Health Tips: Core Values

Core Values

Posted by Sagar on 4:17 AM

Take a playful approach to building
core strength and flexibility in your torso.

Arm balances require more than Popeye’s strength. Just ask senior Iyengar teacher John Schumacher. “Hardly anyone can muscle their way into arm balances,” he says. Schumacher describes some of his students as men who are strong enough to do 100 Sun Salutationsbut who can’t do an arm balance because they lack the flexibility to get their arms and legs into position. He also teaches a lot of flexible people who need to develop more strength. Schumacher came up with the se quence on the following pages to help you increase both strength and flexibility. The sequence will definitely work your abdominal muscles and build core strength, even in your spinal muscles. Once you’ve toned your core, you’ll put it to the test in the arm
balances. You’ll need to use your strength and flexibility for a key action you’ll do in the last four poses: tucking your abdominals up and in toward your spine. Yoga students are often instructed to lengthen the spine, but here Schumacher wants you to move your sacrum away from your lumbar spine and “tuck” inward
as you round or curl. Visualize wrapping yourself around a beachball, he advises. Even when practicing taxing po ses, Schumacher encourages having a playful, adventurous attitude. “Kids will try to stand on their
heads, laugh, and have fun—not get mad—and try again,” he says. Infuse your practice with this spirit of playfulness and realize that you might not get a pose right away. “But try to learn about yourself as you play,” Schumacher says. “See if you can maintain equanimity as you discover
what your response is to a difficult situation.”

Bookmark This Post :