Core Strengthening Yoga Class

A short & effective Yoga class designed for Core Strengthening. This 10-minute practice focuses on building stability, strength, and control through mindful movement. Weather you're recovering from injury, just getting started or wanting to build on the strength of your Yoga practise this class is perfect for you!

Transcript

Hey Yogi, Welcome. We're going to get into some core focused yoga. So it's going to be a strong practice. It's going to be short and sweet. So make sure that you grab some water and meet me on the mat. We're going to get started in a tabletop position. So for the most part, This core class is going to be. . . On the ground. And we're going to have a couple standing postures. We're going to start by pulling back into child's pose and coming all the way back up into your tabletop. So as you're doing this, Let's start to initiate this movement from that low belly. So see if you can first engage the low core and then move backwards. Coming back up. Last one. And back up. We'll tuck our toes. Prepare for the lift of the knees. We'll place the hands underneath the shoulders. And on the exhale, Lift your knees one inch. Feel the core light up. Draw the belly button up. Knit the ribcage in. Breathe. Or four. For three. Or two. And stretch those legs, Downward facing dogs. Taking a moment here, Pedaling out the legs. Releasing that fire in the core. We're going to lengthen our down dog, So bring it out a little bit wider than you normally would. We're going to rise to the balls of the feet and send the hips forward into a plank pose. Yogi plank though, So we're really going to round through the upper spine. Engage the core and keep the heels nice and lifted. Lifted forward, Pressing. We're breathing. Nice big inhale. On the exhale, Can you engage the core a little bit more? Can you squeeze in? From here, We're going to lift up through the low belly, Bringing yourself back to downward facing dog. When you get here, Press the heels down. Initiate from the heels. Use the core. Bring yourself forward. Find the plank. Lift up through the core, Press it back. All the way forward. One more time. Lift it all the way back fully. We'll lift up from the heels first. Bring the low core in. Press the hips down. Breathe. One full breath. Inhale. Lengthen your spine. Exhale. Inhale brings you back up, Downward facing dog. Pedal out the heels for one full inhale, One full exhale. Next inhale brings the right leg up, Three-legged dog. Exhale draws a knee in towards the chest. Breathe. Inhale, Bring it back. Exhale, Knee towards left elbow. Inhale bring it back Exhale bring towards right elbow. Breathe. Inhale, Bring it back. Exhale, Right comes to meet left. Lower the knees down on towards the mat. Bring the chest down towards the knees and take a moment to notice. Drawing up through the belly, Bringing up through tabletop position. Tuck the toes. We're going to lift the knees one inch off the ground. Hold it here. Belly button to spine. Round through the shoulder blades. Stretch your legs back, Downward facing dog. Left leg sweeps up high, Three-legged dog. On the exhale, Draws it in towards the chest. Inhale, Press it back up. Exhale, Twist towards right elbow. Inhale, Press it back up. Exhale, Twist towards left elbow. Inhale, Press it back up. Exhale downward facing dog walk the hands back towards the feet forward fold Release the low belly, Any tension. You might be finding in the backs of the legs, Come to a halfway lift. Lift your spine nice and long so your crown is reaching away from your tailbone. We've got that low core engaged to support us. We've got no weight in the hand. Inhale lengthen, Exhale lower. Inhale pick up from the low belly coming to that flat back. Exhale, Lower. One more time. Inhale. Exhale. Cruterize, Bend the knees, Reach up. Hands come to touch, Reach the fingertips nice and high. You can bring the pinky fingers and all of the others except for the index to interlace. We'll inhale to lengthen. On your exhale, Bend over towards the right side. So we're bending. Don't go into your furthest depth of stretch. We're really trying to engage through the left side body here. Then inhale through center, Exhale left. Engaging through the right side so that we feel like we can still breathe. Often with side bends, We go a little bit too far. We constrict the breath. Inhale, Coming up through center. One more time, Right side. Inhale through center, Left side. Inhale through center. Arms come beside you. Step towards the middle of the mat. Maybe just ahead of middle, But not quite at the top. We're going to rise to the balls of our feet. Woo! Engage the core to find that balance. And we're going to lower down onto the mat. But first, We're going to find that balance. You need your hands on the hips. One hand on the heart and one hand on the low belly. Reaching the arms out, If you'd like to join me, We're going to lower the hips down towards the heels slowly. Towards the mat. Slower than you want to. Inhale. Lower your tailbone down, Release. Curving the spine over. Let everything go. Take any movements that you need. And from here, We're going to roll into our boat pose, Coming on to the tailbone, Bringing the shins up parallel with the forearms, Palms facing up. Option to place the toes on the mat, Hands behind you. If you'd like to come into the fullest expression, We'll reach those legs nice and long. Bringing hands into heart center. On the inhale, Lengthen your spine. Exhale, Twist towards the right. Breathe. One full inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Center. Exhale, Right. Other way. Exhale. Inhale through center. One more time each side. Exhale to the right. You can do it. Inhale through center. Exhale left. Yes, You can. Here we are for four. Three. To inhale center and bend the knees and give yourself a hug. Squeeze the core in, Round the back. And do nothing. Just release. We'll scooch into the center of the mat, Rolling all the way down. Finding your spine and a neutral pelvis. So you might place your fingertips on these bony parts of your hip. And just feel. As you rock your pelvis, Tipping your tailbone up and down, How they move, And maybe from when you rock side to side, We'll just try to find that neutral pelvis. There's going to be a little bit of space between your low back and the mat. That's totally fine. If there's no space, That's okay as well. But if we're engaging the core, We're typically pulling up the pubic bone towards the belly button, Which does create a little bit more of a flat spine towards the mat. In that lower abdomen. So on your exhale, Let's draw the knees over top of the hips. So shins are in line with the knees right now. Well just breathe here and notice how the core starts to engage. We've got this nice big line across the hip bones, Drawing the belly button down. Try not to puff out the rib cage. You need to encourage your rib cage to. Stay engaged. You can place the palms here. I'm going to inhale, Reach both feet up towards the ceiling. Your exhale, Just the right heel comes down to hover. Breathe. Try not to let it touch the ground. On the exhale, Slowly bring it back up. We inhale energy at the heels, Left side, Exhale all the way down. Breathe. And the exhale coming back up. We'll go two more times each side. You can work on your own breath. Really maintaining that mindful focus on that low core so your feet don't actually have to come to the mat. They can stop at any point as long as we're still engaging. So if you're finding that if you're going too far towards the mat and you're getting all of this crunchiness in your hip flexors, In your low back, Or whatever it is that you're feeling. And. . . You'll just have to pull back a little bit, Not going down too far. Once you've finished your two on each side, Let's reach energy out of the heels, And we're going to lower both of them down towards the mat. This is the challenge. It's hard. Slowly. Once they reach the mat, Release. Do nothing, Arms unfold. Notice. Allow yourself to breathe. Nice and easy. Without control. Draw knees in towards chest. Give yourself a little rock and roll up and down your spine. Massaging your back body and coming into an easy cross-legged position. We'll close out our core practice with a collective breath. We'll inhale, Reach the arms up. On the exhale, Release everything in the side, Bringing hands down to heart center. One more time, Inhale. Namaste. Thanks for practicing with me.

Reviews

Excellent little practice! Those twists were humbling 🤣 I’ll definitely use this again, thank you!