Core Purpose

Core work can help your students improve their yoga asanas—and their lives.

By Rachel Brahinsky

There's a lot of talk about building "core strength" in the yoga world these days, though different traditions have a variety of ways of approaching the task. Some teachers talk about the core as the abdominal region of the body, the literal center of our balance and strength. Others go beyond the physical to look at the ways in which our physical center is linked to emotional and spiritual elements of life.

However they frame it, most yogis seem to look at the core as both a precise physical and an energetic space, a place to be worked with both asana and attention. Learning how to incorporate a strong focus on the core in your teaching, they say, can help free your students from common injuries and will cultivate intelligence and strength beyond the mat.

The core, says senior Anusara teacher Desirée Rumbaugh, "is what supports us spiritually in our lives, and physically in our yoga practice. If our core is weak, the ups and downs of life are much harder to take. A strong core makes us more resilient."

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