Yoga Pose of the Day: Boat Pose

Boat Pose (Navasana)

Sit up with the soles of your feet flat on the floor. Hook your hands behind your hamstrings and lean back slowly until you are balancing up on your sit bones. Lift your feet off of the ground and, with bent knees, raise your feet up, so they are aligned with your knees. Press your lower back in and extend your chest up to the sky. Release your hands from behind your hamstrings and reach your arms out in front of you, palms facing together. Make sure you keep pressing your shoulders down, pressing your lower back in and extending your heart up. Hold the pose for 5 breaths. Advanced practitioners can extend their legs straight, making a “V” shape.

Benefits: Strengthens your abdominal muscles, and your sense of self and willpower. Builds up your core strength.

Mandy Ingber is a celebrity fitness and wellness adviser, yoga expert, and New York Times best-selling author of Yogalosophy: 28-days to the Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover. Her 20 years of teaching experience have attracted clients like Jennifer Aniston, Kate Beckinsale, Brooke Shields, and Helen Hunt. She is a keynote speaker, spokesperson for Silk Soymilk, and wellness blogger, and she is on the advisory committee for the Cancer Prevention Clinic at Providence St John’s Health Center in Santa Monica,

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