Master Your Core

I was so good during the first lockdown, doing a yoga workout almost every day for several months, and really felt the benefit, but of course I eventually let the habit slide and a twisted back recently reminded me why I started yoga in the first place. Core strength has never been one of my strong points, so to speak, and, as Dr Zazulak eloquently explains throughout Master Your Core, neglecting it is a main cause of all kinds of accidental injuries. Zazulak is absolutely an expert in her field and I greatly appreciated her focusing this particular book on female physiology. Women's bodies do differ from men's in our experiences of balance and injury and I hadn't previously realised just how much of my stability is determined by my core strength (or lack thereof!)

Master Your Core would be a great read for most women, especially ones who follow an active lifestyle. I did find some of the more medically focused chapters stretched my understanding, but overall I found this to be a very worthwhile and informative read. Zazulak does employ a lot of varied metaphors to get her points across and I liked her straightforward style. She also includes lots of breathwork and exercise suggestions in a graduated plan that works up into a full core strength programme. I started some of the simplest of these already which are fun to do. I'm feeling that same sense of accomplishment that my lockdown yoga engendered and looking forward to developing through the whole of Zazulak's BASE programme.