CORE, STABILITY,
STRENGTH AND AWARENESS
By helping participants develop strong and stable cores, you will enable
them to perform daily activities with more ease.
WORDS: LISA GREENBAUM
strong and flexible core helps us
maintain alignment and gives us
strength from the inside out. A
strong core improves quality of life by
enabling daily activities to be performed
with more ease and less fatigue. Our core
muscles relate directly to our overall back
health. The stronger our internal muscular
support system is, the more support we are
able to lend to our spinal structure as we
move. Back pain and injuries caused by
muscular
imbalances
are
incredibly
common, and in many cases could be
preventable with the use of poses and
exercises used in yoga and YogaCore ®,
when followed by safe alignment principles.
In addition to reducing the chance of injury
by improving balance and coordination,
a strong and flexible core can open the
pathways for your nervous system, improve
circulation, increase abdominal strength,
spinal flexibility and muscle endurance in the
back, and improve posture.
So, how do you engage the muscles of
your core and create core stability? When
standing or in Mountain Pose, begin with
your feet. In establishing a strong base
across all four corners of your feet you gently
lift your arches, activating the lower muscles
of your legs. These muscles connect to
your adductor (inner thigh) muscles and
continue up your body through your pelvic
floor muscles to your transverse abdominis
(deep abdominal core muscle). By placing
a block a few inches above your knees
you can create a deeper awareness of how
these muscles connect and work together.
You can keep the block there as you move
A
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through various poses, such as chair, bridge or ab work, to deepen your proprioception or
feeling of core integration.
When you practice yoga you have the opportunity to focus on core strength and stability
throughout the class. As movements require you to use your own bodyweight as resistance,
you learn how to stabilise your spine and engage the deep layers of your abdominals to
support your body. The freestyle-based YogaCore ® program focuses specifically on this
engagement, with core-based poses including standing poses, back bends and floor
work. YogaCore ® is a great introduction for people who are apprehensive about ‘yoga’ to
experience the discipline in a safe, non-judgmental and non-competitive environment, as well
as a fantastic way for yoga devotees to experience more intensity and variety.
Please note: poses should only be performed after a sufficient warm up.
CAMEL POSE
2
For this pose the pelvic floor muscles must
be engaged in order to fully support the back
bend. As with Mountain Pose, place a block
a few inches above the knees to feel the
engagement. Placing your fists along the line
of your gluteus medius, soften your gluteus
maximus to ensure that your transverse
abdominis is the main stabiliser of this pose.
1
WARRIOR 3
Once again, the pelvic floor muscles need
to be engaged, and this can be achieved
with dynamic tension of the standing leg,
particularly in the lift of the arch of the foot
and running the full line of the adductors.
From here, isometric engagement of the
obliques, rectus abdominis and erector
spinae muscles will support the spine, and
the entire pose. For more sensation, reach
the arms forward.
Lisa Greenbaum is the VP of Operations of YogaFit Training Systems, as well as an E-RYT 500, Senior Master
Trainer and international presenter. She will present the session ‘YogaCore’ on 11 April at FILEX 2015.
The YogaFit Fundamentals training, powered by Australian Fitness Network, is a 6-day, 15-CEC
course that teaches over 75 poses, class set up and cues, yoga philosophy, and a strong anatomy
base behind the safety principles of yoga. Upcoming dates: 13 to 15 February and 20 to 22
February, Sydney; and 25 February to 2 March, Melbourne. fitnessnetwork.com.au/yogafit