Build a Better Rearview

Shrink your butt as you expand your consciousness with this exclusive program created to tighten and strengthen your derriere

No one is at one with their adipose, thank you very much. We love yoga for the calm suppleness it conveys, the unflappable centeredness, that sexy, post-meditative glow. But let’s face it, if you’re dismayed by an extra-soft belly or a new dimple on the bum, you may get a serious case of serenity interruptus. When that happens, you might do better to kick all of yoga’s mind dynamics aside and get yourself a tune-up in its human body shop. Enlightenment’s fine but right now, in this moment, you can also use yoga to sculpt a tight, toned look that will bring its own kind of blissful contentment.

One reason the yoga-toned body is a cut above is that so many mat moves call for eccentric muscle movement, the kind in which the muscle is lengthened or extended as it’s being worked—think of your arms outstretched in Warrior II, upper arms and forearms engaged and humming with muscle energy. That action hugs muscle to the bone, explains Hilary Lindsay, creator of Active Yoga in Nashville, and yoga teacher to the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. It’s the opposite of the concentric, shortening motion of your muscles in, say, a biceps curl, which results in bigger, bulging muscles. We’ll take the lithe ballerina look, please.

BUTT NOTHING

“Don’t look in the rearview mirror for results the first time. Muscles will get worked, your calories will be burned,” says Progressive Power Yoga founder Mark Blanchard of these posterior postures. Whether you are in one for a half-breath or six breaths, come out of the pose when you start struggling: “You’re defeating the practice if you’re struggling and imbalanced, because you’re trying to create symmetry in the body,” he says.

Chair (Utkatasana)


Stand in Mountain pose: Arms at sides, sternum lifted, thighs rotating outward. Bend your knees deeply. Squeeze your inner thighs together and straighten your arms, lifting them above your head on an inhale, straightening your elbows, stretching your fingertips toward the sky. Accentuate the lift in your arms and chest so your upper spine is in a slight backbend. Tuck your pelvis. “Hold that as long for as long as you can keep a smile on your face,” Blanchard says.  “If the smile left your face, you’ve left your yoga pose.” Shoot for 10 breaths. On the last two breaths, deepen your knee bend to demand more of your muscles. Feel that butt-burn?

Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana)


Start in Downward-Facing Dog. Step your right leg forward to a lunge position. Standing on that leg, with the fingertips of both hands still on the ground for stability, raise your left leg behind you, parallel with the floor. Turn your torso to the sky by opening your left hip. “You’re stacking the hips on top of each other and lifting the quad,” Blanchard says. Keeping your right fingertips where they are, raise your left arm and reach it straight up so your two arms now form one straight line. Flex your airborne foot and stand firmly on the other, grounded one. Engage your leg muscles and lift—do not lock—that knee. Stay for one more breath than you think you can manage.  Do the same on the other side.

EXTRA CREDIT:
Sugar Cane Pose


This one comes from John Friend’s Anusara teachings: In Half Moon pose (as above) bend the knee of your extended leg, and with your raised arm, reach back for your foot. Once you grab hold of the ankle, press your bent knee away from your head, arch your upper back slightly as you reach the crown of your head toward the foot of the leg with the bent knee.