Today's blog is about a pet peeve for most women - Abdominal (Belly) Fat !!
We all hate it; we wish it would just disappear one fine day; but, its usually quite stubborn and is here to stay!!
I have been working with a couple of really strong postures to work, tone and slim the belly area.
These postures require you to be mindful of your body, your breathing and the response your body is giving you.
I can assure you that these postures work their magic, but slowly and steadily, over a period of time.
Not a Miracle Cure !!
Let's get started with the postures;
Do's and Dont's Before / During Practice:
- Do practice these postures with an empty stomach, or you may feel nauseous.
- Practice slowly, build up strength and patience with the postures.
- Be mindful of your body's response. Stop the practice if you feel dizzy or light-headed.
1. Simple Table Posture with Leg & One Hand Raise :
- Start in simple Table pose. Extend right leg behind you. Now, Inhale and life right leg up, stretch left hand in front. Hold this pose for 6 breaths. Come back to center and try the posture on the left side. Observe your body's response to the pose. If holding the pose for 6 breaths is hard, do it for 3 breaths, pause and repeat for 3 more breaths.
This pose starts to work on the abdominal muscles, brings more strength to thighs and tones the hips
- all of our favorite problem areas, right ?
2. Downward Dog / Adho Mukha Shvanasana Posture :
- A Very Strong, challenging pose for most of us.
- From Table pose, keep hands further away from you, tuck your toes under.
As you inhale, lift your hips into the sky, pushing strongly into the ground with your hands, slowly straighten your legs, bring your heels towards the ground, hold the pose for 6 breaths.
- Focus on breathing into and out of the abdomen.
- This is one of the best postures for building stronger abdominal muscles, melting belly fat and increasing the metabolic rate of your body.
3. Plank Posture -
- Now, we are moving onto seriously challenging postures.
The Plank is one of them and my favorite!!
- From Table, move hands to the front on the mat, tuck toes in and push legs all the way back behind the body. Now, as you inhale, push your body up , using your hands; strongly stretch both legs upward, align the whole body in one long slanting straight line :) Hold for 6 breaths.
- Easier said than done, right?
- Well, don't give up yet..
its definitely doable and brings a ton of benefits to your belly.
- Pay attention to your alignment; don't put too much pressure on your wrists; breathe deeply.
4. Ardha Navasana / Boat Pose :
- This pose is a strong, challenging pose. There are lots of variations on this pose, but we will start with the simplest version and work towards more challenging versions.
We all hate it; we wish it would just disappear one fine day; but, its usually quite stubborn and is here to stay!!
I have been working with a couple of really strong postures to work, tone and slim the belly area.
These postures require you to be mindful of your body, your breathing and the response your body is giving you.
I can assure you that these postures work their magic, but slowly and steadily, over a period of time.
Not a Miracle Cure !!
Let's get started with the postures;
Do's and Dont's Before / During Practice:
- Do practice these postures with an empty stomach, or you may feel nauseous.
- Practice slowly, build up strength and patience with the postures.
- Be mindful of your body's response. Stop the practice if you feel dizzy or light-headed.
1. Simple Table Posture with Leg & One Hand Raise :
- Start in simple Table pose. Extend right leg behind you. Now, Inhale and life right leg up, stretch left hand in front. Hold this pose for 6 breaths. Come back to center and try the posture on the left side. Observe your body's response to the pose. If holding the pose for 6 breaths is hard, do it for 3 breaths, pause and repeat for 3 more breaths.
This pose starts to work on the abdominal muscles, brings more strength to thighs and tones the hips
- all of our favorite problem areas, right ?
2. Downward Dog / Adho Mukha Shvanasana Posture :
- A Very Strong, challenging pose for most of us.
- From Table pose, keep hands further away from you, tuck your toes under.
As you inhale, lift your hips into the sky, pushing strongly into the ground with your hands, slowly straighten your legs, bring your heels towards the ground, hold the pose for 6 breaths.
- Focus on breathing into and out of the abdomen.
- This is one of the best postures for building stronger abdominal muscles, melting belly fat and increasing the metabolic rate of your body.
3. Plank Posture -
- Now, we are moving onto seriously challenging postures.
The Plank is one of them and my favorite!!
- From Table, move hands to the front on the mat, tuck toes in and push legs all the way back behind the body. Now, as you inhale, push your body up , using your hands; strongly stretch both legs upward, align the whole body in one long slanting straight line :) Hold for 6 breaths.
- Easier said than done, right?
- Well, don't give up yet..
its definitely doable and brings a ton of benefits to your belly.
- Pay attention to your alignment; don't put too much pressure on your wrists; breathe deeply.
4. Ardha Navasana / Boat Pose :
- This pose is a strong, challenging pose. There are lots of variations on this pose, but we will start with the simplest version and work towards more challenging versions.
- Sit tall on the sitting bones, bend back slightly, lift hands in front, lift legs with bent knees, start breathing deeply using abdominal muscles, hold pose for 8 - 10 breaths and then relax.
- You can do the 2nd set after relaxing all the muscles.
- This pose really reaches your core muscles, starts to wake them up and release the fat cells, building more muscle tissue and strength.
5. Chair Pose / Utkatasana:
- The Chair Pose is quite a challenging pose for most beginners.
- Start with standing tall, reach hands towards sky; Inhale and and you exhale, sit down on the imaginary chair behind you.
- Keep knees together, keep reaching strongly through your hands, keep your gaze in front; hold pose for 8 - 10 breaths and come back to center.
- You can breathe strongly through the abdominal muscles, you can slowly work up your strength to stay in the pose for 12 breaths.
6. Supine Leg Lifts -
- Leg lifts are very interesting to start with; some students complain that their legs feel very heavy to lift; others complain that the legs are so tight that they cannot make them straight!!
- But its one of the best poses to work the abdomen and back muscles, tone these areas and release that stubborn fat!!
- That's our goal through all these poses, right?
- Lie down on the mat, stretch both legs in front, then, inhale and as you exhale, stretch the right leg up; you can try to make it straight or use a strap to hold it straight. If your thigh muscles are tight, you can bend your knee to hold the pose for 6 - 8 breaths. Again, this pose can be done for 2 sets, 8 - 10 breaths in each set.
That's it!!
I do hope you work these postures well;
Let's all work towards the healthiest bodies - toned round bellies, soft hearts and loving hands :)
Namaste,
Asha
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