4 Easy Yoga Poses to Strengthen Your Core and Tighten Your Abs

By: Bethany Barich (Follow on Instagram & Twitter)

If there’s one part of the body that needs to have strength during a good yoga session, it’s the core. Not only does having a powerful core help alleviate back pain, improve posture and balance, but having a strong core just looks fantastic!

Who doesn’t dream of having a tiny midsection with the hint of a six-pack?

Add all of those benefits with the amazing ones from doing yoga daily, and you’re on the way to becoming a positive and slimmer person! 

To improve on that core and help better yoga postures (including the ones about to be listed), I'm going to give you the top moves to help strengthen the core and flatten the stomach. I also recommend checking out the Top 5 Yoga Channels on YouTube - so you can start doing yoga for free every day at home. 

Boat Pose

Boat Pose is definitely not an easy pose to ease in to. If you’re new to yoga or, in general, core strengthening moves, checking out beginner variations of boat pose is highly recommended. But once you’re finally into the advanced variation your core will be halfway to it’s full potential. Not only is this move beneficial to strengthening the core, but it’s also a fantastic balancing pose and it helps stretch the hamstrings!

Balancing Table Pose

Spice up that regular Table Pose by adding this variation. Not only does balancing table pose help with core strength, but it helps with memory and concentration too! One way to get the heart rate pumping in this move is to bring your extended arm and leg in towards your chest, curving your back like in a cat-cow sequence, then extending them back out. Do five reps in the middle of your yoga sequence to burn a few extra calories!

Plank Pose

Probably one of the most beneficial yoga moves for the core, not only does plank pose help strengthen the core and flatten the tummy, but it builds back muscle and shoulder muscle! Plus there are so many variations that you can do, like dolphin pose and side plank, which continuously add to strengthening the core and building arm and back strength.

Crow Pose

It may be hard to believe, but Crow Pose actually does improve core strength. Along with that, it obviously helps build and tone the arms and it’s a great balancing pose that helps with focus. This is an intermediate move, so if you’re new to yoga, watching tutorials on how to get into it, or build up the strength to, is recommended.

Core strength is key to yoga because it helps with flexibility and balance when moving from pose to pose, next time you’re relaxing at home, pull out your mat and try getting into a few of these poses, or even starting a tiny core focused yoga sequence to do daily!