15 min Gentle Yoga Flow for TIGHT HIPS - Deep Hip Release

Transcript

Hi everyone, welcome. My name is Cassandra. This is my cat Scarlet. And we're going to take you through a short hip opening flow. So, if you're working on hip flexibility or you're just feeling really tight and sore in your lower body overall, this is a wonderful sequence to add into your rotation. Suitable for all experience levels. No props required. And let's begin lying down on our backs. And you can have your feet flat on the floor, knees bent, and just draw both knees in towards your chest here. Trace some little circles. So, my hands are on my knees, and I'm just gently tracing circles, massaging the lower back into the mat. And also just checking in with myself, seeing how the hips are feeling. And you can reverse the direction of those circles. Try to have your arms do this motion. So you're not really using leg strength, not using too much effort. And coming back to neutral, you can let your left foot come flat to the floor and hold on somewhere the back of your right leg as you extend it up towards the sky. Finding a little hamstring stretch here. And we'll start by flexing our right foot and then pointing through the toes. Just alternating this a few times. So when we flex, we'll feel it a little bit more into the heel, the ankle, the calf, and when we point, really try to stretch through the top of that foot. And you can have a little bit of a bend in your right knee. Doesn't need to be perfectly straight. Try to relax. Head and shoulders on the floor. Transitioning into halfappy baby. So you can bend into your right knee, hold on to your big toe with your two-piece fingers. I'm gonna let my left leg kind of flop over to the side for a little bit of a counterwe and you can use your elbow to push your right knee open a little bit more. At the same time, we're trying to pull it down. So both shoulders and both hips are evenly distributing the weight and evenly grounded on the mat. And we'll carry this into reclined pigeon pose. So you can guide your right ankle over the top of your left knee, finding this figure four shape with the legs. Reach with your hands and draw that left thigh in towards your belly. And you can rock a little bit also here side to side. This is a deep external hip rotation getting into the outer glute. Give it one last big squeeze. And let's release. And we'll do the same thing over to the other side. So our right foot will be flat to the floor. Grab a hold of the back of your left leg and straighten it up towards the sky. Okay. And just alternate again here. Flexing, really stretching into the calf and then pointing through the toes. You might notice that this feels very different one side to the other. You can also bend and straighten the leg a little bit as much as is required. Coming into halfappy baby on the second side. Bend into your left knee. Grab a hold of that big left toe. Keep the elbow to the inside of the leg to push it open. And you can let your right thigh kind of drop over to the side. Deep belly breaths here. So, a little bit of arm strength to pull that thigh down, but still pressing our shoulders away from our ears. So, we're not shortening through the neck, not causing any discomfort or adding any tension in other areas of our body. We'll cross this over into reclined pigeon. Left ankle over the top of your right knee. Pull through with your arms either the back of your thigh or the front of your shin. And maybe rock a little bit side to side again here. Let's release. Pull both knees in towards your chest. Widen your knees towards your shoulders. And maybe you stay here or you can take the full variation of happy baby pose. So, grabbing a hold of both big toes with your piece fingers, elbows to the insides of the knees. This is Daisy. She's Scarlet's daughter. Rocking a little bit. Pulling the knees down a little bit more. And let's release the hold of the feet. You can just roll over to one side or you can rock up. Coming to take a seat. We'll set ourselves up into a butterfly fold. So, soles of the feet come together to touch. Knees fall apart and you can choose how close you would like to have your heels in towards you. Start to crawl your hands out and we're going to walk them over towards the right. So, reach out over to the right. Extend a little bit more with your left hand and left arm folding in. And then it's okay to round a little bit through our backs here. You might not be going down too low. And crawl the fingertips back over towards the center. And we'll go over to the other side. So, walking the hands over to the left. If you have pets at home, I'm sure they've joined you on the mat more than once. Seem to be cat magnets and dog magnets and bringing the hands back through to center. And now stay at the center. See if you can crawl and reach a little bit further out. and slowly walk your hands in. Roll all the way back up to your seated position. And you can use your hands to bring the knees in. We are going to come into a little downward dog. I'm very sorry, Scarlet. You're going to have to move a little bit over to the side. Hands shoulderwidth distance apart. Feet are hipwidth distance apart as you tuck the toes under and lift the hips up and back. So this first stretch, you can alternate paddling out the legs, bending one knee, straightening the opposite leg as you push down into the heel. And now quieting this down from the legs. Let's reach our right leg up towards the sky. Bend your right knee. Open up your hips. So really get a big thigh stretch here. And we'll step our foot to the outer edge of our right hand. So wide stance. Both my palms are to the inside of my right leg. my back knee will come down to the mat. So for this lizard pose, you can curl the right toes up and roll to the outer edge of that right foot. So really letting a deep external hip rotation, letting the knee drop. And you can stay up onto your hands. You might be a little bit more comfortable coming down onto your forearms. And if you were down on your forearms, come back up onto the palms. One last option, you can add a quad stretch if you'd like. More of like a twisted monkey variation. Right arm is going to stretch all the way up and back. I'm going to bend into my left knee and just pulling that heel in. So, a little bit of a spinal twist as well here. carefully releasing the hold of that back foot. And let's transition into our full pigeon pose. So, I'm going to tow heel my right foot over towards the left side of my mat so that I can bring my right knee somewhere behind my right wrist, squaring off through both hips here. Take an inhale to lift and lengthen. and then exhale folding on down. You're welcome to stay up onto your forearms if you'd like or you can lower and prop yourself up and taking about five deep belly breaths here. Trying to let gravity pull you deeper into the pose. Push your hands into the floor so that you can lift yourself up. We're going to find downward dog again. Take your time here. Just any movements that feel good just to free up that right hip before we go and do the same thing on the other side. So maybe paddling out the legs and the feet, stretching it out. And three-legged dog with the left leg this time. So reach it up, bend your left knee, open up that hip, really get a nice big thigh stretch, and then step the foot to the outer edge of your left hand. So a wider stance. My knee is still stacked over my ankle. I'm going to drop my back knee down and point through the toes. I'm going to lift my left toes up and roll to the blade. So to the edge of that foot. So I'm pressing that knee open. And start here for a moment. Just melting through the hips. And if you'd like, you can come down onto your forearms. This is optional. You don't have to come down here if this feels a little bit too intense. If you are on your forearms, you can lift back up onto your hands. Maybe holding here a little bit longer or adding your quad stretch. Left hand circles and reaches back. Pulling that heel in towards us. Staying in a twist here. and very delicately letting go of that foot. Transitioning into our pigeon pose. So toe heel that left foot over to the right. Aligning your knee behind your wrist. And I'm rehabbing a little bit of a hip injury. It's mostly recovered, but I'm just trying to be careful. So I'm going to keep my heel closer in towards me here to make this less intense. Find a little back bend on the inhale. And then exhale folding on down coming to your variation of the pose on this side. And the arms are working to support us a little bit, but for the most part we are trying to make this fairly passive and relaxed. Five breaths here. And we'll start to lift ourselves up. This will be your last downward-facing dog. So, stretching it out, making some space, and really feeling the difference through your hips just with this short practice, a few poses. And let's bring our knees down to the mat. Come to take a seat in any way that is comfortable for your hips, for your lower back. Hands draw together at the front of the heart. Closing your eyes. And we'll close our practice by chanting M together one time. Let's inhale to chant. Breathe in deep. [Music] Oh, thank you so much everyone for doing this short hip opening flow. I hope you feel a lot better in your lower body. I have other ones, other classes in this similar style and theme. I'll link to them down below if you wanted to give them a try. and hopefully we'll practice again together very soon.