your breath will organically become.

Keep your gaze down at your big toes. The timing for advanced practitioners would be 3 minutes.

• If your head comes up too far, it will make it harder to keep your lower back on the floor. Mindfully lengthen your neck, which will help counter this tendency.

• Ladies, if you are on your moon cycle—take long slow and deep breaths.

• For beginners: Place your hands underneath your lower back, and instead of raising both legs, raise one leg at a time, switching after 30 seconds to the other side. You can also bend your legs slightly. The suggestion is to see if you can go for at least 1 minute to start total.

 

3. Navasana—Boat Pose

Starting seated, pull your legs in toward your chest and hug them in below your knees. Tilt your upper body back so that your lower back carries your weight and the entire upper back is aligned. Continue to draw the belly button in toward the lower back. Continue to pull your legs in with our arms.

• To up level, extend your arms forward and hug your elbows into your knees. (Make sure you back remains straight.)

• To up level again, let go of your knees with your elbows, and bring your arms parallel to the floor. (Make sure you back remains straight.)

• If you are unable to keep your back straight, place your hands behind you on either side and begin bringing one leg in at a time, extending to almost straight, tapping the foot on the floor.

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