Why We’re Using an Ab Mat for Better Breathing, Core Strength and Yoga

Sometimes the best additions to your practice are the simplest ones.

Recently, one of those additions at Balanced Planet Yoga has been the SPRI Ab Mat — but probably not for the reason you’re expecting.

Yes, it can be used for traditional abdominal exercises. But what really got our attention was learning how to use it to explore lateral breathing, rib-cage expansion and the relationship between breath and core function.

Because if you know us, you know we love anything that gives us another way to ask:

Wait… what is my body actually doing here?

And this particular rabbit hole started with someone we trust enormously: our own Dr. Carly Egrie, PT, DPT, MBGHWC, RYT.

👉 Check out the SPRI Ab Mat on Amazon

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, Balanced Planet Yoga earns from qualifying purchases made through this link, at no additional cost to you.

First: Meet Dr. Carly

If you practice with us regularly, you probably already know Carly.

In addition to being one of our yoga teachers, Carly leads our Thursday 8:00 PM Reiki + Restorative offering, held twice each month.

But her work extends well beyond the yoga studio.

Dr. Carly Egrie, PT, DPT, MBGHWC, RYT is a Doctor of Physical Therapy whose work includes pelvic floor physical therapy, advanced dry needling, health and wellness coaching, yoga, Reiki and nervous-system-focused care.

She works alongside Dr. Leo Horowitz, PT, DPT, CSCS, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist whose areas of focus include strength and conditioning, advanced dry needling, sports rehabilitation and chronic pain management.

Together, they are the team behind The Wellness Arena in Marlton, New Jersey, where their approach looks beyond an isolated muscle or joint and considers movement patterns, breathing mechanics, strength, mobility and the nervous system as parts of a much bigger picture.

And we love them.

Truly.

They understand movement. They understand active bodies. And — perhaps most importantly for us — they understand that feeling good in your body is rarely about finding the one thing that’s “wrong” and fixing it.

Bodies are more interesting than that.

You can learn more about Carly, Leo and The Wellness Arena at:

The Wellness Arena →

So Why an Ab Mat?

Here’s where things get interesting.

When most of us see something called an “ab mat,” we immediately imagine sit-ups.

Jenna has been using it a little differently.

After Carly suggested the mat, Jenna began incorporating it into her own exploration of lateral breathing.

Lateral breathing encourages expansion through the sides and back of the rib cage rather than directing every inhale primarily forward into the abdomen.

And this is where the mat becomes surprisingly useful.

Its curved surface provides physical feedback underneath the body. Instead of trying to understand a breathing cue intellectually, you have something you can actually feel.

As Jenna explains:

“I can say ‘breathe into the back and sides of your ribs’ all day long, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your body knows what I’m asking it to do. What I love about the ab mat is that it gives you somewhere to send the breath — something to actually feel. Suddenly lateral breathing becomes less of an idea and more of a sensation. And once you can feel it, you can start getting curious about it.” — Jenna Kelly

That might sound like a small distinction. It isn’t. Because sometimes our bodies understand sensation much faster than they understand another verbal cue.

Breathing and Core Strength Aren’t Separate Things

We often talk about breathing and strengthening as though they belong to completely different practices.

→Breathe in yoga.

→Brace in strength training.

But the body doesn’t really work that way. Every breath changes pressure inside the trunk. The diaphragm, abdominal wall, pelvic floor and muscles surrounding the spine all participate in managing that pressure and creating stability.

Which raises a much more interesting question than simply:

Are my abs tight?

It is, can we create support without gripping?

Can we stabilize without becoming rigid?

Can we breathe and create strength at the same time?

Jenna puts it this way:

“For a long time, a lot of us learned core work as some version of ‘tighten your abs.’ But I’m much more interested in what happens when we stop thinking about the core as something we have to grip. Can I create support and still breathe? Can I stabilize without making everything rigid? Can I move from strength without creating tension everywhere else? To me, that’s a much more useful conversation about what a strong core actually does.” — Jenna Kelly

And that skill shows up everywhere.

Plank.

Chaturanga.

Warrior III.

Standing balance.

Backbends.

Barre.

Strength training.

Getting something heavy out of the trunk of your car.

Life.

The question becomes less “Is my core engaged?” and more:

“How is my body organizing itself to do this?”

That is something worth getting curious about.

Yoga Doesn’t Have to Do Everything

We love yoga.

Obviously.

But at Balanced Planet, loving yoga doesn’t mean pretending it’s the only movement your body will ever need. In fact, we think yoga becomes more useful when we’re willing to be honest about that.

A sustainable movement practice might include yoga, walking, resistance training, barre, cardiovascular work, mobility work and intentional rest. They aren’t competing with one another. They can support one another. And they often should.

Adding strength doesn’t make your yoga less “yogic.” Learning about breathing mechanics doesn’t make your practice overly technical. Understanding your anatomy doesn’t take away from the deeper aspects of yoga.

And acknowledging that yoga has limitations doesn’t make it less valuable.

If anything, our practice becomes more intelligent when we stop asking one modality to give our bodies absolutely everything they need. The physical practice of yoga has always been an opportunity to pay attention.

Strength training can be, too.

So can walking.

So can breathing.

So can lying on a weird little piece of foam and realizing you have absolutely no idea how the back of your rib cage moves when you inhale.

That’s practice, too.

Try Exploring Lateral Breathing

If you have an ab mat, you can experiment with this gently at home. Place the mat so that it provides comfortable support underneath the rib cage or upper back.

And here’s the funny part:

Don’t try so hard to breathe “well.”

We have a tendency — especially in yoga — to turn breathwork into another thing we can perform correctly. Instead, breathe normally and pay attention.

Where does your body expand when you inhale?

Can you feel movement into the sides of the ribs?

Can you feel expansion into the back body and into the mat beneath you?

Is one side easier to feel than the other?

Does anything change when you stop trying to take the biggest breath possible?

There is nothing you have to force. There isn’t necessarily anything you have to fix. You’re gathering information. Let the surface underneath you become feedback.

Notice what you notice.

Sometimes that is where the most interesting part of the practice begins.

Then Explore Strength

Once you’ve spent a few minutes noticing your breath, you can use the same mat for intentional core work.

→Try a few slow supported curl-ups.

→Practice dead bugs while maintaining a comfortable breath.

→Add a short forearm plank.

→Finish with bridges or another movement for the back body.

But rather than making the goal more reps or more burn, see if you can stay interested in what’s happening.

Can you maintain your breath while effort increases?

Where do you feel the work?

What else starts gripping?

Can you tell the difference between effort and tension?

Can you soften something without losing the strength you need?

The goal isn’t to exhaust yourself. It’s to notice whether strength and breath can coexist while you move. That relationship is much more useful than simply counting repetitions.

👉 This is the SPRI Ab Mat we’re using

Want to Explore It With Jenna?

YBarre with Jenna – Thursdays 530 PM

Come to YBarre with Jenna on Thursdays at 5:30 PM.

YBarre blends yoga-inspired movement with barre and strength work, with an emphasis on control, stability, core strength and body awareness.

And don’t worry — you do not have to have dance experience.

One of the things Jenna loves most about barre is how much information can live inside a very small movement.

As she explains:

“One of the reasons I love barre is because there’s nowhere to hide in those tiny movements. When we make a movement smaller and slower, we start noticing all the little ways we usually compensate or recruit something else to get the job done. And I don’t think that’s something to correct or judge — I think it’s information. Your body is showing you how it has learned to move. Now we get to explore another option.” — Jenna Kelly

And yes, sometimes your leg will be shaking while you gather that information.

We contain multitudes.

Or Join Tracy for Yoga Sculpt

You can also explore the relationship between yoga and strength with Tracy’s Yoga Sculpt class on Tuesdays at 5:30 PM.

Yoga Sculpt adds intentional strengthening work to the familiar framework of a yoga practice.

It’s perfect for the person who knows strength training would be beneficial but isn’t particularly interested in walking into a traditional gym and figuring it all out alone.

Strength can belong on your yoga mat, too.

And Something Special Is Coming October 10

We’re also very excited to welcome Dr. Carly Egrie and Dr. Leo Horowitz of The Wellness Arena into Balanced Planet Yoga on October 10 for pain assessments.

If you’ve been working around a nagging pain, modifying the same movement over and over, or wondering why something simply doesn’t feel right in your body, this is an opportunity to get another set of highly trained eyes on it.

Carly and Leo’s work is particularly aligned with ours because they treat active people — including yoga practitioners — and look at factors including strength, mobility, movement patterns, breathing mechanics and nervous-system regulation rather than focusing only on the painful spot.

Interested in a pain assessment on October 10?

Email us at getbliss@balancedplanetyoga.com for more information.

Space will be limited.

The Bigger Point

The SPRI Ab Mat is a little piece of foam.

But what we love about it isn’t really the mat.

It’s what it can help us investigate.

How are we breathing?

How are we stabilizing?

Where are we gripping?

Where are we avoiding movement?

Can we tell the difference between effort and tension?

Can we create support without becoming rigid?

Can we become a little more curious about our own bodies — not because they’re problems we need to solve, but because they’re worth understanding?

That’s where yoga, physical therapy and intelligent strength training have a lot in common. None of them are ultimately about performing movement perfectly. They’re opportunities to pay attention. To gather information. To become more aware of the patterns we’ve developed and perhaps discover another way.

Because the more we understand how our bodies breathe, stabilize, move, compensate, rest and respond, the more choices we have in how we move through them.

And maybe that’s the bigger practice:

Not perfecting the body we’re in. Learning how to listen to it.

That is always worth exploring.

Balanced Planet Yoga | Marlton, New Jersey
Breathe. Move. Belong.

At Balanced Planet Yoga, we believe yoga can be part of a larger practice of moving well, getting stronger and staying connected to your body through every stage of life.