What Is Yoga for Core Strength & Flexibility?

The core goes by a lot of names. Trunk. Torso. Abdomen. Thorax. Way more than our six-pack muscles, the core is everything besides our arms and legs. 

It’s important for our core to be both strong and flexible. A strong core is able to withstand force. A flexible core moves without restriction. 

In this article I’ll share my take on what it means to practice yoga as a means of developing core strength and flexibility.

The yoga teacher in me is always interested in mining out movement options for aiding these developments. When we move well we feel better, and I like my yoga practice to offer me ample ways of moving well. 

Yoga For Core Strength

We already know that a strong core is able to withstand force. But what exactly does that mean?

We want to be strong enough that we can deliberately position the bones of our core: Our pelvis, our spine, our ribs. Then we want to apply force in the form of movement challenges, and ask our core to hold strong in its positioning.

Running is a good example of this. Every time we stride forward, our core absorbs the force of the landing. A strong core is able to hold strong against this movement challenge, rather than flop around like a piece of spaghetti.

In yoga, at a very basic level, core strength translates into our ability to keep the torso upright in all the various standing positions we do. You’ve probably noticed that there’s some degree of core challenge to staying upright in a lunge or a warrior two. This is because we’re adding movement challenges to the legs and arms and we’re asking the core to remain steady in the midst of the surrounding chaos.

Here’s one of my online classes that deep dives into core strength through the lens of the rib cage.

Yoga For Core Flexibility

In addition to being strong, a well-developed core is also able to articulate specific movements. This is called mobility or flexibility (there is a difference between those two words, which I cover in this article, but let’s consider them synonyms in the present conversation).

Movements of the core include flexing (the spine curling into itself like a cinnamon roll), extending (backbending), sidebending and rotating.

Your typical gym yoga class will likely take the spine through those ranges of motion. But there’s a few tips to consider to really get the most out of those offerings.

The first thing to consider is whether you’re using the strength of your muscles to create your movements, or if you’re passively relying on gravity, momentum or leverage to create your movements. A truly flexible core is one that is able to actively articulate movements, not just passively endure them. This is the difference between active and passive range of motion, which I have written about before on this blog. When you use your strength to create your yoga poses, you may have less range of motion than you would if you pushed deeper into the pose with gravity, but it will feel more supported and you’ll get the strengthening benefits you need to gain more mobility down the line.

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