Article by: Megan Stremick
Pose: Plank
All I have to do to motivate myself to work on toning and building arm strength is play one of the many home movies that captures my grandmother wearing a sleeveless top and waving at the camera. Oh the humanity of the dreaded arm jiggles! Even with all of her hard work in the kitchen, kneading dough to make fresh pasta and rolling a million Italian meatballs her arms could not escape the flab.
While you may not create cut biceps by pounding out chicken picata, you don’t have to look foolish trying to lift weights next to the 300 pound gorilla at the gym either. Just begin with Plank and come back next week to check out how to move from plank into a full Push-up (Caturanga Dandasana) and really make those arm muscles work harder.
Plank Benefits:
Tone, Tone, Tone
Builds strength and tones your abs, arms, wrists, and back (especially when you keep your back straight and engage your core).
Plank How To:
- Begin in Downward Facing Dog.
- Move the torso forward while keeping the hands and feet stationary—the shoulders are now in line with the wrists.
- If you’ve ever seen someone doing a push up or you’ve done them yourself, this would be the starting position.
- Stay long in the spine by looking straight down, not letting your pelvis drop, and keeping your stomach and thighs engaged.
- Hold this position for 30 seconds to a minute then push back into down dog.
- Hold in down dog for five deep breaths and repeat. Sit back in child’s pose at any time to take a break by placing your knees on the mat, resting your tailbone on your heels, tops of the feet flat on the mat, arms down by your side and forehead resting on the mat.
Diva Plank Caution:
Those with carpal tunnel syndrome should do this pose on their knees or disregard completely and work on holding down dog for 5 deep breaths at a time.
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Article By: Megan Stremick
Pose:
Warrior 2
Now that you’ve had a week to master Warrior 1 let’s continue the theme of the mommy warrior with Warrior 2, strengthening both your peace-of-mind and your thighs. This is a perfect pose to do for those times that you’re feeling a little less than the awesome mommy that you are; like when you beat yourself up over that Krispy Kreme you indulged in, your mother-in-law made another comment about the way you choose to discipline your kids, or instead of ‘politely’ hanging up on the solicitor on the phone you decided to release your frustration with a string of four letter words. Follow the How To below and you will feel like a peaceful, strong, and beautiful mommy in no time.
Warrior 2 Benefits:
- Promotes flexibility in the inner thighs, hips, groin, ankles and chest
- Strengthens the thighs, shoulders and arms
- Builds stamina
- Relieves back pain
Warrior 2 How To:
- Stand in Mountain pose, reach your arms out to a T then step your feet out to the sides so that your ankles line up underneath your wrists—yes, your stance should be that wide.
- Keep your arms out to a T. Spin your right leg open so that your right toes are now pointing in the same direction as your right fingertips.
- Pivot your left heel back so that your left foot is now at an angle
- Bend your right knee so that it sits above the ankle. Look down to make sure that you can see your front big toe and the knee is in line with the second toe (this alignment protects the knee and the hips).
- The torso sits right above the hips, do not lean the torso over the front thigh—the spine should be straight.
- Keep the back leg straight and strong by reaching down through the outer arch of the back foot.
- Take a deep inhale and lift the chest up, exhale as you relax the shoulders down away from your ears.
- Focus your gaze is out over your front middle finger.
- Hold for five deep breaths or as long as you can while breathing in through the nose and out through the nose
- Repeat on the left side.
Warrior 2 Cautions:
- Diarrhea
- High Blood Pressure
- Severe neck or back discomfort
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