Yoga Positions for the Abdominal Area

Yoga can help you build blue-ribbon abs. Living proof is Lilias Folan, whose PBS television series “Lilias, Yoga and You,” caught the attention of many Americans in the '70s and '80s. After birthing two children, she couldn’t find her stomach muscles when doing a boat pose, in which you form a “V” shape with your torso and legs lifted. Decades later, she’s now a stronger woman than she was as a young mother, according to Alisa Bauman’s article “Core Curriculum” in Yoga Journal. Because you need to use your abdominals for stability and balance, just about all yoga poses will help build your abs.

  1. Working the Entire Core

    • Yoga poses that work all of the abdominal muscles – rectus abdominis, obliques and tranversus abdominis – include rolldowns and the stargazing pose. To perform a rolldown, sit with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Draw your knees together, turning your heels our and toes in. As you tuck your tailbone forward, flatten your lower back. Put your hands behind your head and point your elbows to the sides. Slowly roll down one vertebra at a time. Roll over to the side, returning to the starting position, and repeat. Stargazing reverses the movements of a rolldown and jumps a notch in difficulty, according to Bauman. Instead of rolling down, you lift your upper body off the floor one vertebra at a time.

    The Boat Pose

    • The big daddy of abdominal poses is the boat pose, or navasana, in which you have to tighten your abdominals to hold your legs and torso up against gravity. If you don’t have good balance, you can tip over backward. The pose also strengthens your thighs and hip flexors. To prepare for the boat pose, sit on the floor with knees bent and pressed up to your chest. Hug the tops of your shins. Sit erect, lifting your chest. Slowly lean back while lifting your legs. Release your legs and extend your arms so they’re parallel to the floor. As you grow stronger, straighten your legs so your body forms a V-shape and hold the position as long as you can.

    Use of Stability Balls

    • The plank pose is another powerhouse exercise in which you have to use your abdominal muscles to hold your body weight up and prevent your midsection from sagging. To blast your abs, perform the plank pose on an unstable surface, such as a stability ball. Kneel and position the ball against your legs. Bend over and rest your belly on the ball, keeping your hands and feet on the floor. Walk your hands forward, drawing your body forward until the ball is wedged under the tops of your feet. Contract your abdominals, holding the pose for at least 15 seconds.

    Twists

    • When you do twists, you can strengthen the muscles on the sides of your belly, or the obliques. At the same time, you’re stretching the muscles in your back. For example, in the half lord of the fishes pose I, sit with your legs fully extended in front of you. Bending your left knee, put your left foot on the outside of your right knee. Bending your right knee, position your right foot next to your left buttock. On the inhalation, lift your chest and elongate your spine. As you exhale, rotate your trunk. Wrap your right thigh with your left arm to draw your trunk and thigh closer. To deepen the stretch, reach farther with your left arm and place the outer part of the arm against your outer right thigh. Use your left arm as a lever to increase the degree of the rotation.