My biggest yoga class pet peeve is when a teacher mentions your "beach body" or "bikini body" in relation to a core-strengthening pose. Ugh. I hate it. As someone who has struggled with body image issues most of my life, the last thing I want to think about while practicing yoga (aka my safe space) is wearing a swimsuit. I want to think about loving my body, not beating it up so that it looks good sans clothing. I want to do core work because it's amazing for my overall health, my posture, supporting my spine, and allowing me to move through life and my practice in a strong, safe way, not because it flattens my stomach. Is a flatter stomach a nice byproduct of yoga? Sure, if that happens for you. But if it doesn't, that's fine too. The superficial core muscles (6-pack muscles) aren't as important for your total body function and posture as the deep core muscles are, so honestly, as a teacher, that's not what I like to focus on. I want to urge other teachers to take this "getting ready for summer!" lingo out of your teaching vocab. It does nothing but depress [some of] us; If I wanted my butt kicked in order to get ready for the summer, I would go to a boot camp, CrossFit, or barre class (which I definitely enjoy and should probably do ASAP!). But, I digress. Today, we're talking about ways to take your plank pose up a notch. Plank is powerful pose and I would argue that if you're looking to strengthen your core--really strengthen it, not just look good in a bikini--then plank should be your new BFF. Or friend with benefits (hehe!). So, although I've talked about plank quite a bit in past episodes (and particularly in my Four Poses for Strengthening the Core video), today I wanted to show you some fun ways to "pimp your plank," if you will. And trust me--if you can't tell by my panting [after demonstrating] in the video, these little variations are TOUGH. Enjoy! You can watch here or on my YouTube channel. 5/1/2014 11:05:47 am
I love this post, especially as you mention yoga as a safe place instead of thinking about how your body should look. I totally agree and although yoga has increased my strength and flexibility, I do it more for my mind. I don't need more judgements about my body running through my head and causing anxiety and low self-esteem. Comments are closed.
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HELLO!I'm Mary Catherine, a Cape Cod-based yoga teacher, painter, designer, writer, mom, and list-maker extraordinaire. My goal is to inspire you to start living a more creative, simple, joyful, + purposeful life.
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