Boat pose sequence – 20 minute core yoga workout

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of content around yoga pose tutorials. Common mistakes in poses, then offering a few tips and tricks to make the poses more accessible and comfortable. A few months ago I focused on boat pose. A challenge pose for the core. However, we need to put what we learned into practice with this 20 minute boat poses sequence.

This 20 minute core yoga workout is a great way to work the abs, hips and thighs while getting the soothing yoga effect. I love to blend yoga with other movement formats and this class is akin to yogalates (yoga and pilates). One of my favorite mash-ups.

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20 minute core yoga workout

The first 5-7 minutes of this class are warm up exercises for the core. After a brief body scan there are movements for the spine. These include arch & flatten plus windshield wipers.

To warm up the abs all the crunches. Seriously, any core warm-up for the abs should include crunches. This variation adds shoulder movement for some upper body mobility.

Because boat pose is an isometric exercise, the warm up continues with some supine isometric core exercises. Marching the legs, and table top drops are great ways to warm up the abs and hip flexors.

One thing I love to do as a warm up are use the focus pose in a different relationship to gravity. To that end, the table top exercises mimic boat well. In addition, I added a reverse crunch to this routine.

Boat Pose Sequence

During the class we transition to seated, and begin moving through a seated cat cow. As a result, we smoothly begin the boat pose sequence in this 20 minute class.

Firstly, in boat pose the legs are bent. The beginners variation. Further progressing from this is alternating straight legs. Either, with or without support from the arms.

After that, we progress to the third and final version of our focus pose in this boat pose sequence. That is to say we straighten the legs and HOLD. If this variation feels too much you can choose to do either of the two previous options.

With the “work” for the abs done the cool down begins. In short, we start to do less. For this class, I decided to introduce a variation of twisted sage pose to lengthen the obliques.

Furthermore to lengthen the front body, while continuing to work the core, we do some swimmers. Lying face down and lifting alternate arm to leg. Remember, the glutes and lower back are part of your core!

So, as we continue the cool down, we push onto all fours for some cat cow After that, we recline into childs pose pausing for a few breaths. Lastly, we end this boat pose sequence seated for three deep breaths

In short, this class is a great way to combine core, and pilates exercises. Plus. you receive the relaxing and de-stressing aspects of a yoga class. Blending movement practices is something I hope to do more of in the future.

Questions

• Do you warm up before doing ab exercises
• Have you combined class formats before?
• How long are your core workouts?