[Review] ‘The Core Play’ by Karin Dimitrovova

TL;DR: I HIGHLY recommend The Core Play, to even the absolute beginner! It definitely builds core strength, and is a great primer for handstands. But set your expectations realistically and modify appropriately.

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My Background

If you’re familiar with my blog, you know that I roller skate. While skating keeps me active, I don’t have any fitness/athletic background whatsoever. I’d had several artistic coaches make it painfully aware that my lack of core strength was holding me back as a skater. I’d also always secretly dreamed of doing handstands, but I never thought I’d be able to do them in this lifetime given my complete lack of upper body strength.

So when I started getting ads for CP I was intrigued. Only 15 minutes a day to get the core strength of my dreams? And it will set me up for handstands?? I never clicked “buy” so fast in my life.

My First Attempt (A Complete Fail)

The first time I attempted CP was a complete failure. I was exhausted by the end of the warm up alone, which took me over 15 minutes. I struggled my way through 1 set of the Day 1 drills and gave up. The program felt completely inaccessible to me. I felt frustrated and defeated. I didn’t even attempt Day 2.

My Next Attempt 3 Months Later (A Success!)

I decided to try CP again 3 months later. In those 3 months leading up to my second attempt, I had started a consistent yoga practice (3-5x a week), and I’d been doing a few planks daily.

This time when I picked up CP, it felt far more approachable. I stuck to the schedule as it’s written and completed it in 28 days. I felt much stronger by the end of it, but for many of the drills, I was only able to complete the modified versions… This inspired me to complete a second round of CP immediately after! The second round was easier since I was familiar with the exercises. I saw and felt a massive improvement over the first round, and found myself not needing to modify as much.

But this DOESN’T mean you need a consistent yoga practice to start CP as an absolute beginner.

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What I wish I Knew About CP When I First Tried It

Modifications

• Does even just the warmup (“prehab”) feel like a lot? No problem. Do nothing but the warmup 5 days a week for a week (or more!) first before adding on the rest of the program.
• Does doing more than 1 set of the exercises each day seem impossible? That’s okay. Something is better than nothing! Proceed with the full schedule of CP, but only do 1 set of the exercises per day, or 3 sets with fewer reps. You can always do another round of CP after and try for more sets/more reps in the next round.
• Invest in some yoga blocks. Go with cork, if possible, as it offers more stability than foam which is helpful for things like L Sits.
• Meet yourself where you are. The modifications are there for a reason, and they WILL help you build the strength for the “goal” versions. For example, I was only able to do the 1-leg L sit variations in my first round, but was able to lift both legs briefly in my second round. And I definitely was not able to do the “goal” 10 second L sit without blocks by the end of my second round, haha.
• I couldn’t do the W3D4 “Arm Balance Challenge” in my first round… which honestly felt a little discouraging since in the video, Karin makes it seem like it’s no biggie. But I was able to do it in the second round! So just know that things might take longer than the expectation she sets. Again, we all have different backgrounds.

Scheduling

• While no two days of the program are the same, each week follows a pattern. Day 1, 3, and 5 of each week are 3 sets of 4 drills. Day 2, 4, and 6 are yoga flows (and the 6th day yoga flow is super chill). Knowing this helped me schedule life around it, and I always looked forward to the chill day 6 flow.
• The weeks do not build on each other. Karin says that even if you can’t do Week 1 perfectly, you should move on to Week 2.
• Don’t stress about doing the yoga flows perfectly, especially if you’re new to yoga. As most yoga teachers will remind you, yoga flows are only an offering. Meet yourself where you are and move on.
• I personally found Week 2 to be the most challenging, and have heard that sentiment from many others.
• Take a look through future days to mentally prepare yourself for what’s coming.
• It’s okay to take breaks between sets! But try setting a timer for your breaks so that you don’t get sucked into something else and lose motivation to complete the drills.
• I don’t know how people do this program in only 15 minutes a day. For the most part, drill days usually took me around 45 minutes. I feel like there were days in my first round where it took me over an hour, but perhaps I took long breaks.

General Advice

• Don’t expect to look exactly like Karin when you complete the exercises. If you could do everything in the program perfectly already, the program wouldn’t be valuable.
• CP is not the end-all-be-all for core strength. You will definitely get stronger in the 28 days, but one round may not be enough to achieve your goals depending on your background and your goals. Be open to multiple rounds, and think about what life after CP will look like to maintain the strength you build.
• Take videos — especially for the moves that feel completely impossible. You might better understand what’s not working by studying the videos. And when you can eventually complete the drill, it’ll feel amazing to clearly see how far you’ve come.
• Keep a calendar/tracker and check off each day as you do it.
• On days when you really don’t feel motivated, just put on your workout clothes and sit on your mat. Try to commit to doing just the warm up. I found that once I pushed through and finished the warm up, I usually felt compelled to do the rest of that day’s programing.

My Results

I definitely felt stronger in my yoga practice in general, and arm balances started to feel much more obtainable and accessible.

As previously mentioned, I really didn’t think I’d be able to do a handstand in this lifetime. But this program primed me well. After months of unsuccessful attempts at trying to kick up to wall, I finally kicked up to the wall for the first time right at the end of my second round of CP! 🙂 I’m grateful to this program for kickstarting my handstand journey!