Can Yoga Give you Abs?

Can yoga get you abs? 1000% yes!

Your rectus abdominis muscles and your obliques are the ones that are visibly seen as your six pack. If you consider what you do in yoga (using a Vinyasa class as an example): you spend so much time with your core braced: either statically working through the plank, through all your variations; or through your side planks…and these are the simplest of the poses. Then you think about all of the movements that involve raising your legs, such as your crow pose, your crane pose. This all ultimately utilises core control. So underneath everything, those muscles are becoming rock solid.

Thereafter it comes down to your calorie deficit. It doesn't matter how jacked you are, if you are in a calories surplus, then you will have some body fat and nobody is going to see your abs. However if you are burning more calories than you are taking in, (either through more movement and being more active or through a more controlled diet) then that is the be all and end all of having a six pack.

Often yogi’s are stigmatised as having very slight figures, however that simply is not the case. It is possible to grow very large muscles through time under tension.

Once again, considering a Vinyasa Class and the simple poses…think about how much time a teacher may keep you in a front plank, reverse plank, and any of those absolutely horrific postures!

Then thinking of different types of yoga classes, such as a Hatha class which is designed to hold isometric contractions. If you go through the isometric or you take it towards your negatives, your slow eccentrics then you are going to build muscle.

One of the absolute tenants of yoga is self -control. So if you are able to put this into practice with your diet and you are not too overindulging…paired with a regular practice, you will end up with the ultimate “Yogi human being”. (Joke, there is no ultimate).

There is no perfect, but if you pair your good physical practice with your well-disciplined diet, then you are going to get yourself some incredible abdominal muscles!