5 Yoga Poses for Stronger Core Muscles

Try these easy and simple yoga poses to help engage and strengthen your core muscles.

Here are a few yoga poses to help you develop stronger core muscles.

(Photo: iStock)

People who do not practice yoga often assume that yoga is mainly for relaxing and that it doesn't offer as much benefits as a workout. While a few forms of yoga may involve less physical exertion, others can be rigorous, thus helping our muscles engage and become stronger.

Yoga is so diverse that you can find poses to suit every need and goal, either to relax or break a sweat. It is better to switch between yoga poses that help engage the entire body and at times the ones that target specific muscles.

Here are a few yoga poses that can help engage the core muscles and thus strengthen them.

1. Cobra Pose

This stretches your abdomen, chest, and shoulders. It strengthens your spine and may soothe sciatica. It helps the muscle groups: hamstrings, gluteus maximus, deltoids, triceps, and serratus anterior. It also helps manage stress.

Follow the steps:

• Lie on your stomach and place your hands under your shoulders with your fingers facing forward

• Draw your arms to your chest, and your elbows should not go out to the side

• Press into your hands and slowly lift your head, chest, and shoulders

• Lift part way, halfway, or all the way up

• Slightly bend your elbows

• Let your head drop back to deepen the pose

• Release back down to your mat and breathe out

• Bring your arms by your side and rest your head

• Slowly move your hips from side to side to release tension

2. Camel Pose 

The camel pose helps the front body stretch out, and the parts involved include the chest, abdomen, and quadriceps. It helps flush out toxins from the body and strengthen the core. Practice the pose like this:

Bend forward to your knees and place your legs hip-width apart. Keep your hips over your knees, squeeze your thighs toward each other, and inhale while you engage your belly. Then reach your tailbone toward your knees and create a space between your lower vertebrae.

Inhale again while you lift your sternum and draw your elbows back, toward each other, behind you. Let the ribcage expand. The chest should be raised, the core engaged, and the chin tucked in. Press the heels of your hands into the heels of your feet while you drape your fingers over the soles. Lift your shoulders and let the trapezius muscles between the shoulder blades rise up and cushion the cervical spine. Extend the head and neck backward.

3. Cat-Cow Pose 

The cat-cow pose is a gentle, simple pose that includes backbend stretches and helps mobilise the spine as well. This pose helps stretch your torso, shoulders, and neck. It helps the core muscles to engage and relax, helping them work and strengthen.

This yoga pose focuses on various muscle groups like erector spinae, rectus abdominis, triceps, serratus anterior, and gluteus maximus.

You can follow these steps:

• Go on all fours

• Your wrists go underneath your shoulders, and your knees should be placed underneath your hips

• Make sure you balance your weight evenly on all fours

• Breathe in and look up, let your stomach drop down toward the mat

• Breathe out and tuck your chin into your chest, draw your navel toward your spine, and your spine should be arched towards the ceiling

• Maintain focus while you practise this pose

• Focus on releasing tension in your body

• Hold the pose for at least one minute

4. Warrior Pose 

The warrior pose is another traditional pose practiced by people with various medical conditions, one of which is weak pelvic muscles. This yoga pose helps in strengthening the arms, legs, core, and lower back as well. You can:

• Stand up with your legs 4 to 5 feet apart

• Place your right foot at a 90-degree angle and your right toe should point out at an angle of 45 degrees

• Place your hands at shoulder level, parallel to the ground

• Bend your right knee and look towards your right

• Your hips should be square and the right thigh should be parallel to the ground

• Hold the pose for 10 to 15 seconds and release the posture

5. Boat Pose 

The position of your neck during Boat Pose has a positive effect on the thyroid glands in the human body. It helps:

• Tone the muscles of the abdomen

• Strengthen the lower back

• Opens the chest and engages the core muscles

• Strengthens the hip flexors and abductor muscles

• Stretches the hamstrings

• Alleviate tightness in the hamstrings

To practice this pose, you will have to sit on the floor and extend your legs in front of you. Place your hands on the floor beside you, and let your upper body lean back slightly. Make sure your spine is straight and your chin is tucked in toward your chest.

Slowly try to balance on your two sitting bones and tailbone. Bend your knees before you lift your legs in the air and straighten your legs.