Stabilising/opening hips

[mellongoose]

I love yoga and did it quite regularly in my 'old' life (before DC). I was never particularly strong or flexible but would love to get back to a class at some point when time allows.

In the meantime does anyone have any tips on poses I can do at home to help with my hips. Since being little I have sat on the floor with both knees pointing to the right. I'm now 41 and this imbalance is starting to show itself all over me!! Right knee pulling when I run. Right lower back pulling. Left groin area tight. If I sit cross legged my left knee sits up off the ground.

Any ideas from yogis gratefully received.

Ps. Someone once told me about the connection between inflexible hips and emotions. Does anyone have any info about this? Thanks.

I'd suggest seeing an osteopath if you can, or a physio. They can identify exactly where your imbalance and what exercises might counter it.

In terms of yoga any basic hip openers like pigeon pose i found great but i needed to work up to them in a sequence to warm myself up first. Delving straight into them did more harm than good.

Consider a subscription to a site like yogaglo.com or movement for modern life. The monthly fee is pretty low (yogaglo is amazing value) and you can identify specific classes for hip opening and of varying length.

If you have an instability in your hips, avoid strong hip opening poses (ones that take your leg out on an angle) until you've had it checked out by a physio or osteo. You could have a sacroiliac issue and you might aggravate it with hip openers.

Once you've been cleared, this is a good sequence for hips. The author, Ray Long, is an orthopedic surgeon as a yoga teacher so he knows his way around hips: Hip Opening and Balancing Sequence

Holding cobblers and lizard poses for 5 minutes each helped me.

Try Tara Lees Pregnancy Yoga (Amazon Prime) she does a set of 5 minute yoga videos focusing on different parts of body and one is the hips. This would be a good gentle routine to help strengthen the muscles surrounding and balance your hip joints. It features all the poses mentioned above, so good recommendations ladies! :) enjoy x

Also I'm offering free 4 week classes via Skype (personalised to individual needs) for a maximum of 10 people starting in October - as I want to get out there teaching more now I've had baby (hoping to not have to return to 9-5 !!) so only looking for feedback on my business Facebook page in exchange. I'm Nikki Murfitt on Facebook. If your interested please add me & spread the word X