Yoga is well known for helping tight hips
Have you ever wondered what the term having tight hips means?
This post is going to aim to answer this question and show you how yoga is the perfect practice to reduce tight hips and improve mobility and flexibility.
Have a look at the list below
If you answer yes to any of the following then you probably have some tightness or mobility issues happening around the hip area:
- When standing do your feet turn out instead of facing straight ahead?
- Do you have trouble sitting cross–legged?
- Do you have a love-hate relationship with pigeon pose?
- Do you suffer from lower back pain or knee pain?
- Are your inner thighs tight?
- Do you get butt pain?
- Do you feel stiff getting in and out of a chair, the car or even out of bed?
Tight and immobile hips are common nowadays as we spend a lot more time sitting and not moving as much as we should.
The hip area is meant to be incredibly mobile so that we can move our legs, sideways (abduction), forwards (flexion), backwards (extension), towards one another – think squeezing a cushion – (adduction), inwards (internal rotation) and outwards (external rotation).
If we don’t do these movements every day, the hips lose this ability over time and then we find ourselves restricted in our movement.
AKA we get tight hips.
Below are 3 of my favourite yoga poses for happier, healthier and more mobile hips.
As we are busy people I have picked poses that work on more than one hip movement. Our time on the mat is precious so let’s make the most of it.
To learn how to do all of the poses scroll down to the end where I have a full video tutorial 👇🤗
Supta Padagustasana 1, II, III
This pose is great for all-around hip health and flexibility. Please do all 3 variations to get the full benefit.
Supta Virasana
This is a good pose to get a little more hip extension into the mix. Many of us walk around with tightness in the hip flexors. This can contribute to lower back pain as well as hip mobility issues.
Prone Pigeon
This is my final pose for you that works a lot of the different hip movements. Be sure to do both sides and don’t be afraid of using props to make the pose more effective. This is an easy one to get wrong. The important thing is to make use that the pelvis doesn’t twist at all or rotate. If it does you will lose the benefits and may make any imbalances in the muscles worse!
For full details on how to do all 3 poses please watch the video below. 👇👇
- It explains how to do all of the poses plus variations to play around with.
- Remember we are all different after all so what works for one person may not work for another.
- Enjoy and do let me know how you get on in the comments 🙂
