Yoga for a Strong Core | Strengthen & Tone Your Abs, Build Balance, Sculpt, Power & Stability

[Music] Hi, I'm Carly and this is your yoga routine for strong core. You don't need any props today, so just roll out your mat and let's get started. If you don't have time to do this video right now, save it to your watch later playlist and join me when you're ready. [Music] All right, guys. We're going to begin our routine today. Laying down on your mat. We're going to come into soupanosa. So, soles of the feet together and knees out wide. Your hands can be down by your side just to start here. Nice and slow as we start to breathe in. and breathe out. Continue this nice intentional breath. [Music] Your inhales and exhales will come in and out through the nose. As we get our body into a nice calm state, we will be working the full core today. So that means not just the abdominal muscles in the stomach that we think of, but also a little bit into the glutes and into the spine. Really working on our whole center body here to get nice and strong and powerful. [Music] With your next couple rounds of breaths, notice how your body is feeling today. Notice how your mind is feeling today. As we really start to burn out the core, we'll really ignite our solar plexus chakra. That's our real powerhouse center of the chakras. One more breath. Gently hug your knees into your chest. Give yourself a nice big squeeze. Rock a little side to side on your low back. And then we'll drop our knees all the way to the left into a spinal twist. Bring your right arm out to the right and gaze over your right shoulder. Just gently ringing out the spine. Take one more round of breath here. Feel your spine really start to stretch. and come back up through center. Drop your knees to the right. Gaze over your left shoulder. One more round of breath here in this twist. Come back through center. Place the soles of your feet on the mat. knees pointing up. Bring your palms down by your sides. Like your fingertips are going to reach towards your heels here. Now, on your inhale, lift up to bridge pose. Doesn't have to be the full extent of your bridge. We're still just warming up here. So, I want you to squeeze the glutes a lot and press the hips up towards the sky. Don't think too much about arching the spine right now. Now, gently lower your hips back to the mat. Nice and slow here so you can really become aware of what's going on in the hips and the spine. Inhale, start to peel your hips back up, pelvis up. Exhale, slowly lower. Your glutes are engaged the whole time. Excellent. Inhale, lift up. Bridge pose. Exhale, slowly lower here. Last one. Inhale. Lift up. Bridge pose. Hold at the top. Keep squeezing through the glutes. Now lift your right leg into the air. Point your toes. Your toes are reaching up towards the ceiling. Squeeze your left glute. See if you can lift a little higher. Now lower your foot down to parallel with the mat. Well, your whole leg lowers to parallel with the mat. And then lift back up. Toes to the sky. Just two more like that. Lower down. Lift up. You'll feel your low belly start to engage here. Your pelvic floor is engaged. Squeeze everything. But keep breathing. Last one. Plant your right foot immediately. Left foot lifts into the air. Point your toes. Squeeze your right glute. Lift your hips a little higher. Gently lower your left leg parallel with the mat. And lift back up. Squeeze your glutes. Core is engaged. Gently lower. Lift up. Last one. Lower and lift. Plant your left foot back down. Gently lower your hips to the mat and windshield wipe your legs side to side. and let that go. So, sometimes when we do some deep core work like this and we really brace the belly, sometimes we subconsciously start to hold our breath. So, as we move throughout this practice today, even when we're squeezing the core, I want you to still keep breathing in and out with intention. Hug your knees to your chest. Take a couple rocks forward and back on the spine. Up and down here. [Music] One more. Just like this. Hold and balance at the top. Boat pose. My shins are parallel to the mat here. My knees are bent. Excellent. You can stay here holding on to the back of your thighs. You can also place your hands on the mat behind you for some support or you can reach your arms out in front of you. Excellent. Shoulders drop away from the ears. No matter what you're doing with the arms here, inhale, lower, low pose. Exhale, lift. High boat pose. It's the same thing. If your hands are on the ground, you're lowering and lifting. Core is engaged. Lower. Exhale. Lift. Inhale. Lower. Exhale. Lift. Inhale. Exhale. Crunch. Inhale. Exhale. Two more. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Hold. Low boat. Flutter kick the legs up and down just for 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 Almost there. Two and one. Cross your legs. Tabletop. Come all the way up to hands and knees. Stack your shoulders right over your wrists and your hips right over your knees. Cat cow. Inhale. Drop your belly. Lift your tailbone. Lift your gaze. Exhale. Round and curl. Push the mat away. Tuck your chin to your chest. Inhale. Cow pose. Belly drops. Gaze lifts. Exhale. Round and curl. Pull your belly button in. Take three more with your breath here. [Applause] One more round. Stretch everything out and meet me back in a neutral spine here. So our back is as flat as we can get it. That means the low belly now is really tucked up into the spine. Bird dog pose. Extend your right arm forward and your left leg back. Now notice if your belly started to droop, re-engage here. Neck is neutral. No creases in the back of the neck. This is your inhale. Exhale. Crunch. Left elbow or right elbow to your left knee. And we curl the spine here. Inhale back to flat back. Exhale round the spine. Curl everything in. Two more. Inhale lengthen. Exhale crunch. Elbow to knee. Inhale lengthen. Exhale crunch. Inhale lengthen. Exhale release. Right hand and left knee down. Immediately other side. Left arm forward, right leg back. Find length on your inhale and a flat back. Exhale round the spine. Belly button in. Elbow to knee. Three more. Inhale lengthen. Exhale crunch. Inhale lengthen. Exhale crunch. Last one. Lengthen. Exhale. Crunch. Inhale. Lengthen. Exhale. Release. Left hand down. Right leg down. Tuck your toes. Reach up to downward-facing dog. Press your hips up and back. Find length in the spine here. So, we're not rounding like cat pose. It's almost more of an arch like we're pressing our heart back towards our knees. All 10 fingertips reach into the ground so we're not dumping the weight into the wrists. Inhale. Three-legged dog on the right side. Lift your right leg up and back. Inhale here. Exhale. Knee to nose. Crunch. Maybe you can give your right knee a kiss. That's how close it should be to your face. Inhale. Reach up. Exhale. Right knee to right elbow. Hold. Inhale. Three-legged dog. Reach up. Exhale. Right knee to left elbow. Hold. Three-legged dog. Inhale. Lift. Exhale. Step your right foot between your hands. Lower your left knee to the mat. Low crescent lunge. Reach your arms up to the sky. Beautiful. We're sinking the hips down and forward to get a nice stretch in the left soaz muscle here. Interlace your hands behind your head. Take a baby back bend. Press your heart up towards the sky. Take a little stretch. Reach your elbows towards the back wall. Inhale. Release your hands back up to the sky. Exhale. Half splits. Straighten your right leg. Can bring your hands to the ground here. and flex your right toes towards your face. Couple rounds of breath to stretch out the right hamstring. It's okay if your right leg isn't perfectly straight, just as long as you're feeling a stretch there. [Music] One more breath. Runner's lunge. Rebend your right leg. Plant your hands. Tuck your left toes. Lift your left knee off the ground. This is runner's lunge. Step back to plank pose. Hold for a breath in. Exhale. Lower all the way down to your belly. Inhale. Baby cobra. Press the tops of your feet into the mat. Peel your chest off the mat. Squeeze your elbows together behind you. Pinch your shoulder blades. So, we're lifting our chest mostly using the strength of our back muscles here. Hold for another breath in. Exhale. Forehead to the mat. One more. Inhale. Baby cobra. Lift your chest. Squeeze your legs together like you're a mermaid. Like you have a tail. Excellent. Breathe in. Exhale. Forehead to the mat. Downward-facing dog. Press your hips up and back. Walk it out. Reset. We'll take that to the other side. Inhale. Three-legged dog. Lift your left leg up and back. Exhale. Knee to nose. So tight to your face. Inhale. Three-legged dog. Exhale. Left knee to left elbow. Hold. Tap it. Lift back up. Three-legged dog. Left knee to right elbow. Hold there. Tap it. Three-legg dog. Send it right back up. And step your foot between your hands. Low crescent lunge. Lower your right knee down. Lift your arms up to the sky. Hold here to sink your hips down and forward. Then interlace your hands behind your head. Take your baby back bend. Let your hips feel a nice stretch. Inhale. Reach your arms back up to the sky. Exhale. Half splits. Plant your hands. Lengthen through your left leg. Any amount that allows you to feel a nice stretch in the back of the left leg. Flex your left toes towards your face. Breathe in and out here. Runner's lunge. Bend your left knee. Plant your hands. Tuck your right toes. Lift your right knee off the mat. Step back. Plank pose. Hold for an inhale. Exhale over all the way down to your belly. Beautiful. This time we're lifting legs and chest off the ground. So reach your arms out in front of you like Superman. And inhale, squeeze and lift everything up. Keep some magnetism between the inner thighs so your legs aren't spplaying out too wide. Your hands are out in front of you like Superman. Finding as much length as you can. Forward through the hands and back through the feet. You're holding here. Lift a little bit higher. Squeeze your glutes. Exhale. Release your forehead to the mat. One more. Inhale. Lift up. Superman. Not too much distance between the legs. Your neck is long. No creases in the back of the neck. Squeeze your glutes. Lift everything a little higher. Exhale. Lower down. Child's pose. Press your hips towards your heels. Lower your chest to the ground just for a moment here. Just a couple breaths. know that you're doing an amazing job. You are so powerful. [Music] Excellent. Downward-facing dog. Send your hips up and back once more here. [Music] Gaze between your hands and walk, step or hop to the top of the mat. Halfway lift. Exhale. Fold. Inhale. Chair pose. Sit your hips low. Reach your arms up to the sky. Hold here for your breath in. Exhale. Drinking bird pose. Keep the bend in your knees. Rise onto your tip toes. Fly your arms back behind you. and pinkies are spiraling in towards each other. So, we're really opening up the chest a little bit more here. And squeeze the glutes. Can you sink one inch lower in the hips and lift your chest just a little bit? Excellent. Inhale. Chair pose. And exhale. Come all the way down to tiny ball pose. Rise onto your tip toes and lower your chest towards your shins. Give yourself a little squeeze here. Lower down to butterfly. Come down to a seat. Open up the inner thighs. Press your heart forward. Use your elbows to lengthen your knees down towards the mat just a little bit more. Maybe you hinge your chest forward slightly to open up here. [Music] One more round of breath. Lift your chest. Reach your arms out in front of you. Don't get too relaxed yet, but we are rolling down to our backs. Take it vertebrae by vertebrae. Nice and slow. Like you're feeling some resistance on your way down. Shoulders away from your ears. belly button into your spine. Once your shoulder blades hit, reach your arms up and back behind you. Exhale, crunch up back to a seat. Butterfly pose. Reach forward. Exhale. Slowly lower down with resistance. Inhale. Reach your arms up behind you. Exhale. Crunch. Lift up. One more here. Gently lower down to your back. Nice and slow. Arms reach behind you. Exhale. Crunch up. And we lower down to our backs. This time for real. Excellent. Extend the soles of your feet up towards the sky. Waterfall pose. This is a beautiful inversion here to help recirculate fresh blood all throughout the body. Point and flex your feet. Take some ankle rotations. Whatever feels nice in the feet and the toes here. Last ab exercise. Bring your arms up to the sky like Frankenstein. We're going to inhale here. Exhale. Crunch. Lift your fingertips towards your feet. Shoulder blades off the mat. That's the key here. Inhale, lower. Exhale, lift. Shoulder blades lift off the mat. Inhale. Exhale. We've got 10 more. A little faster. Inhale. Exhale. 9 8 7 6 Can you lift higher? 5 4 3 2 and one. Hug your knees into your chest just like we did at the beginning of class. Rock a little side to side on your spine. Beautiful happy baby pose. Grab for your big toes, your ankles, the feet, whatever you want to grab here. Pull your knees down towards the earth. Rock a little side to side. I hope you're feeling that beautiful, beautiful burn in your core in your solar plexus chakra. You are feeling so proud of yourself. All right, we will gently lower the legs down to the mat. Arms down by your side, palms face up for final shavasana. Please know that I am so proud of you for whatever you've accomplished in this class today. Every time you do this class, you'll start to notice improvements and feel stronger and stronger each time. If you have time to stay in your shavasana, please pause this video and take a moment here for yourself to absorb all of the amazing benefits of this practice. The light within me honors the light in each of you. Namaste. 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