Week 3 – Alignment Series: Hip Opening

𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀

This is a little bit of a joke… but a not-so-funny one. 😬

I go to yoga classes regularly, and I realized a phenomenon in “𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨” classes.

💡 We spend a lot of themes PASSIVELY STRETCHING our hip muscles. You can use these stretches on your hamstrings, inner thighs, and pigeons. We LOVE stretching our hips!

💡 And out of all the hip muscles, we like to stretch the hamstrings more than we stretch the other compartments of the hips.

Yes, many of us have tight hips, but I feel there is a BETTER WAY to practice when we look at the hip joint.

First, the hip joint comprised of

📌 Hip flexors

📌 Inner leg muscles (adductors)

📌 Hamstrings (extensors)

📌 Buttock (Glutes)

📌 Outer hip muscles (Abductors)

Now, the hip joint is a ball and socket joint. Meaning that it can move 360 degrees. In order to use it in a balanced way, we need to use the full 360 degrees of the joint.

We are spending a disproportionate amount of time stretching these muscles instead of strengthening them. We need both. 🙌

I have pretty flexible hips. But I used to have zero strength in my hip muscles.

I also have pretty flexible hamstrings. Yes, I can fold myself in half, but it does not mean I have any strength.

Now I am better informed. 😊

I have been focusing more on working on mobility and strength in my hip joint.

I have completely changed my approach when it comes to HIP practice.

When I say the theme of this class is HIP OPENING, I am not only here to OPEN YOUR HIPS; my intention is to 𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗦 to new perspectives on your hip joint. 🤩