I’ve never been a big fan of core workouts.  Hate doing boat/Navasana.  Pilates class makes me shake like there’s no tomorrow.  A few years ago when I got myself a personal trainer for a month to get fit, I suddenly started having sharp pain in my lower back so I wasn’t able to do any abdominal exercises (the pain was ever only there when I was at the training sessions, it’s my body’s way of telling me how much I hated doing them!).

And of course I know how important it is to have a strong core.  A strong core keeps the body up.  It helps with back pain.  And muscle burns fat, so strong core probably minimises the likelihood of an expanding mid-section!  But I’ve never been very strong in that part of the body, and that probably explains my strong dislike for many yoga poses which requires a strong core, like arm balances…

But the other day I went to a yoga class and I held crow/bakasana for, oh wait, I can’t even remember how many breaths because I stayed up for so long I was so shocked I didn’t even manage to keep count.  I haven’t done this pose for a long time, like I said, I’m not a big fan of arm balances, so I practically never do them in my personal practice.    But from all the other poses I do on a regular basis, I was able to build quite a strong core that allows me to do all the poses I use to hate doing as well!

So I put together this little yoga bootcamp sequence that anyone can try at home which can be found over at my Freebies page.  It’s short so it’s easy to remember, and you can repeat it several times doing it dynamically, or hold each pose for longer to build more strength, or BOTH!  Just remember to keep breathing!  And let me know how it goes if you try it

*Click on the image below to download