The core! The keyword for today’s fitness, yoga, and pilates trainers. And which creates confusion even among the most experienced in the class, being confused with the six-pack or abs. However, while many people use the term ‘core’ to say strengthen your ‘core’ in various physical modalities, there is only one real CORE muscle.
This muscle is called Iliopsoas (or Iliacus and psoas major), and this is by far the most important muscle to develop and mastering challenging poses. If you don’t know what the psoas muscle is, or where it is, I suggest you google it and study it right now (or leave a comment if you want me to explain about this subject).
When you move from psoas, you can control your body weight in the field of gravity without falling to the floor. Traditionally, they say ‘engage Mula bandha’ in yoga asana, but what they really mean is… Engage the psoas muscle.
Once you are integrating the lower extremity with the central axis of the body, you can master so many Asanas that would have seemed impossible before.
Fortunately, yoga is an excellent ally when it comes to strengthening the core, and nothing benefits the core muscles more than Navasana. In fact, boat pose variation with knees deeply bent is the key!
How to do The Boat Pose
In Sanskrit, ‘Nava’ means ‘boat,’ and ‘asana’ refers to ‘posture.’ To perform Navasana step by step and strengthen your core, you have to do this:
-Take a seat on your mat in Dandasana’s position. Sit with your back straight and your legs stretched out in front of you.
-Now bend your knees and rest the soles of your feet, more or less where your knees used to be.
-Put your hands on your mat, a little behind your buttocks, at your sides.
-Lean back slightly on your sitting bones.
-Raise your legs, trying to maintain a 45-50 degree angle to the floor. Keep your knees bent, and your calves parallel to your mat. The toes have to point up.
-Activate your core muscles for balance. Extend your arms to either side of your legs to form a line with your tibia and fibula. If you still can’t maintain this position, leave your hands on the floor, at the sides of your hips, or use them to support your thighs.
-Take a deep breath and bring your chin slightly towards your sternum.
-Try to hold this position for 10 seconds. Then rest and do it again. The idea is that you can increase this time gradually until you can maintain it for 1 minute.
-To finish, lower your arms and legs gently and carefully, undoing the posture and returning to the initial Dandasana position. Rest your body and perform the asana again.
It is recommended to do the posture between 3 and 5 times in your yoga sessions. Always consult with an experienced yoga teacher.
Benefits of the Boat pose
-Tones and strengthens your abdominal muscles.
-It improves balance and digestion.
-Stretches your hamstrings.
-Strengthens your spine and hip flexors.
-Stimulates the kidneys, thyroid and prostate glands, and intestines.
-Gives stress relief
Maintaining Navasana’s final posture requires considerable abdominal strength. You can progressively prepare yourself to face the challenge by getting stronger every day.
Here is a short video to see the execution of the technique: Boat Pose – Navasana Tutorial