The Perfect Yoga Workout to Get Abs

One of the greatest things about yoga is that practically all asanas, or poses, target your core, the muscle group that includes your abs and all other muscles in the torso—the same muscles that control your body’s stability and balance. If you’re sick and tired of doing crunches, yoga can be a great substitute to any conventional ab workout—and it’s frighteningly effective too.

Again, almost every yoga pose in the playbook works and tones your ab muscles, forcing you to adjust and understand how your core moves and works. And besides working the core, these same yoga poses also work other muscles in your shoulders, back, thighs, and arms.

Here are some poses to include in your yoga workout for your abs.

1. Boat Pose

The boat pose targets a bunch of different muscle groups, from your abs, back, quadriceps, to your hips. What makes this pose so great is that you can easily modify it depending on your fitness level—you can either keep your legs parallel to the mat or make the full boat pose.

To start, stay seated on your mat, knees bent with your feet on the ground. Lean back a little so that your feet hovers a few inches off the ground. Proceed to straighten your back and legs into straight lines, taking care to keep your feet together, forming a V figure. Your legs should be extended and parallel to the floor.

Maintain your balance and place your weight on your tailbone and rear. Lift your chest, look forward, and inhale and exhale 10 times in between rests. If you want a good ab burn, repeat 5 times.

1. Plank Pose

Like any other plank exercise, the yoga plank pose works your core and engages both side and front ab muscles. Although simple, the plank is a staple on practically any kind of fitness routine—and for good reason: it works.

Start by getting down on the mat on all fours, arms below aligned under your shoulders, palms pressed down your mat—be sure to keep your hands shoulder-width apart.

Moving down to your legs, curl your toes under and move both feet back until your legs form a straight line beginning from your head to your heels—like your arms, feet should be hip-width apart. Tighten your quads and core as you maintain the pose for five breaths, repeating two to five times.

1. Knee-to-Nose Pose

Similar to mountain climbers (the exercise), yoga’s knee-to-nose pose is a killer ab workout, which also strengthens your back and chest muscles.

Start by doing downward facing dog. Maintaining the inverted V position, lift your right leg up in the air—you can try to form a straight light between your foot and back—and draw it into your chest, real tight. The rest of your body should maintain the downward dog pose. When you bring in your knee, try to kiss it as you round your back.

But as with any kind of workout, the key to getting results with these yoga poses is consistency. In addition, you want to eat healthy, less fatty foods, because no matter how strong your abs are, if your flab’s still there, your abs won’t show.

For more ab yoga workouts, go to Online Yoga Poses.