YOGA FOR STRENGTH: 9 OF YOGA’S BEST STRENGTH-BUILDING POSES

PLANK POSE

Planks are an undisputed strengthener for the abdominal muscles, the shoulders, and the lower back. Though planking seems simple enough, you want to make sure that your form is good so that your shoulders stay safe. It can be hard to judge the position of your hips at first so if you don’t have a mirror handy, get a friend to tell you if your hips are piking up too high or sagging too low. In yoga classes, planks are often used as a quick transitional pose. To improve strength, try holding your planks for at least a minute.

Instructions:

1. Come to your hands and knees with your shoulders directly over your wrists. If you were staying here, you would also line up your hips over your knees, but in this case, you want the knees a little further back in preparation for straightening the legs.

2. Tuck your toes under and straighten your legs.

3. Spread your fingers wide to distribute your weight throughout your palm.

4. Avoid locking your elbows since this is hard on your joints. Softening your elbows just a little bit allows the support muscles around the joint to kick in.

5. When the hips are in the correct potions (neither too high nor too low), you can trace a diagonal line from the crown of your head to your heels.

6. If you can’t maintain this form, drop your knees to the floor as you build strength.

FOUR-LIMBED STAFF POSE (CHATURANGA DANDASANA)

Chaturanga flows from Plank like butter on hot toast. Take everything we said about the importance of alignment in Plank and double down on it for Chaturanga. It really doesn’t do you any good put so much work into your triceps if your shoulders are going to give out in a few years. Assuming your alignment in great, you can’t beat Chaturanga when it comes to arm strength, plus shoulders, back, and core as well. It is essentially a mindful push-up and you can treat it as such. Instead of one Chaturanga, try doing five in a row, pushing back to Plank each time. You can also hold the low position or add in an extra Chaturanga after your Upward Facing Dog in a classic vinyasa. As with plank, dropping the knees to the mat is a great option for beginners.

Instructions:

1. From Plank, shift your weight forward into your toes so that your shoulders come in front of your wrists

2. Slowly bend your elbows straight back to lower your chest toward the floor.

3. Stop lowering when your shoulders are in line with your elbows or above the elbows. Do not let the shoulders dip toward the floor or come anywhere near to touching the floor!

COBRA POSE (BHUJANGASANA)

The lowly Low Cobra is much more than just a stepping stone to Upward Facing Dog. It offers the rare opportunity to tap into the underused muscles in your back. To make the most of Cobra’s strengthening potential, you first have to take a solemn vow not to cheat this pose. When we say that you should lift your chest up as high as possible, all of a sudden people start pressing into their palms and straightening their arms and yes, their chests do come up higher, but they haven’t used their back muscles at all. So first reconcile yourself to the idea that your Cobra is going to be pretty low. You are going to keep your elbows bending straight back and not put any pressure into your hands to help you lift up.

Instructions:

1. Lie on your stomach with your forehead on the mat, your hands under your shoulders, and your elbows hugging your sides.

2. Anchor your pelvis to the mat and on an inhalation, lift your shoulders and upper chest off the mat without pressing into your hands at all. Slide your shoulders away from your ears and keep your gaze on the floor to avoid cranking your neck.

3. On your next exhalation, lower your forehead back to your mat. Flowing up and down on the breath three to five times helps you tap in to the lower back muscles.

4. If you like, you can try hovering the palms off the floor to make sure you are not using them to lift up at all.

BOAT POSE (NAVASANA)

When approached correctly, Boat is one of yoga’s greatest abdominal strengtheners. What we’re interested in here is not whether you can straighten your legs fully. The most important thing is the relationship between your torso and your thighs. You want to maintain a nice sharp V shape there. So if you straighten your legs and your V gets low and loose, you should keep your knees bent for now. Introducing dynamic movement into your boat makes it function more like a crunch. To do this, lower on an exhalation as if you were going to lie down on the floor but keep your shoulders and heels hovering above the floor. This is called Low Boat. Then sit back up into Boat in an inhalation. Try moving up and down five to ten times, keeping your toes active the whole time.

Instructions:

1. Sit with your knees bent, the soles of your feet flat on your mat, and your hands resting lightly on either side of you. This position helps you feel your sit bones, which act as the balancing point for the pose.

2. Lean back a little bit to lift your feet off the floor. Keep your knees bent and bring your shins parallel to the floor. Flare your toes.

3. If it helps you keep your torso up, you can hold on to the backs of your thighs with your hands. If you can maintain a tight V without holding on, let go and bring your arms level with your shoulders. Your palms can be facing each other, turned up, or turned down, whichever feels better.

4. Straighten your legs only if you can maintain the position of your thighs and torso when doing so.

5. Move back and forth between Boat and Low Boat to build more core strength.

WARRIOR II (VIRABHADRASANA II)

This standing pose strengthens the legs, core, arms, and back. To get the most strengthening power out of this position, set yourself up with the best possible alignment and then go for a longer hold time, perhaps up to ten breaths. Your foot alignment, with the front heel lined up with the back arch, makes this a bit of a balance, requiring core strength to steady the wobbles. You will really feel some muscle fatigue in your front thigh when you deepen your front knee enough to bring the thigh parallel to the floor. Holding your arms outstretched also works the biceps and deltoids.

Instructions:

1. Set up with your right foot at the front of your mat and left foot at the back. Your left foot is tuned out 90 degrees (or slightly less) and the hip points are facing the left side of your mat.

2. Align your front heel and back arch using the Central Line on your Liforme Mat. Bend the right knee so that it comes directly over the right ankle and your thigh is as close to parallel with the floor as possible.

3. Stack your shoulders over your hips and extend your right arm forward and left arm back, parallel to the floor.

4. Your head faces the front of your mat.

5. Take five to ten deep breaths while maintaining your alignment.

6. Then do the same pose with the left foot forward.

HALF MOON POSE (ARDHA CHANDRASANA)

Poses in which you stand on one leg are really good strengtheners because they require your body to recruit lots of muscle groups in order to remain balanced upright. Half Moon works the legs and the core even though one hand is still on the ground. Try to use this hand very lightly so that your core is doing most of the work. It may be very helpful to use a block under your hand for a little added lift. As you get stronger, you can work on slowly talking all the weight out of your bottom hand. Also, remember to keep your lifted foot engaged by flaring your toes to activate the whole leg.

Instructions:

1. From Warrior II, place your left hand on your left hip, then lower your right hand to the floor just in front and slightly to the right side of your right foot. At the same time, lift your left foot off the floor.

2. Straighten your right leg, but don’t lock your knee.

3. Flex your left foot and lift your left leg so that it’s roughly parallel to the floor.

4. Open your chest toward the left and lift your left arm straight up toward the ceiling.

5. Turn your head to bring your gaze to the left fingertips once you are stable.

6. After five to ten breaths, do the other side.