Yoga Stretches For Hip Mobility

This online yoga class is for hip mobility. Move and stretch the hips to strengthen and gain greater mobility in the hip flexor or psoas. This movement will also relieve lower back pain at the sacrum.

Transcript

Drop our chin down. And start feeling our breath. In and out through the nose. And as you sit here and breathe. I would just like you to be aware of where your body is today. There's many things that we do in yoga. And sometimes we get really caught up in the way our body looks. The form, The alignment. I do feel like alignment is important, But today. See if you can. Be more attuned to the way it feels. We're talking about opening our hips. We're talking about creating space, Easing tension. Feeling a greater mobility in our body. And so the only way that we can know what that is, Is if we listen. If we breathe. If we pay attention. Let's take a breath together. Bring your arms by your side. Inhale, Reach up. Exhale, Release. We're gonna make this whole practice about moving with our breath. Let's come on to all fours. I'll set this pillow off to the side. We'll use it later perhaps, So always keep it handy. And let's just bring our hands right below our shoulders and our knees right below our hips. Drop your belly down, Let your shoulders roll back, Send your gaze up, Inhale. Exhale, Round through the spine, Pull and lift. Inhale, Arch. Now you might say, Why are we working on our back? We're supposed to be doing hips. But look at the way the hips are moving. Feel this pelvic tilt right here. Opens up space in the sacrum between the hips and the back. Here as we drop our hips down at arches. And we're moving through the entire spine, And that's not just the spine. Our chin is moving. Our neck is moving, That's part of the spine, But our hips are moving. Everything is starting to move and we do it with breath. One more time, Inhale, Feel that full range of motion. Exhale. Good. Come back to neutral. And let's shift onto our right hand and our right leg. So extend your left leg out. We're on the side of our body. Before we go any further, Just look down. Make sure your shoulder, Elbow, And wrist can be stacked. And let's just start moving this left leg. So we're just going to roll it to the side. Back and forth. So right away, I can feel a little pull right here in the hip flexor. And then as I come around, It's curving and lengthening my low back there. Little bit of obliques too. That's a side benefit to this. And it's just the motion. Just feeling the mobility within the hip socket and some of those really tight areas right in the front that we want to try to release today and stretch out. Good. I'm not really counting. I'm just moving. Hopefully you are too. Nice. Now let's come back. And take that same left leg that we just extended and take it right back behind you and then extend your right arm forward. Just a little bit of spinal balance. Feel those abdominals lifting. Inhale. Exhale, Place it down. Good job. Take a downward dog from here. Let's roll onto our toes. Lift up and back. This may not be one of your favorite poses. Especially. . . If you feel like you're tight in the hips. So some alternatives. Might be to drop to the knees and reach your arms forward. This is almost more of a shoulder position, At least for me. I can feel this reach through my torso, Shoulders, And arms. Say you want to go even deeper into the hips. Take a child's pose. Let your knees open and sit back. And feel that length through the low back sacrum area. So all three poses are fine. Choose one that works for you. This is your time on your mat. Nicely done. One more breath wherever you are. And then start to lift up. And let's move to the other side. I'm gonna swing around so that you can see me. We will have our left hand on the floor, Left leg on the floor, And rotate that right side of the body toward the sky. Our right leg is going to start moving. Just start shifting it back and forth. The idea here is to get movement into this hip socket. I love, Love, Love traditional yoga poses. I am a traditionalist. Sometimes our bodies just need a little coaxing before we get into those traditional poses like Baddha Konasana or pigeon poses that are meant to be hip poses, But they're intense. For our body and sometimes we're just not ready for it yet. So let's get our body ready today. Let's see what we can do. Good. Good, That's about what we did last time, I think. Come back to all fours, That same right leg we had in the air, Extend it out again, Now just straight back, Toe points to the floor, And then extend your left arm. Feel that balance. Feel that reach. Inhale. Exhale, Release. Take one of your three poses. Child's pose. Puppy Dog Pose! Or downward facing dog. Take one of the three. Either way, We're pressing back into the hips with each of them. Feeling that stretch and that lengthening. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Drop it back down to the knees. Now we're going to get really loose. Start to roll around. All directions, Forward, Backward, Side to side. There is no right or wrong. It's all about being loose. I like shifting into each hip around the side. It feels really great in the side body and then dropping that hip down and forward. That pressure right there on the sacrum feels really nice. There it rounds the sacrum. No right or wrong, Just moo. Just move. Hope this isn't hurting the knees. You can put a blanket underneath your knees if this is bothering them. I should have said that before. Sorry. Now, Hold it still. And take your right foot forward. Now if you. . . Grab your blocks, I left them behind me. Let's put our blocks forward right by our foot. Now again, A blanket under the left knee might be really helpful. So feel free to place that blanket there. And let's just press down into our core. Some of you, If you're really flexible, You do not need them. You can just have your hands on the ground. Everybody's so different though. There is no right or wrong. What I do want you to pay attention to is this angle. The knee and the ankle should be stacked. Don't allow this to happen. You're going to put too much pressure on your knee. So bring it forward. And try to walk the left leg back as far as you can. You should be feeling some length through the left hip flexor, That's the front of the hip. And a little squeezing into the right hip. So as we press down and forward. We're feeling that link. Now let's move back. Take a little pressure off. Flex your foot a little bit for our hamstring. And then come forward. Again, Just be loose and free. Inhale. Exhale. Come forward, Inhale, Put a blanket under your knee anytime you need it, Exhale. One more time, Inhale. Exhale. Nicely done. Come forward. Let's give our knee a break. We're going to set the right knee down. And bring the left knee forward. Now remember, You do not have to have a block. If you're comfortable here, Then you can be here. More important to look at this alignment, Make sure the knee stacks on top of the ankle. Now you can see this nice long length through the hip flexor on the right side, And we're squeezing into that left hip. Pressing down and forward. I'm showing the blocks option, Feel free to use that. You can also come higher on the blocks. Four, Lower. They have three different levels. Good, Now let's get moving. Inhale, We're forward here. Exhale, Shift it back. Come on to the heel of your foot. So there's a little calf and hamstring right there. Inhale, Come forward. Nice. Exhale, Press it back. Two more times. Inhale, Come forward. Exhale, Press it back. Good job. One more. Inhale. Exhale. Nicely done. Let's set this left knee back down on the mat. We can just set our blocks off to the side. Let's come on to our feet. So simply walk forward and hang here for a moment. I've got my feet hip width distance apart. A little space is great for the psoas there in the low back. Um, Not so as sacrum in the low back. Good. Let's just roll up through our spine. Slow and steady. Good, As we come to the top. Nice. Now as you stand, Listen to your body. What feels right to you? For me, It feels right to bring my toes together, Heels slightly apart. But there are days when I'm real tight in my hips. And it feels better to be hip with distance. What does it feel like for you today? Don't let me tell you. You decide and just be there. We're gonna take a couple of half vinyasas, Just kind of warm the region of our body here so that we can move deeper into some poses. Here we go. Inhale, Reach your arms up to the sky. Exhale, Fold forward, Uttanasana. Beautiful bend. Feel free to bend your knees if you need to release them. Inhale, Look up. Halfway lift. Exhale, Fold back down into your legs. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach up to the sky. Exhale, Samasthiti, Arms by your sides. Let's do it again. Inhale, See how we're moving with breath. Exhale, Swan dive deeper, Maybe forward. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Fold back into your leg. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach up. Exhale Samasthiti. Good. Again, Inhale. Exhale, Fold down. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Fold back into your leg. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach up. Exhale. Nicely done. Good. Step your feet open to warrior two. So our right leg is going to bend, Our left foot press back. Feel already this opening here. Try to notice your pelvis. Pull under and see if you can draw that arm open. Let's use this hand to press into the leg. We're going to use our forearm to push open through that leg and hopefully you feel the rotation right here through the inner thigh. Take your left arm overhead. If it feels really tight in your shoulder today, Hand to the hip is fine. Notice that I'm not going all the way to the floor yet. That's fine, We might go there at some point. But let's for a moment lift up and straighten through our leg and notice the quadricep. Pull the quadricep up away from that kneecap. Feel that length. And then bend it back down, Nice and smooth. Let's just move that way. Inhale, Straighten. Almost like you're going to come to the Trikonasana but we're not. Exhale, Bend. Inhale, Straighten, Feel that lift in the quadriceps. Exhale, Bend. How smooth can we get, Right? Inhale, Lift. Now I'll let you go deeper if you are able to go deeper. Exhale, Fold all the way down. So this is a full Parsvakonasana. I've got my hand on the ground by the outside of my pinky toe. If you need to place your hand on a block, Do so. Feel that deep into the hip. Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale Inhale, Lift up. Good. As you lift up, Pull on that quadricep. Nicely done. Turn your toes toward each other. This is Prasarita Padottanasana A stance. Look up. Inhale. Exhale, Fold forward. Take your hands down. You can bring them to the floor. If they don't reach without bending your knees, Use a block. Straighter knees, The better you'll feel the stretch through the hamstrings. See if you can bring yourself down and either the block in line with your feet. Or your hands in line with your feet. Shift your weight forward. Relax your neck. Your jaw. What are we feeling here? We're feeling the hamstrings through the back of the legs. It's all connected into the hips. See if we can lengthen that space there. Feel the breath, Loosen up. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale Inhale, Press into the floor and look up. Exhale, Bring your hands to your waist. Inhale, Lift up. Nicely done. Exhale, Turn your toes out. I'm going to bring my feet in just a little. I tend to go very wide there. We're going to bend and just kind of turn one leg in at a time. So this is not a yoga pose at all. It's just movement. We're coming from a goddess pose stance, Which we'll do in just a moment. So just move and rotate. Hip flexor right there. Feel it through the glute. Right there in those outer rotators. Movement. I keep sliding wider. Are you doing the same? Good. One more time. Nicely done. Okay, Stand up for a moment. Get yourself grounded. Get yourself square. Pull that pelvis under once again and bend it down. Now we're just going to hold. This is goddess pose. You can have your hands on your knees. You can do the more traditional goddess pose arms. Everything open through here. We're putting pressure into those hips. You can feel them working hard. Breathe deep. If you need a break. You come up. And then when you're ready. You go back down, Right? Listen to your body. It's the most important thing you can do today. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Nice job. We made it. Let's stand up. Good for us. Turn just gently so that the left foot is now pointing forward, Your right foot heel to arch aligned. And we're in our Warrior II, Virabhadrasana B. Good, Good. Now let's use our hand on our thigh again. Pressing into that leg and pulling the arm overhead. So we're using this forearm to push open, Feel that rotation through the hip flexor. Little bit of pressure into the hip as well, Right? Good, Because our body weight is there. Now we're going to move. Inhale, Straighten up, Pull on that quadricep lift out of your kneecap. Exhale, Bend it back down. How smooth, Like moving through butter. Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Bend. Inhale, Lift. Up through butter exhale. Bend. Good job. This time you're going to go deeper if you feel like it. Inhale, Lift. Some of us might go deeper. Bring your hand down to the floor or to a block. Do not feel pressured to go deeper. You know your body. It's not about how you look. It's about how you feel when you do this. What do we feel? Take one more breath. Inhale. Nicely done. Exhale, Big stand up. Inhale, We made it to the top. Exhale, Step our feet together up at the top of our space and we'll take Sira Namaskara, A full one this time, Down to our mats. Here we go. Inhale, Reach our arms up. Exhale, Swan dive down. Go as deep as you can. Maybe you already are noticing differences from how you felt before. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down, Step or hop back to a plank, Chaturanga. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Upward Facing Dog. Stretches out the psoas there, It feels nice. Exhale, Adho Mukha Svanasana, Downward facing dog. Stay here. If this is in your practice, Stay here. If you feel like going to a child's pose, Go there. We're all gonna go there in just a moment, But let's take a few breaths right here, Those of us who are staying. Breathe it, Feel it. Good, And then let's all go to a child's pose. So let your knees drop down a little wider than your hips. And sit back. Elbows might be softly bent. Hopefully we're feeling some good release into our hips. Good. Nicely done. Let's come up. And we'll have a seat. So at any point in time, If you feel like sitting on your pillow, You certainly are welcome to do so. These next couple of things will be seated, So if you like to elevate, If it just feels better for you, Go ahead and grab that. Otherwise, Let's all hurdle the right leg back. And we'll take this left leg in front. I want you to pay attention to this right quadricep and inner thigh. As we pull our right arm across and our left hand. Comes to the floor right behind us. We'll rotate and can you feel the leg lifting just a little bit and the hip lifting? This is a beautiful twist. We're taking it a little bit gentle today, Right at this moment, Because I want you to be aware of what's going on right here. Feeling that lifting, Feeling that rotation. And hopefully easing that space right in the front of the hips. Good. Plus we've got the open chest going on. We're pulling back our shoulder. We've got an open heart center. All of that is present. Nicely done. Now come forward. Very good. This hand that's already on the floor, Just bring it closer to your side. I'm going to get a little above my ballet roots. We will press onto our left hand and lift up onto our legs. So we're on our knees, Lifting and reaching and pressing that right hip forward, A little pelvic tilt forward. Exhale, Come back down. Let's do that like five times. So that was one. Inhale, Lift it up. Press the pelvic tilt forward. Exhale, Bring it down. Nice job. Inhale, Lift it up. Exhale, Bring it down. Also really good back bend and chest opener. Two more. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Bring it down. Last one, Inhale, Lift it up. Exhale bring it down. Nicely done. Good. This right leg that's behind. Bring it around in front. We're going to move to gomukhasana. I'll offer you lots of options. We haven't done a lot for the outer hips, So that's what our focus is now. And if you fold forward and just kind of test this out and you feel like these are screaming really tight, Then you're just going to stay in a simple crisscross position. You might even be elevated on your pillow. Option two would be to stack your knees and your feet. So my knees and my feet are in line. This is fire log. It's just a little bit deeper. Yes. Option three would be to stack the knees on top of each other. I still have my right leg on the top. Take your way one, Two or three options and then we're going to fold forward. We're not going to notice our arms today. Usually gomukhasana has an arm bind. I want us to use our body weight to press into the hips and to the legs. As I lower my torso over my body, I'm feeling it right here in the outer hips, Moves into the glutes. There's this open space in the sacrum. And again, Just play around with those three different options. You might start in one and say, Oh, That's too easy. I'm going to try the next one, Whatever. Or you might go into one and say, This is excruciating. I can't even breathe. Than you do the previous one, Right? Never push yourself to the point that you cannot breathe. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Nicely done. Walk your way up. You did great. Let's switch sides. First of all, We're going to straighten out our knees just for a moment. Because our knees were bent for so long, Sometimes it feels good to lengthen them. Plus we'll get a little bit of hamstrings here with Paschimottanasana. You might benefit from your strap at this point. If you don't have a strap, Don't worry about it. I'll show you what you can do. So you can place your strap around your feet. Sit nice and tall, Inhale. Exhale, Walk forward. Say you don't have a strap, Just grab onto your legs. Hold onto your legs. Some of you might be able to reach your feet. Either way, We want to pull our shoulder blades down our back, Drop our head, And keep your knees as straight as you can. The straighter the knees, The deeper quality of stretch that you will have. We're gonna work our way into the deepest point. We don't just go there right away. Not all of us. Some of you might be extremely flexible. My guess is that if you're enjoying this class, You're not extremely flexible and you're working on it, Right? Like 90% of the world, We're working on it. Every exhale brings us a little bit closer. Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Good, Come up, Nicely done. I'm gonna set this off to the side out of my way. Let's now hurdle our left leg back. And bend the right knee in front. So remember, We're gonna pay attention to this hip and quadricep here. So you'll take your left hand across, Grab onto your right knee. Your right hand is back here, Helping you sit nice and tall as you spiral. Rotate, Rotate toward the right hip. So you're lifting this left hip and quadriceps. Enjoy that rotation. It feels so good on our low back there. I love this pose. So much room for breath too. Sometimes twists squeeze our breath. This one doesn't. This one's all open and free. Good. Come forward. Nicely done. The same hand that was back here, Just move it closer to your hips. We're gonna do our ballet move. So our left arm's gonna lift, Inhale, Lift up onto your knees, Press your hip forward, All of this, Press forward. Exhale, Lower it down. Good, Just feel it. Let's do it five times total. Inhale, Lift. Exhale lower. So that was two already. Inhale lift. Have fun. Exhale, Lower. We do yoga because it's fun. Remember that. Inhale, Lift. Exhale lower last time inhale lift Exhale, Lower. You made it. You did great. Let's pull this left leg around to the front. We have our three different options for getting the outer hip. Simple crisscross. Fire log where we stack our feet on top of each other feet and knees or We're doing knees on top of each other. Take a breath in any choice. Inhale. Exhale, Fold your way forward. You're letting your body weight do the job, Pressing down into the hips. Opening up through those outer hips, Opening up through the sacrum in the low back. And just let your gaze relax, Let your neck and your jaw relax. Everything is folding down. Stretching out. Good. Enjoy that good pressure. Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Gently walk your way up. Good job. For our straight-legged pose, Let's take it wide. Upavistha Konasana. This one's tricky. Everyone's going to be so different here. You will do your best to get your legs open to the side. Don't stress, Just do it. And start to fold your way forward. Just hold on to your legs. This is going to help you to really feel the inner thigh. We can bring our arms forward. Then it doesn't make us work as hard right here. So we're going to keep our hands along our legs. It also helps us to remember to keep our toes up to the sky. Feel that, Love it. All for our benefit, Yes? Good. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Come up. Woo! Nicely done. Softly bend. Someone loved that one. Let's come on to our back. Good work, Good work. We've been holding kind of still so we're going to move a little bit as we ease our way towards Shavasana. So just take your feet on the floor, Our knees are bent and maybe feet a little wider than your hips. Just a tiny bit I'm going to bring my arms out to a T and we're just going to let our legs drop side to side. Windshield wiper. This is also really great for the psoas as we drop it down. You can feel that right there, Psoas and quadriceps. But there's some good movement into the back too. Into the sacrum. Just movement for movement's sake. Feels nice. Let things loosen up. See if I can turn my music down just a little bit. Good. Good job. Good. Now hold it still. Bring your feet together. Let your knees open. This is Baddha Konasana. You'll notice that the curve of your spine lifts from the floor at this point. Your pelvis is tilted downward. We can just press with our hands. And again, We're just gonna massage this a little bit. Imagine yourself like a butterfly. Wings closed. And wings open. Sometimes when I do movement like this, I feel like I'm a kid. Kids just move around on the floor. They don't really care what they look like. They just move because they have to because they're so wiggly. I think we lose that sometimes. We get so serious. And I am serious about yoga. But I'm not serious to the point that. . . I don't explore. What my body needs for that day. I'm serious about the safety. In yoga. We want to be safe. Let's just move. Good. Good. Excellent. Now. . . Put your feet back on the ground and just bring one knee into the chest and just hold it there for a moment. Extend the other leg, Straighten it out. You're just going to let this knee be loose. It's really the hip being loose back and forth. You can switch hands, You can pull over into kind of a twist. Open it up to the side. There is no right and wrong. We're kind of, We're ending with a lot of movement and then we'll enjoy some stillness in Shavasana. This movement is meant to ease any last remaining kinks that you might have trying to let it go. But. . . Good, Nicely done. Let's set that leg down. We'll pull our left knee into the chest. Just hold it there for a moment. And then see if we can get it moving, Yeah? Back and forth. I like to pull it into a little bit of a twist. I think that feels, Oh, It just always feels good on the low back too. Hips and back, They're so deeply connected, Right? So we pay attention to both of them. To all of them. Loosen it up. This whole time we're still breathing. Giving ourselves time for breath. Exhale as you squeeze the knee over. Inhale as you open it up, Yeah? Nicely done. Settle yourself down. For your Shavasana. If you're really tight in your back. Feels great to take that pillow that we had. Underneath our knees. A little elevation can feel really nice. If you enjoy Supta Baddha Konasana, We were here before, But we moved in it. If you enjoy being here, Go back to this position. It's your time to tune in one more time to your body, But to allow your body to ease. So stay here for a few moments. I'll let you rest in stillness and I'll wake you up when it's time with the sound of a bell. Start to wake yourself up. Rotate through your wrists and your ankles. Point and flex your feet. Stretch your arms overhead to lengthen through your entire body. And roll yourself onto one side in fetal pose. Gently press up to a comfortable seated position. Bring your hands to heart center. We'll close with this quote by J. R. R. Tolkien. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. Thank you very much for your practice today. Namaste