13 Minute Yoga — Release Tight Hips & Low Back Tension

This 13-minute hip opening yoga flow is designed to gently release tension stored in the hips, lower back, and pelvis while creating more space, ease, and mobility in your body.

Our hips often hold stress from long days of sitting, physical activity, and emotional tension. This practice helps you unwind those tight areas through slow, intentional movement and breath-focused stretching.

This is a gentle, accessible flow suitable for all levels. You’ll be guided through grounding poses and hip-opening shapes that encourage both release and relaxation.

Transcript

I'm Chanel, And today I'm gonna guide you through a sequence for tight hips. This is a nice releasing sequence. It's gonna just help you let everything go. We store a lot of emotions in the hips. So besides all of the physical tension, You may feel an emotional release with this practice as well. So let's go ahead by starting with the breath. Inhale through the nose. Exhale through the nose. You can close the eyes if you'd like, Just getting centered, Grounded. Ready for the next little bit, Opening our minds to whatever's to come. Opening our hearts to feel whatever there is to feel as emotions come up. And then blink open the eyes. Bring soles of feet together for a butterfly stretch. Heels can be as close to or as far from the body as feels comfortable. You may want to stay here or you may want to add in a little bit of a forward fold here. Really depends on how tight your hips are at this point. What's going to feel good. And with our hip stretches, That's really what we're going for, Is feeling good. We're going for opening in the hips, But we wanna make sure we're doing that in a gentle way. That feels peaceful, Working with the body, Not pushing past the point of resistance. Use the breath to help open up these tight muscles. On the next inhale, Walk the hands back in toward the body. We're gonna sit in Sukhasana with the left leg crossed in front. And same thing, We're gonna walk the hands forward any amount. Until you feel that stretch in the hips. If the space is there, You can drop the elbows down. If you'd like, You can even drop the head here. Coming to your level. On the next inhale, Walk the hands back up. Let's switch the cross of the legs right in front of left. And then same thing, Walk the hands forward any amount, Pausing, Feeling where the body wants to go here, Finding your depth. And when you get there, You can release, Relax into it, Feel the stretch through the hips and all along the back body in this pose. Next, Inhale, Walk the hands back up to seated. Let's come to the hands and knees. Moving slowly and mindfully. Bring the right foot up between the hands into our low lunge, Sinking the hips nice and low in this low lunge pose. Allows us to open through the hip. You should feel a deep stretch in the left hip flexor, Front of the left hip. If you want to go deeper, You can come into lizard pose. If not, Just stay right here. Otherwise, Bring the right hand inside of the right foot, Walk the right foot out. And come into your lizard pose. Now, This is option one. Stay right here. You can stay first in that low lunge, Second in the lizard, Or you can come down to forearms. You also have the option to tuck the back toes and lift up. For me, That one's a little more strength, But a little less stretch. So I'm gonna keep my back knee down. You find the option that feels best for you. You may want to bring the right knee out a little bit to the side. Just make sure wherever the knee goes, The toes go. They're gonna point in the same direction. And if you came into the lizard variation, Gently come out of it, Coming back to the low lunge. And we'll all meet in hands and knees. To transition to the other side. So left foot comes up between the hands. Come nice and low in our low lunge pose. You can stay here or just like we did on the other side, Bring the left hand in, Walk the left toes out and come to your variation of lizard. Option to tuck the back toes, Lift the back knee. Option to come down to the forearms or bring the left leg out, Just tilting on the side of the left foot. Finding your best variation here that allows you to open through the hips. One more deep inhale. And exhale, Release, Pushing up to the hands. If you're down on the forearms, Coming back to the low lunge. Bring the left knee back to meet the right. And let's come to our backs for our next pose. Lay down on your mat. We'll come into our figure four. So right knee comes to the left leg, And then we'll hug that in if you need a little deeper stretch. You can rock gently side to side or stay in stillness here. If you need a deeper stretch, Bring the right foot a little closer to the body. And hug the left leg in a little bit closer. Not going too far, You wanna make sure that this is where your body wants to be, But go deep enough that you feel the stretch. Release the arms, And we're gonna take this figure four over to the left side, Adding in a twist. So extend the right arm out to the right, And just let the legs gently drop to the left. You can use your left hand to push the knee gently away if that feels good. You can turn to look at the right fingertips. Bring the head back to center. Use your arms to help lift everything back to center and let's switch sides. Left ankle comes somewhere along this right leg. Closer to the knee if you don't need quite as deep of a stretch or closer to the thigh if you wanna go a little deeper. Option to hug that right leg in. Option to add a little movement side to side. Or stay in stillness. And let's come into that twist on the other side. So left arm comes out, The legs drop over to the right. The head turns to look left. Option to use the right arm to press gently, Just a little bit of pressure on that right knee, Just until you feel that wake up the hip, Maybe you don't need that at all. And bring the head back to center. Use the arms to help bring the legs back to center. Hug the knees into the chest. We have one more pose. To finish us off here. Happy baby pose. So bring the legs up toward the ceiling, Hands on outside of feet or hooking the big toes. And really think here of pulling the feet in just a little bit until you feel that stretch in the hip. So a lot going on here, We feel the spine pressing into the ground. We feel the hips compressing. Adding that little bit of pressure to the hips feels good after all that stretching. Option to rock side to side if that feels good or stay in stillness. Couple more breaths here, And then whenever you're ready, You can start to transition into our final relaxation. Extending both legs down toward the ground. Letting the feet flop open out to either side. Letting the palms come up, Tucking shoulder blades under. And letting everything go. Let's take a big exhale together through the mouth. So inhale through the nose. And sigh it out. Again, Big inhale. Big sigh. One last time, Inhale. Let everything go. And with that final deep sigh, Deep letting everything go that we released in our stretches today. Let's go ahead and let the body melt into the floor. For our final relaxation pose. Pause the video if you want to stay here a little longer or if you're ready to wake up the body. Add some movement back in. Wiggling through fingers, Toes. Wrists and ankles, The head. Let's bring our arms up. And then give ourselves a big hug, Wrapping the arms around the chest. Sometimes. We need to do this for ourselves. Just give yourself a little bit of love. Especially in these hip openers, Whatever came up for you today, It's okay. Even if all that was was just some physical release for the hips, Release that hug, Roll over onto your right side. Pause here with the knees tucked into the chest. And when you're ready with the eyes closed, Push up to an easy seat. Bring the hands to heart center. Thank you for joining me today. Namaste.