Core Strength Yoga Flow: 30 Day Challenge Day 29

This is not your typical ab-burning core strength practice. Like with most of my movements, I like to think about functionality and we often forget about a very important, functional part of our core - the Transverse Abdominis. This is our deep, inner core that runs horizontally along the trunk like a corset. For this practice, we'll focus on our inner core first by finding it with the breath and then moving into a short, intentional core-focused sequence. Prop needed: A block or something of similar shape.

Transcript

Hey, Everyone, And welcome to Day 29 of our 30-Day Yoga Challenge. My name is Candice, And today's practice is about core strength. And core strength can mean something different depending who you are. For me, Like with most of my movements, It's about functionality. And so many of us can get caught up in the look of the six pack abs, And that's completely fine if that's what you want. But so often we forget about a very important part of our core, Our transverse abdominus. And it's this muscle that runs horizontally around the trunk like a corset. And it is a muscle that helps us with balance and stability in our day-to-day life. So for today's practice, We will be using a block. If you don't have a block, Just grab something of similar shape, Size, And weight. And we are actually going to be spending our entire practice on our back. So lying down whenever you're ready, Just making sure your block is within arm's reach, But just set it off to the side for now. We can just start with our knees bent, Feet planted on the mat. We're going to take our hands to our belly. And with our transfer subdominus. It is less of like the fiery core work that you usually see, Like the sit-ups and all of those things. You can actually find this with your breath alone. So that's what we're going to start with today. We're going to close your eyes, Take your hands to your belly in like a diamond shape. Just kind of below your navel to your lower belly. Soften into the belly, You can close the eyes. Breathe into the belly and feel how the breath, When the breath comes in, The belly expands, The fingers separate. From each other. And as you exhale, The fingers come back towards each other. So feel that natural fluctuation in the navel as you breathe. So as you feel connected to your breath there. Take a deep breath in once again, Fill up. Exhale, Completely empty. And when you think you are empty, Go ahead and exhale a little bit more. Do you feel the muscles that engage there in the lower belly and in your core? That's your transverse abdominus. Okay, So we're going to find that a few more times. Release, Inhale. Exhale fully. And when you think all of the breath is out, Push the breath out some more. Feel the muscles that engage there. And then release, Inhale. Exhale all the way. When you're at the bottom of the breath, Exhale some more. Now, Can you maintain that activation and come back to your breath? Feel the activation, But still breathing fully. It's a little bit of a subtle activation. But it provides your body with stability and balance. Okay, So maintaining that activation, Take the hands down beside you. Take the knees up, Knees bent, Shins parallel to the mat. And we're just going to tap right toes down. Bring it back up. Tap left toes down. Bring them back up. Keeping that activation. And if you lose it, Come back down, Find the breath again, Do what we did at the start, Reactivate, And then come back into it. It's not about rushing. It's not about, You know, Crazy core work today. We are just wanting to be intentional. With our core activation. And you still might feel quite a bit of work. We'll just do a couple more each way. And then we'll come back up. Staying with that activation, Grab your block, Bring it between your knees, And squeezing the block together. Not like squeezing as hard as you can, But just holding the block there, Activating through the inner thighs. Find that activation through the core if you lost it. Take the hands down beside you if they moved. From there, Take both toes, Tap them down towards the mat. Bring them back up. Exhale, Tap them down. Inhale up. Exhale down. Inhale up. For three. . . To And one. Bring it up. Release for a moment. Curl the knees in towards the chest. Set your block off to the side for a moment. And then we'll come back into it. If you need to find the breath again, Take your hands to your belly. Inhale, Fold. Exhale fully. At the bottom of the breath, Exhale more. Maintaining that activation, Can you stay with the breath? Maintaining that core activation. This time we're gonna take the knees straight up from the hips again, Knees bent. This time take the arms straight up towards the ceiling. Take a breath in. As you exhale, Extend the right arm up overhead. Extend the left leg straight out in front of you. Inhale, Take it back up. Exhale, Opposite left arm extends up overhead, Right leg extends out in front. Inhale, Back up. Exhale. Inhale up, Exhale opposite hand moves opposite leg. Good. One more each way. Good, Now staying there, Grabbing your block. Take your block to your right knee. Take your right hand to your block, Holding it there. Left arm extends straight up, Left knee's bent. Staying with that core activation if you need to come out of it to find the activation again. From there, Take a breath in. As you exhale, Left hand extends up overhead, Left leg extends out in front. I don't know if you can tell, But that makes me shake. I'm shaking, So it's fine. If you are, Just know that's totally normal. This may not look like a lot, But it does feel like a lot. Where it can feel like a lot. Good for three. And two. And one. Bring it back up. Before you release, Switch sides. Left hand, Left knee comes to the block. Right arm extends up, Maintaining that core activation. Again, If you need to pause, Come out of it, Find the activation. I'm repeating this over and over again because it's so important to have that stability. That's our intention today, Stability, Right? Maintaining that activation through the transverse abdominus, Extending right arm up above. Right leg out in front. Bring it back. Exhale, Extend. And bring it back. Extend. Bring it back. For three. And two. And one. Get back, Release. Curl the knees in towards the chest. Give yourself a little squeeze, Rock side to side. And from here. . . One more thing with our block. So again, Coming back to that activation. Option one is to keep the knees bent, Bring the block between the knees. Option two, If you can, Extend the legs straight up. Grabbing the block with your feet. From there, Take the arms up towards the block. Keeping that core activation, Can you sit up just like you're going to reach the block and then grab it with your hands, Extend the arms up overhead, Keeping the legs up. Exhale, Bring it up, Grab the block with your feet, Extend the arms up overhead. If you're here with your knees. . . You're going to just lift up the shoulders to grab the block and then extend it straight up like you're reaching it up overhead and then extending it back. Bring it up, Set it between your knees. Release, Take the arms up overhead, Okay? Wherever you are, We'll take a few more. Reaching up to grab the block, Release, Keeping the legs up, Arms up overhead as you come down. Put the block between the feet, And then release. Reach up, Grab the block. Come down. Reach up, Grab the block with your feet, And then come down. One more. Grabbing the block with your feet, Take the arms up overhead, Bend the knees, Grab the block, Set it off to the side. Curl the knees in towards the chest, Give yourself a little squeeze. Extending the arms out to the sides. Stack the knees over the hips. Again, Shins parallel to the mat. Take a breath in. Full breath out. Find that activation. Come back to the breath, Inhale, Keep that activation. Exhale, Drop both knees over to the left. Almost to the mat or to the ground and then bring them back up. Exhale, Drop both knees over to the right just to hover. Bring them back up, Over to the left just to hover. Bring them back up, Over to the right. Bring them back up, Over to the left. One more to the right. Bring it back up, All the way over to the left, Come into a twist. Slide the hips a little to the right. Drop the knees fully over to the left. Maybe take the left hand to outer right thigh. Soften the belly. Take your gaze to the right or up at the ceiling, Sky, Whatever you're looking at. Maybe you close the eyes. Breathing into your twists. Take one more full breath in. Exhale, Use your core to pull the knees back up to center. Slide the hips a little to the left. You can drop the knees over to the right in your twist. Settling in, Getting comfortable, Maybe closing the eyes or softening the gaze. Take one more breath here. And as you exhale, Guide the knees back up to center, Slide the hips back to center, Bringing the feet down to the mat about hips distance apart, Maybe a little wider. We're going to grab your block. Set it into one hand, Whatever hand doesn't matter. Pressing into the feet, Squeezing your glutes to lift the hips up, Coming into a supported bridge. So we're going to take the block underneath your sacrum to whichever height you want. Obviously the tallest height will be deeper sensation. So finding your the height that you would like to use. We're just going to take a moment here, Resting the pelvis onto the block, Softening the belly. How soft can you become here? Soften through the forehead, The jaw. Just a few more breaths here. Allow yourself to rest for a moment. And when you're ready to come out of it, You can gently press into the feet just enough to lift the hips up, Slide the block out from underneath of you, And slowly lower the hips down. You can rock the knees from side to side. And then we'll come back to center. Extend the legs out in front. Let the arms fall beside you. Take a few moments here in your Savasana. Maybe you want to take the hands to the belly or let the arms rest beside you. Allow the breath to be soft, Allow the body to be heavy. Sending love and gratitude to your body. To yourself or taking care of your body. I will leave you here for as long as you need and as long as you have time for. I encourage you to stay as long as you can. And as always, Thank you so very much for joining me in practice and we will see you again tomorrow.