Tight hips. Sound like you?
Nearly all people that I talk to comment on how tight their hips are. And why wouldn’t they be? Our society isn’t geared up to inherently have open hips necessarily. We sit… so much. Myself included! It’s hard not to when we’re our typical day may look something like this: drive to work, sit (maybe stand) at work, drive home and then sit some more before we go to bed just to do it all over again the next day.
It’s tough to squeeze in what your body needs to balance out what our daily lives look like now. Let alone take a yoga class for our tight hips.
But this isn’t just for those of us with an office job. It’s for the runners, bikers, hikers, skiers, and lifters. And the power yogis! More often than not, we’re all in need of some hip openers.
So, why is this even an issue? Who cares about sitting so much?
Largely what happens is that we’re shortening the front side of our body – and with our hips, it’s mostly our hip flexors. But when we spend a big chunk of time of our days sitting, our glutes become weeaaaakk, so we then try to continue relying on our shortened hip flexors. Which doesn’t do them any more good.
Mobile hips can usually hip with particular yoga poses, like inversions. If you’d like tips for inversions and arm balances. Fill out the form below and I’ll send it right to you!
Thankfully this doesn’t have to require an hour of stretching to start balancing ourselves out a bit. It does take a bit of time, but not much.
Below I’ve outlined some non-yoga tips for your tight hips and then, as promised, the eight poses for tight hips.
Since nearly all of us struggle with tight hips (in some capacity), I’m curious: what do you do to help? Do you have any tidbits that help you relieve tight hips? Share in the comments below!
Non-Yoga Tips for Tight Hips
Yoga may not always be the answer (of course itt certainly helps). But no one can jump up and do yoga on a whim whenever your hips are saying they need it – which is exactly why I wanted to include some non-yoga tips that you can take into each day.
Check Your Posture
Keep your core activated and make sure you’re not sticking your butt out, which (surprise, surprise) shortens your hip flexors and causes
Strengthen Glutes
I can’t preach enough how strengthening your glutes help the overall mobility of the hip. Just sprinkle it into your regular routine!
Related: Yoga Poses to Build Booty Strength
Get Up and Move Often
And lastly, just be sure to get up and MOVE as often as you can. Our bodies are made to be moving, so if you notice that you’ve been stagnant for a while. Get up, walk around, and do some circles with your knee to lubricate the hip.
8 Yoga Poses for Tight Hips
Low Lunge with Side Bend
Tips: Low lunge is a great pose by itself, but I find that adding the side bend just makes it a bit juicier and gets into my tight hips. The bottom hand can come to the ground, a block of the back shin. Repeat on each side for five breaths each.
Restorative Half Moon
Tips: Another variation of a standard pose. This variation simply lets the floating leg be heavy and the top arm come to the ground to create a big side body stretch.
Pigeon
You didn’t think pigeon was going to be excluded in this post, did you? I know nearly every yoga blogger out there put pigeon in their tight hips post, but it’s soooo good I couldn’t resist adding it.
Tips: Keep both feet engaged to protect the knees. Find a place that’s the perfect balance between effort and ease, staying somewhere that you can be for at least five breaths on each side.
Cow Facing Pose
Tips: If you have super tight hips (like me!), sit on a block instead of the ground. This raises your hips up so they can stay square and takes a bit of the intensity out of this pose. Stay here for five breaths on each side.
Parallel Knees with Cat Back
Tips: From the picture, this pose doesn’t look like much, but it feels amazing since it gets deep into hip and core. Bring your shins parallel to each other and isometrically squeeze the knees together. Round through the back as much as possible. Really try to puff up the low back! Stay for five breaths on each side.
Malasana
Tips: Keep the spine long and core engaged. If you feel yourself hunching over, come up onto the balls of the feet to give yourself more space. Press the elbows into the knees, while also pressing the knees into the elbows. Stay for at least five breaths.
Frog
Tips: Keep the shins parallel to each other and the feet activated. Sit the hips back for the most opening. Stay in frog pose for at least five breaths.
Reclined Figure Four Twist
Tips: Start lying on your back and keep yourself rooted in the ground by keeping your spine long. Shift the gaze to the other side for a deeper twist. Repeat on each side for five breaths each.
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