Hi this is Patrick from Yoga garden and today we're going to talk about the core. There is all these products telling you that they are going to strengthen and improve the core, like here's the vibro shape. It says on the box, "All the benefits, none of the efforts." That's an interesting one. But nobody is really talking about why you would want to strengthen your core or even what the core is since kind of this word out there.
So in this video, we're going to try to get at the bottom of the core and try to understand why it's important because it is important. It's products just go on and on, and the thing I was riding in the beginning is the rodeo boy, this thing shakes you like a horse, and it's suppose to activate and strengthen your core muscles. You know all these stuff is so stupid they cost a lot of money and all you need to strengthen your core is your own body a little time and some effort.
But before we get into that, let's talk about what is the core? I think a lot of people into the back of their minds have this image of the kind of body builder you know with a six pack, and these rippling muscles, but as all circus muscles is not what we are really talking about, We are talking about the core. These guys have strong cores but it's not the stuff you can see. You want to find your own core muscles lined up against the wall and relax. When you do this, you will be kind of at a space and back, where you can see some delay. Now, slowly make that space disappear. When we do this, you are getting the whole set of different muscles in your front and sides and your back.
This is the core that we're trying to do today. And what's the big deal, anyway with these muscles? Why is it important to strengthen and have some knowledge of your core? Well to give you an image, let's imagine we're going to go to two circuses. At the first circus, the workers are really lazy. They don't tie the supporting lines of the big tent strongly or tightly enough, and you can imagine the outcome would be a wobbly, shapeless tent, in that big middle pole which go left and right, shake here and there, it wouldn't be a very safe or happy place to be. However at the second circus, workers make sure that these tent lines are really strongly tied. This means that the center pole is really stable because as being a post and apart from off 60 degrees. You can see where this is going, that's center pole is now I guess to your spine, and the lines of the tent are your core muscles, so a strong core means if your posture and spine would be hold erect, no other will have strength and stability behind.
In yoga, we never do anything like a sit up or repeating the same action. This results in big muscle miscue, but they are mainly cosmetic. In yoga, we're trying to recommend inner muscles to actually do something in terms of supporting your body or help you to -- every pose uses the core to some extent, so just using yoga, you are going to strengthen your core, but these poses in particular will really target it and you will feel a big effect.
First is Boat Pose. This is the one everybody thinks of when they think of core work. I have got to had core variations up here at the same time, that I won't waste your time. Each of these variations will work at different part of the core. You will feel it as soon as you start doing it so I won't go into detail. All of the first experience as long as you can without overstraining and keep your breath smooth.
In boat pose, and in fact, any of the poses we're going to talk about today keep your face and your neck relaxed. I have seen some really strange faces from people who are doing this pose. When you clinch your neck and your face like that, the breath becomes sharp and shallow and that only makes the pose more difficult, so keep your breath even and you really doing. Boat pose tends to target the front of the body. These type link variations will really target the oblique muscle which are actually more important inside your body structure.
So once again, I put all four variations to appear at the same time. You can review them at your own speed. Some of these variations maybe out of reach for beginner and some may seem too easy for an advanced practitioner, but it's important to mix up your yoga process just like you would mix up your diet. You can't expect to be healthy just from eating one vegetable. You have to eat a whole array of different kinds of food to get a full nutritional spectrum and the same is true of the yoga poses. You have to do whole set of variation to get off with your muscle.
Up next is Locust pose. If boat pose is to front and side planks at the side these are for your back. People tend to forget about their back muscle basically because they can't see them but they're really important in fact. They are the most important to keep your spine upright and healthy. On the bottom right pose here, I want a little bit over board. You don't have to go too high with your leg just a few inches off the ground would be plenty to get at the pose.
As always, keep your breath smooth and even through out these poses and never hold. I can do a whole video on staff pose by itself but for now let's just say we're going to keep our leg strongly extended with the toes pointing up at heels. The hips really are actually at 90 degree angle, not slot back, it's lumpy. Your shoulders and chest opened. If you are doing all of these, you are definitely using the core and using it well.
If you want to really feel what it's like to use your core, try this floating variation. You can always try to do that in a block, like I am doing in the inside box. If you can really use all the core muscles, and this challenging pose, give it a shot, and even if your feet don't take off from the ground, just be active and pushing up strongly will use the core and strengthen each of them so that one day you can take up.
Warrior 3, just by itself is an excellent use of the core as you have to keep all the muscles engaged where it keep a line of the pose. But today we're going to really take it to keep a -- I will do this variation with one foot on the wall. By placing the foot on the wall, you've removed the element of balance from the pose. That's your core muscles, you have to do all of the work to maintain that line, keep your torso up, you can so that just counter balance the weight of the leg. It's a nice variation and it actually teaches you a lot about how the regular version of the pose really works. When approaching core, people often only think of lower poses but you can actually do a lot from inverted poses.
Here's shoulder stand. From here, drop your leg right to the back of your head at 90 degrees. This isn't that hard but as you breathe in, you should pull the leg up on not moving the back as all core. The same thing on the other side. I am moving through these variations pretty fast but you can take your time as you do it.
Next, with control, drop your leg at a 45 degree angle from the body. It's going to work a whole different set of muscles, and these variations will also teach you a lot about the alignments and shoulder stand. And for the big finale, try candle stick pose. In this version, you need to use outer back muscles. If you didn't know you have, let's move it a couple first, and your legs might drip over as for long, but just keep practicing for just a few seconds of the time. These variations will add a lot of spice to your shoulder stand that you'll be doing after a while.
Next step is Headstand. You can do the same variations from headstand, first dropping your legs at 90 degrees, and then a 45 degrees. This version is much more challenging because the legs have a lot further to go until they reach the floor. You really have to call upon these core muscles of the back in order to do a leg back up and get ready to keep the hips out of this as much as possible, just let the legs do the job independently of the hips. And this time, the big finale we're going to go into Upward Staff pose. This pose requires the entire use of the core, you have to move the core to anchor the leg at 90 degrees to the butt. It's a tough pose but very
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