Wonder How Can Yoga Strengthen Your Core? Here Is How
Yoga Promotes Physical Well-Being
Yoga is an ancient meditative practice that promotes body and mind connection, boosts immunity, and is...
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oga Promotes Physical Well-Being
Yoga is an ancient meditative practice that promotes body and mind connection, boosts immunity, and is encouraged for physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. How can yoga strengthen your core? It does so by working with your pelvic region and the deeper muscles of your abdomen.
Let’s begin with its anatomy; our core refers to our abdomen and pelvic region, and the abdominal walls. It supports our postures, makes us physically mobile, and creates flexibility in our bodies. Whilst practicing yoga may not result in weight loss, six packs, or even a more shaped/toned body, the practice is still unmatched in strengthening our abdominal muscles.
There are multiple types of yoga, called asanas, and almost all of them focus on postures and movement. This makes yoga a highly recommended meditative practice that is medically proven to improve all that and promote healthier living. Yoga is all about balance and giving back control to our body and both of these directly influence our core. So, how can yoga strengthen your core?
Our abdominal muscles support our spine, our back, and our gut and thighs. Hence, a stronger core means better movement, more flexibility, less back and joint pains, lack of gut problems (such as indigestion, acidity, swelling, bloating, etc.), and better posture. Nothing makes us look less confident, our belly bigger, and our height shorter than slouched shoulders.
Yogis vouch for its infinite benefits, especially for strengthening the gut and our core. Our physical core supports many of our bodily functions hence it’s medically recommended to have a strong core and yoga is a great practice to promote the same. According to Natalie Nevins, “the purpose of yoga is to build strength, awareness, and harmony in both the mind and body”. She is a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor in Hollywood, California, and also a certified osteopathic physician. She considers yoga a great practice for staying healthy as it’s based on the same principles as do preventive medicines and the body’s ability to heal itself.
Let’s have a look at some of the yoga postures which are recommended for a better core:
Side Plank:
Side plank pose promotes balance and creates stability in the body. It also adds the two muscles into functional action and in alignment, meaning your body opens more like you inhale and comes back to its natural posture when you exhale. Just the plank pose itself is an amazing full-core workout as it brings internal and the external muscles of the abdomen together, including the obliques, rectus abdominis, and transverse.
High Lunge:
A high lunge is practiced in contemporary and traditional yoga practices to train our core to create and maintain balance in the body when in the upright posture. It pulls our navel whilst bringing both our ribs towards one another. This pose fires up our external and internal obliques and also the rectus abdominis. A pro-tip for more balance is to straighten the right leg on the inhale and bend the right knee on the exhale. Five such breathing cycles allow the core to create more room for movement in the core.
Dolphin Plank Pose:
This pose combines two common yoga poses: Dolphin pose and Plank pose. It also brings together the benefit of them both and promotes core strength through repositioning the body into a flat coffee-table-like posture. It activates the abdominal muscles more than the traditional plank pose.
Bridge Pose:
Bridge post is one of the best poses that work with the abdominal muscles and the back. If you are not sold on how can yoga strengthen your core, we highly recommend you to give bridge pose a chance.
Aligning your knees is the key here for good leverage and better balance. The air that enters our body through inhaling and exhaling in this position creates support for erector muscles and it directly benefits the lower back region.
There are countless positions of yoga for core muscles but the above listed are the ones that require minimal effort, and are easy to do at home as well without the risk of a serious injury.
