March/April recap: Hip strength
Tight hips = likely weak hips
Hello!
I think this sequence that we did has been one of my favorites to come up with, practice, and teach. However, it was super demanding and tough but was still fun to explore.
I often hear a complaint of students or a motivation of why they want to come to class to open up tight hips. And my ears perk up because that means I can incorporate more functional movement and strength-based things — why? Because tight hips are often a result of weakness. If you think about it, sitting for long periods of time or general lack of movement within the hips means that the muscles are languishing and not doing the things that they’re designed to do. So naturally, muscles that go unused will start to shorten, and combined with any other external factors like stress, will also tense up. If this pattern continues, muscles will weaken over time and become tighter.
I love me a stretchy session of moving my body, but for optimal muscle and joint health, I know that has to be complemented with strength and bits of cardio. Not an ad, but Beat81 classes are fine and all but I enjoy going to Holi where a few friends of mine teach at.
Now onto what we did and why we did it. Here is the shorthand sequence for anyone interested.
Some sequence highlights:
Active reclined head-to-big-toe pose (Suptapadangusthasana)
This can be done with or without the supported bridge (block underneath sacrum) but I alternated in class because with the block it’s nice to get a passive opening through the anterior hip (this is also great prep for any backbends). This is more a passive set of movements typically done with the support of a strap or index/middle finger to big toe while reclined, but not having that external help means that the front of the hip and outer hip has to work to lift the leg and bring it up, as well as stabilize the leg. Bending the knee first allows you to feel what it’s like to deal with a lesser load, and by extending the leg, the overall load increases.
Active halfway lift
I had forgotten how useful and just better this variation of halfway lift is (thanks again, Laura!), so I’ve been employing it more actively in classes again. It’s better because:
The entire back body/posterior chain is engaged. With the arms drawn back and hugging in, your upper back muscles are online, and your spinal erectors are working to keep your spine long. Hamstrings and calves are also having to work.
The chest briefly opens by way of the arms pulling back.
The hamstrings are engaged in a lengthened position, which is a functional, active way of facilitating back hip mobility and strength.
You can think about this as a different version of Staff pose (dandasana) or like a version of Warrior 3 with both feet on the floor! To note, I should have a little more weight forward in my feet towards my toes.
Lunging salutations with knee drag, step forward to Chair
Having the torso more upright and dragging the back knee forward made sure we were using more anterior hip and quad over glutes and posterior hip. Stepping forward to chair was a minor balance challenge plus forward the hip flexors to…flex the leg forward.
Bent knee Warrior 3 lunging salutations
This personally killed me doing this for weeks with everyone (but now my outer hips are strong AF). Normally I am fussed over keeping the pelvis neutral in Warrior 3 but kind of let that go here in favor of working the back hip, standing leg’s outer hip, and general stability. Anyone *still* claiming that the knee should never go past the ankle is just not correct and can see how this is not injurious.
Why I like this:
Small minor movements of lifting the elevated leg works the posterior hip (glutes, hamstring, etc) and engages anterior core to facilitate balance.
The standing leg is WORKING but in particular the outer hip (abductors) are stabilizing that leg and making sure you aren’t toppling over. Quads are lengthening in a strengthened position (eccentric contraction) while hamstrings are shortening in a strengthened position (concentric contraction).
It’s just demanding :)
Floating half-splits and one-armed, one-legged Warrior 3
The floating half-splits was more of a way to be stretchy, but in a more active way. Plus, you had to focus on balancing when hovering the chest over your leg. The inner hip strength engagement came from tensioning the same side arm against the same side inner leg, with the transition to Warrior 3. I am always a fan of two opposing forces to sneak in different muscle engagement.
Seated one-legged Crow, reclined Firefly (Eka Pada Bakasana, Titthibhasana)
Employing the same arm tension against the inner leg as with the one-armed, one-legged Warrior 3, we put this into a seated version of the famous arm balance, Crow pose. We did a seated one-legged version, ultimately transitioning towards a two legged version known as Firefly. This was tough having to contend with balance, but also the demand it had on the hip flexors keeping the legs close to the torso and then extending the leg out (or not).
Tensioned-arm side angle to half moon to Warrior 3 to One-legged Mountain
Somehow I deleted the video for this and can’t find it but some of you might recall tensioning the same side arm against the same side inner leg, while opening up the top arm at a diagonal for like a wide, opened arm extended side angle. Then, we shifted forward to a half moon, then tipped the top hip down for Warrior 3. Then! We drew the lifted leg into the chest for a one-legged Mountain back to standing with two feet on the ground. All of this meant your standing leg had to work _a lot_ so the outer hip, a little inner hip, were employed similarly to what we did in bent knee Warrior 3.
Phew.
If you haven’t joined or know of anyone interested in joining my Whatsapp group, it’s linked below! I’ll post my schedule and other quick takes on things we do (or don’t do) in class.
We’ve been now working towards a pose called Visvamitrasana, which is a demanding arm balance involving a deep side bend. I think I’ll probably keep working this through mid-June.
And! Those of you who are interested in creating more intelligent and cohesive sequences for your personal practice or classes, I am hosting a sequencing weekend at Yoga Futura on 6 + 7 June. More details here.
Weekly schedule:
If anyone has ideas of other studios I should reach out to let me know. I’m looking to teach at one more location, preferably in the Kreuzberg or Neukölln location. Thanks!
Musings
Currently reading: Jenni Rawlings is a content creator and yoga teacher I’ve been following for several years now. In addition to my teacher Jason Crandall, I get inspiration from her (remember one time where I made us do Turkish get ups in class? That was because of Jenni) and her topics are always good food for thought.
Currently listening to: In the past few weeks I’ve made my way through the Lost Village archive of sets like this one from O’Flynn:
Looking forward to: Summer travel! Up next will be Hamburg, Barcelona, and Vienna. Please send any recs!
Not looking forward to: Q2 taxes.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to reply to this email if you want to ask anything.
Jessica