10-Minute Yoga for Core Strength that You Can Practice Anywhere

There are always going to be days when there’s not time to make it to a studio yoga class or even stream a quick online practice at home. That’s when you need a short sequence you can practically practice from memory and take advantage of anytime, such as a 10-minute yoga for core strength sequence.

It can help to create a mental library of several quick 10-minute yoga sequences (of course, if you can’t always remember them, you can always check back here). That way you have something on standby if you want a hip-opening practice after cycling or a full-body yoga stretching sequence if it’s your only opportunity to move throughout the day. The idea is you can opt for yoga, like this 10-minute yoga for core strength practice, even when you can’t access your abs exercises at the gym.

Of course, what makes these shapes yoga and not just core-strengthening exercises is how you show up to them. Slow your breath, focus on your alignment, and practice quieting your thoughts even in discomfort. And stay self-aware so if you’re underworking or overtaxing yourself, you can adjust accordingly.

10-Minute Yoga for Core Strength

This yoga sequence is unique in that it includes a couple bodyweight exercises that aren’t yoga although you can approach them with the same focus and breathwork. If time allows, practice a short warm-up first with some seated or reclined twists and some Cat–Cows. If you’re already warmed up, start your yoga for core strength practice straightaway, saving you even more time.

Tabletop to Bird Dog Pose

Start on your mat on all fours in Tabletop and draw your belly button toward your spine. As you inhale, extend your right arm forward and your left leg straight back. Squeeze your glutes to help you find balance and keep your shoulders and hips square to the floor. Remain here for 20 seconds.

Slowly and with control, bring your right arm and left leg back to the mat. Pause here and then extend your left arm and right leg. Stay here and find your balance for 20 seconds. Come back to Tabletop.

Plank Pose

From Tabletop, step your feet back and come into Plank Pose. Stack your wrists, elbows, and shoulders and continue to focus on drawing your belly button toward your spine. Also squeeze your inner thigh and pelvic floor muscles to engage your entire core. Breathe here for 30 seconds.

Four Limbed Staff Pose (Chaturanga Dandasana)

From Plank Pose, lower yourself into Chaturanga, which places more emphasis on the core muscles, rather than the shoulders, as you hold yourself in a straight line. Press your hands and toes into your mat and draw your pubic bone toward your belly button to engage the deep core and pelvic floor muscles. Also, squeeze your glutes to relieve strain on your lower back. Breathe here for 30 seconds.

Cobra Pose

Slowly lower your feet, thighs, and hips to the mat and press your hands into the mat to lift your chest in Cobra Pose. Stay here for a breath or two to stretch your abs. Then lower your head to the mat and rest for a moment.

Side Plank Pose (Vasisthasana)

Push yourself up to Plank Pose and roll onto the outer edge of your left foot. Shift your weight into your left hand and slowly lift into Side Plank by stacking your shoulders and your hips and reaching your right arm toward the ceiling, which requires you to work the obliques (side abdominal muscles).

If you have trouble balancing or supporting your body, stagger your feet by bringing your top foot on the floor ein front of your bottom leg. If the pose bothers your wrists, lower onto your forearm. Breathe here for 20 seconds.

Take a moment to relax in Child’s Pose before repeating on the other side.

Boat Pose (Paripurna Navasana)

Next, flip over so you’re sitting on your mat. Lean slightly backward and keep your back straight as you lift your feet off the mat and straighten your legs to create a V shape. Reach your arms straight in front of you in Boat Pose. Stay here for 30 seconds. Remember to breathe!

Continue to keep your back straight and shoulders drawn back to build strength in the hip flexors, lower abs, and back. If you can’t hold the shape without rounding your back, bend your knees and hover your calves parallel to the mat.

Dying Bug

Finally, relax all the way onto your back.Pause here before you rally for your last exercise. Although not technically a yoga pose, Dying Bug is essentially Bird-Dog flipped over. Instead of being on your hands and knees, you’re lying on your back in the same starting shape as Savasansa and moving your arms and legs in space above your body. This varied relationship to gravity targets different muscles of the core, including the tricky-to-isolate hip flexors and  core muscles including the transversus abdominus, and lower part of the rectus abdominis.

From Savasana, lift your opposite arm and leg off the mat, extending your arm behind your head and your leg straight forward. Move slowly but continuously, alternating sides, for a total of 30 seconds.

Then collapse on the mat in Savasana. Linger here for as long as your schedule allows.