Yoga & Your Core: A How-to on Connecting Mind and Body
LifePower Yoga - July 26, 2012
The “yoga body” has been drawing new practitioners to yoga for decades. After all, who doesn’t covet the tight, toned, strong, lean muscles and confident posture we all associate with yoga? Many people start a yoga practice with this goal in mind, but everyone’s journey with yoga is different. So what does having a “yoga body” really mean, anyway?
As any seasoned yogi will tell you, as nice as it is to look good in your yoga pants, there isn’t one type of “yoga body.” Every body is different and practicing yoga, as we know, is far more encompassing than our physical self. Yet one thing remains constant among all body shapes and sizes that practice: Strong core muscles can encourage a healthier mind, body and spirit inside each of us.
At LifePower Yoga in Indianapolis, Susannah Sahoo, an instructor with 11 years experience, hosted a four-week, yoga workshop intensive entitled, “Butts ‘N Guts: Beyond the Six Pack and Yoga Butt.” This series helped 15 yogis cultivate physical awareness of their bodies and understand the important role linked breath and movement play in creating a better mind-body connection – and stronger core.
“Most people think of a six-pack and a yoga butt when they think of strong core, but it's well beyond that. It’s core integration,” Sahoo said. “Core integration is the ability to stabilize the torso so that the external body, where our appendages are, can move how it wants while the center stays strong. It’s something everyone wants to do but have a hard time finding.”
Throughout the series, a strong emphasis was placed on bandhas*, a Sanskrit term that means to lock, to hold or to tighten. The bandhas help us create internal and external energy, allowing us to use physical movement in concert with the breath to mindfully create lasting change.
There are three main bandhas in the body (the mula bandha, the uddiyana bandha, and the jalandhara bandha), with a fourth bandha tying them all together. Ancient yogis said that when you master the bandhas or “locks,” you master yoga. This includes the external practice, the physical postures (asanas), and the internal practice, such as keeping a long, steady breath.
“Yoga is all about balance – balancing effort with ease, backing off when pressing on, finding your edge, and then walking that fine line between your edge and overkill,” Sahoo added. “In yoga and life, both flexibility and strength are important, but we must cultivate a balance between the two.”
Sahoo shared three yoga sequences that integrate the bandhas while targeting the hips, thighs, butt, lower back and abdomen. Through concentrated practice, a strong, healthy core is only a breath or movement away.
Option I: Sphinx to Forearm Plank and Back Again Set up:
Begin on your belly, legs side by side.
Place your elbows under your shoulders and your forearms on the floor parallel to each other.
Place your forehead on the floor.
On an inhale, lift your head, draw your chin up and back, and push your arms against the mat – coming into Sphinx.
Sequence:
Inhale: Lift only the front ribs off the floor. Exhale to maintain.
Inhale: Lift the belly off the floor. Exhale to maintain.
Inhale: Lift your front hip points and pubic bone off the floor. Exhale to maintain.
Inhale: Lift your upper thighs off the floor. Exhale to maintain.
Move into the Forearm Plank. Inhale: Tuck your toes under, lift your knees off the floor and push your heels back. Exhale to maintain forearm plank.
Hold for 3 breaths.
Then exit by reversing the above sequence. You should end up in sphinx with your forehead to the floor.
Complete two rounds
Once done, place a block between your thighs to activate your inner thighs (this is the beginning of mula banda) while repeating this sequence until you've reached your edge.
For advanced students:
- Place a block between your ankles as well to activate the drawing in and up of ankles. This begins the zipping of the legs all the way up.
Option II: Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskara A) on a Blanket Set up:
Place a yoga blanket or towel on the bare, wood floor.
Standing on top of the blanket or towel, come into Mountain pose (Tadasana).
Place a block between your thighs.
Then place a block with the broad, flat side down the width of your legs between your ankles.
Sequence:
Begin to move through Surya Namaskara A while moving the blanket or towel across the floor. Ensure that you keep the block in place and zipped up.
Repeat for several rounds.
Option III: Three-legged Dogs, Moving Crescent Lunges and Warrior II Set up:
Start on your mat. Begin a couple of rounds of cat and cow movements.
Once warmed up, bring body back into downward dog position, ensuring that all points of your palm are firmly placed on the mat.
Remember to press your hips up while settling your heels toward the floor.
Lift one of two legs toward the sky to secure a three-legged Downward Dog.
Sequence:
From three-legged Downward Dog, come into Crescent Lunge.
To do this: On an inhale, bring your lifted foot to the forefront of your mat. Ensure your knee is at a 90-degree angle above your ankle. Lift your arms into the air, while rolling your shoulders back. Breathe.
Now, focus on pressing the thighbone of the extended back leg up from its root as if you are squeezing an imaginary block between your thighs and ankles.
Tap your extended knee up and down to the floor by a count of four. Lower by four and then raise your knee by a count of four.
Hold for 15 breaths
Open to Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)
Focus your intention on drawing the feet toward each other so that you can create an imaginary crinkle in the center of your mat between your legs
Hold for 15 breaths
Vinyasa into three-legged Downward Dog while squeezing your imaginary block between your ankles and thighs
Repeat as desired
Sahoo concluded, “The beauty of yoga is that really almost any pose targets what some may call ‘problem areas’ if attention and intention are brought there. Remember that the practice is fueled by your beautiful breath!”
*In Western society, the bandhas help you regulate and control all your internal systems, including hormonal, sexual, metabolic, digestive, and more. Bandhas should not be practiced while pregnant.