Yoga for Stomach Reduction

Downward Dog

• Downward-facing dog is a yoga basic. Enter the pose from your hands and knees. Raise your knees off the floor, straightening your legs and transferring your weight onto your hands and feet. Tip your tailbone toward the ceiling and sink your chest toward the floor, keeping your arms extended. Your body will form an inverted V shape. Spread your fingers to add support and allow your heels to sink more deeply toward the floor. Relax your neck.
  
  

Boat Pose

• Sit upright on the floor with your legs outstretched. Pull your knees up and rest the soles of your feet resting on the floor. Extend your arms forward, your hands along the outside of your knees. Lean back slightly, keeping the spine straight, as you lift your feet. Straighten your knees and point your toes. Your body will make a V shape, resting on your sitting bones. Breathe deeply.
  
  

Plank Pose

• Plank pose looks like the position you take at the top of a push-up. There are several ways to enter the pose. Get in the position by starting in downward-facing dog, then push your weight forward and over your arms. As an alternate method, begin on your hands and knees, then lift your knees and straighten your legs.
  
  Once in position, your hands should be beneath your shoulders and your back should be flat. Keep the abdominal muscles tight and relax your neck. The pressure of lifting from the front side of your thighs can help to achieve the ideal flat, level body posture.
  
  

Incline

• Also called the side plank, the incline begins from the plank pose position. Lift your left arm and support your upper body with your right arm. As you open your chest, extend the left arm toward the ceiling. Ideally, only your right hand and the outside of your right foot will be in contact with the floor.
  
  Your feet may be stacked, with the left on top of the right or staggered with the left slightly in front of the right. For more advanced participants, grab the big toe of the left foot with the left forefinger and extend both the left leg and arm upward.
  
  Adjust the pose by tightening the oblique stomach muscles of your sides and lifting the left hip. Repeat on the opposite side of the body for balance.