In addition to maintain a healthy, nutritious diet full of whole foods, nailing your exercise routine is an essential part of staying fit and slimming down. And as it turns out, that can mean more than going for a morning run or lifting weights at the gym. In fact, if you’re looking for a way to spice up your workouts, you may want to consider a daily yoga practice. Not only is yoga relaxing and a great way to practice mindfulness, but it can also help get your body in its best shape yet–especially when it comes to your core.
To discover the best yoga poses for attaining your best abs yet, we asked fitness experts Steph Ball-Mitchell, yoga instructor and lead trainer at Online Yoga School, and personal trainer Michael Hamlin of Everflex Fitness. They told us that you should try out plank pose, sunbird crunches, and boat pose to get that core in gear. Learn more below!
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1. Plank
When it comes to strengthening your core, it doesn’t get much better than a good old pank pose. “Plank is a classic yoga pose that helps to strengthen the abs, arms, and back. It’s an excellent way to target the deep abdominal muscles and improve core strength,” Hamlin says.
Ball-Mitchell agrees that this pose is among the best of the best and tells us how it’s done below:
1. Start in tabletop with the shoulders stacked over the wrists and the hips stacked under the knees.
2. From tabletop, spread the fingers wide with the middle finger pointing forward on each hand. Press into the hands and firm the upper arms in towards one another as you draw the low belly in and up.
3. Extend one leg back at a time with the toes tucked until you find yourself in high plank, or an upper push up position. Keep the gaze out and down, just past the top of the mat. Energetically, imagine that you could draw the hands towards the feet and the feet towards the hands to build core engagement.
2. Sunbird crunches
You’ve heard of crunches, one of the most common ab exercises in the book, but have you heard of sunbird crunches (also known as bird-dog crunches)? This modified version of the classic will allow you to get your abs more toned than ever, as suggested by Ball-Mitchell. Here are her instructions:
1. From tabletop, extend the left arm straight out, bicep by the ear.
2. Lift the right leg parallel to the mat and extend back through the heel.
3. Inhale as you lengthen and on the exhale draw the knee and elbow in, bringing the knee to the outside of the elbow. Inhale to lengthen and repeat 5-6 times. Then switch sides.
3. Boat pose/low boat
The low boat bose is another great bose to get your core in the best shape ever. As Hamlin notes, “this pose works the abs, back, and hips and is a great way to strengthen your core.” In fact, Ball-Mitchell says there’s a modified version of this pose that can bring it to the next level. It’s known as the low boat pose. But how is it done? “There are a few ways to enter into this posture,” she says. “You can begin in Boat Pose and lower down halfway to the ground, keeping the spine long. You can also begin lying on the back.” From there, she gave us step-by step instructions:
1. Keep the sit bones grounded as you lift your upper body and legs off the earth
2. Keep the legs as straight as possible and keep the arms straight, fingertips pointing towards the feet, palms facing one another. You want the legs to be at about a 30-degree angle from the floor, or as low as you can go without popping the lower ribs forward.
2. If it feels like the right thing to do, you can draw the legs together and flex the feet. The head and shoulder blades should be off the floor and the gaze is down toward the low belly.
3. Draw the belly in and imagine that you could narrow the two front hip points towards one another to engage the deepest core muscles, your transverse abdominis.
