The Yin Yoga Podcast
The Yin Yoga Podcast
Befriending the Hip: A Holistic Approach to Hip Tension
Ever felt frustrated with persistent hip tension that just won't go away? Ever wondered if there's a simpler, more holistic way to relieve that discomfort? Today, we're using the healing power of awareness in movement: Yin Yoga, to bring radical acceptance and relief to our bodies. I'll equip you with practical strategies to maximize your relaxation and release built-up tension not just for today, but more and more over time.
As you practice the postures, we'll be using a simple breathing protocol to soothe and befriend your hips. By the end of our practice together, you'll have developed a more comprehensive understanding of your hip tension and some strategies to overcome it.
Props Needed: Bolster, blocks, blanket
Transformational Self Care
A Late Winter Wellness Retreat in the Dominican Republic
March 3-10, 2023
Join me for a 7 day Caribbean wellness retreat. Each day we will focus on a pillar of self care. By the end of the week you will have a group of new friends, some unforgettable memories and a personal self care strategy to enhance your life back at home. Learn More
Let's connect! Follow me on:
Facebook
Instagram
TicToc
YouTube
Free Resources:
Master the Yin Yoga Pose Repertoire: 7 Day Email Course
Introduction to Pain Care Yoga
Practice Gallery Workbook - 6 go to sequences with pictorial instructions
Welcome to the Yin Yoga Podcast. I'm your host, mandy Ryle. This week's pod practice is all about befriending your hip. We'll take a pretty traditional Yin practice, including all of our favorite hip openers, from the half butterfly to the square to a variation of half frog. But we will also explore how we feel about the hip. We'll explore a breathing strategy to help you to befriend and accept your hip and also to release some things about your hip that may not be helping you anymore. This is a really sweet and quick practice. It is a wonderful way to soothe hip tension, hip stiffness, hip pain, not just today, but long term, using these strategies. You'll want to have a yoga blanket, yoga bolster and a couple of blocks. And, as always, thank you so much for being a listener to the Yin Yoga Podcast. If you haven't already, will you please just take a quick sec to hit follow or subscribe in your podcast app? Not only does that ensure that you won't miss a future practice or discussion that could be really useful to you, but it's also the kind of engagement that podcast platforms look for when sending new listeners, just like you, to the podcast for the first time.
Mandy Ryle:So I've been working with bodies in motion for the past 15 years, and I've noticed that with my clients, with my students, with the groups that I work with, there's a bit of a trend toward some antagonism toward the hip. And this is perfectly justified, right, because the hips often feel tight, they feel sore, achy, often there is pain in the hips, and so it makes sense that we would develop a little bit of a negativity toward this area. But from my perspective, as someone who works with people who live with pain, this may not be the most helpful or productive perspective. So I'd like to offer a short practice today which is really about befriending the hip. You're going to need to have a yoga bolster, two blocks and a blanket I'll have you start by taking that blanket of yours, open it up and bring it across the center of your yoga mat, right in the middle, just for comfort, and then come to hands and knees, with your knees pretty wide and your big toes together, and bring one of those yoga blocks between your knees. Take the other block about 14 inches in front, toward the front edge of your mat, and then take your bolster on top of both of those. So you've got this stone hinge, which is longitudinal on your mat and way up between your thighs and then push your hips back back back toward your heels though not necessarily on. Frame the bolster with your two hands, and come down to rest your belly, your chest and your cheek or your forehead onto that bolster. Shift the elbows so that you can't use them accidentally. Okay, and make sure here in this child's pose that your hips aren't really lifted so that you feel like you're falling forward. Find a way to make yourself push backward, because it's a whole lot more comfortable in the pose if you're not being shoved forward into your neck and head. And then try to settle in if you need to fidget, fidget and I have to admit that I think that starting a practice in a child's pose is a little mean, because it's actually pretty intense pose, especially right out of the gate.
Mandy Ryle:But I also think that this sets us up for being a little bit more open to feelings that are maybe not so comfortable. So let's start that process by connecting with your breath. You're going to take an inhale into your back and then a nice, slow, easy, soft exhale. Feel the ribs sink down. Inhale into your back, exhale, just feel those ribs sink and settle. Not trying right, just using gravity, the natural collapse of the exhale, and then maybe now you'll be a little bit more open to sensations that you're feeling. There's pressure on the knees right. There's a little bit of a deep flexion of the knees as well, as well as the hips, so it's possible that there's some stuff there that's not like your favorite. Just notice it. We won't be here too long.
Mandy Ryle:Let's see if you can also start to open up your awareness towards sensations which might not be quite so overt, things that are a little more subtle. Maybe the pressure against your calf from your hamstrings, maybe a little stretch in the ankles. Three more of these back expanding inhale Nice, slow, easy exhale breaths, nice work. So you'll plant your hands to frame the bolster, go ahead and bring them back so you can use them, and then you're going to come up, sit back toward your heels. If that's no good for you immediately, you can bring your knees back so you're in more of a tabletop, okay, and then slide the block that's in front forward a little bit more, all the way up to the front edge of your mat, if it's not already the block that you had closest to you between your thighs. You're going to get rid of that for now you don't need it.
Mandy Ryle:And then Bring your knees back off of the blanket and just slide the blanket over to the right, slide it over to the right, so most of the blanket is off of the mat.
Mandy Ryle:And then come back to this tabletop and bring your left knee directly behind the bolster, almost to the edge of it, and if you need to adjust your blanket, you got to adjust your blanket. Yeah, almost to the edge of it. Your hands are framing the bolster. One more thing Use your left hand to pull the side of the bolster that's closest to you, just a couple of inches to the left, so the bolster is a little diagonal. Okay, bring your right knee way out to the right onto the blanket which is on the bare floor, and Then simultaneously slide your left knee back, your right knee out, and drop your left hip crease onto the corner of the bolster. Your elbows are framing this bolster. Now your cheek can rest on the bolster, or your forehead, or if you're really tall, you might need to have your forehead on that extra block of yours and we'll kind of wriggle and wiggle a little bit.
Mandy Ryle:Get that right knee a little further out to the right, if you can, so that you're feeling a nice pull in the inside of the right thigh. Come back to that breath, back expanding in Nice slow, soft, smooth exhale. And then I'd like for you to transfer this breath, bring that slow, soft, smooth Inhale into the part of the right hip which is currently feeling a little stretched. Your pulled and then exhale that same area, breathe out of it, so there'll be a gentle expansion of the area, just like you expanded your back ribs, and then a soft, smooth, easy exhale of the same area. Let's do a couple more, just getting used to exhaling that right hip. Just.
Mandy Ryle:One more gentle expansion, soft, smooth exhale, and then you'll plant your hands to either side of the bolster. You'll push back onto hands and knees. It's definitely the weirdest tabletop you've ever done. Right, the right knee can stay pretty much where it is, but bring your left knee over toward the right knee actually, so that you can drop your left hip down, so you're kind of in a side set, and Then turn yourself toward the back corner what would be now the left corner of your mat. The right leg is going to push out, so your right leg is completely extended. The sole of the left foot is going to come toward the right inner thigh like a half butterfly. So you're looking toward that back left corner. Right leg is long, sole of left foot against inner right thigh or knee. And Then take your two blocks One on each side of your right leg, one on each side of that extended right leg and then take your bolster on top for another stonehenge a lot of these today.
Mandy Ryle:If You're, left knee likes to stay a little bit higher. It doesn't really want to open up. Roll up that section of blanket which you had previously so that you can support that right. We don't need to be antagonistic toward it. We don't need to provoke it. Let's give it the support it needs to just soften. And then take your two hands onto that bolster and use them to help you turn your body toward the bolster, not just your eyes, not just your heart, but also your navel. Turn your navel toward that right big toe and stay vertical for a moment here with your navel. Your heart, your eyes turn toward that right big toe and Just notice your right hip, notice the side of it, the back of it, inner thigh, even the top of the thigh, and Then the next time you exhale, the navel is going to move closer towards your right big toe, and then the heart and Then the eyes, good, and you're going to set yourself up so that You're comfortable in this forward fold. So if you're not as flexible, the bolster might even come all the way up to your belly so that you can just have your elbows on there. It's possible that you're flexible enough to rest your head also in your hands, which I would prefer and then, for the most flexible among us, we will just slide the bolster way forward so you can rest your forehead directly on that bolster or anywhere in between.
Mandy Ryle:There's probably no area of the hip which is more negatively thought of than the hamstrings. Almost everybody wishes their hamstrings were different than what they were. Everybody says I can't even touch my toes. Take that, inhale that soft expansion into the back of the right leg, wherever the sensation is the most obvious, and then the exhale again. You're gonna exhale those tissues. It's a gentle expansion.
Mandy Ryle:Often when I ask a student to breathe an area, it's very aggressive. It's like that breath is gonna go in like a jackhammer, change things right. It's gonna expand it, it's gonna fix it. This is not that breath. It's a friendly expansion and, if I'm honest, I think the exhale is really where the magic happens here. Let's take just one more breath Now, press your hands down, rise up to vertical, untwist, and then just take your bolster out into the left again, out to the left again, and your blocks too.
Mandy Ryle:Turn your body again toward that long edge of your mat where the block and the bolster are that side of the mat, and have your left ankle walk forward a little bit. So what you're looking at is the left shin, which is parallel to the long edge of your mat, and then let's swing this right leg around so that the right heel is in front of the left knee and the left heel is under the right knee. So it's not the easy pose, not the Sukhasana. This is a square pose, that's a square pose. And then just take your blocks in front of your bolster and set your bolster excuse me, blocks in front of your shin and then put your bolster on top Just a little informal stone hinge. It won't be there for long. Hands are just gonna rest on that bolster and you're gonna tilt your pelvis back and round almost like the cat, and then you'll inhale, draw your pelvis forward, navel forward. This time the heart and the eyes lift. Just a little cat cow in the square here for a moment.
Mandy Ryle:So, in general, what I find is most people are most limited in that external rotation, which is what this is doing. So I'd like for you to be really kind to yourself here in this external rotation. If your knees are way up high which is pretty normal, I see it a lot find something so that they can be supported. Maybe the blocks aren't under your bolster now, maybe they're under your knees, or just one knee, if necessary. Okay, so one more time into that cat and one more time into that cow, and this time you're gonna stay. You're gonna stay in that cow shape.
Mandy Ryle:I'm gonna switch the way my props are oriented, though, to make a ramp. So what I need is, way out in front of me, a block on low setting and then a block on medium setting. I'm gonna take my bolster and I'm gonna set it on medium as well and shove a corner of it under my ribs, and the other side, the high side, goes on to my blocks, and a lot of times you're gonna have to adjust the blocks so that your bolster isn't sliding around, and then, when you come in, the bolster is gonna kind of push you away out of the pose, but use the weight of you to just drop. In that way, you'll get a really nice feeling of support here in your square fold. Now you may not need the medium bolster, you might need the low bolster, or maybe you don't come very far forward at all and you're just gonna set that bolster on a high side, pull the upper side into your chest and give it a hug. Yeah, so it's customizable.
Mandy Ryle:This time the inhale kind friendly expansion is into the outer right hip and the exhale soft from the right hip, almost like that hip has some nostrils and think about that exhale almost providing the same service it does in your lungs it clears things out. So, just like our circulatory system draws all of the deoxygenated blood with the carbon dioxide and other waste product from cellular process into the heart, and that blood is drawn into the lungs where the air can be exhaled, your exhale from your hip will collect all of these things that are no longer necessary. Maybe at one time they were, maybe at one time they were very useful, but now it's time to let go. One more breath and then you will press your hands down to come back up, like up to vertical, and we'll set one of the blocks all the way up to the right front edge of your yoga mat. Take your bolster on top so that you have a ramp again. So the high side of the ramp is toward that right front edge, the low side is toward you.
Mandy Ryle:The second block just keep it nearby in case you need it, and you're going to come around to a tabletop with your hands framing that bolster and bring the side of the bolster which is closest to you just a little bit to the right, like we did before. So it's diagonal, and then your right knee is going to be right behind that bolster. Maybe touching your left knee, comes way out to the left. Simultaneously, your right knee slide back, your left knee slide out so that your right hip crease can come on to the corner of the bolster. Your right hip needs to be on the bolster it's really important for what I'm trying to do here and then you'll lay your cheek down onto that bolster and if you can't get your cheek on there because you're too tall, use a block under your head and you'll wriggle around a little bit more until your left knee is way out to the left. Maybe your right leg moves out to the right a little wider as well.
Mandy Ryle:Your elbows are in a position where they can't help you too much because I don't want you to just lay in on those elbows, okay, and we'll inhale that nice friendly expansion into the left front hip inner groin and we'll exhale Just getting rid of what we don't need anymore. One thing I don't think we give ourselves enough credit for it with regard to our hips is that tension, stiffness, tightness has a valid reason for existing. It didn't just come out of nowhere, right. Somehow it was adaptive. It helped you to move in ways that you were moving. It helped you to protect yourself when you needed protecting. All of those sensations that we don't really love. We're really just the body's way of trying to make it easier or safer for us to do the things we were doing habitually. So, while we may hate the result, we have to really have, I think, maybe, a little bit of gratitude to the body.
Mandy Ryle:Let's do three more of those friendly expansion, releasing exhales and you'll use your hands to frame the bolster. You'll press yourself back to that very strange tabletop, but immediately just bring your right knee to meet your left knee and bring your right hip down so you're in a side set. You're going to turn toward the now what would be the right back corner of your mat. So we're going the other way. Extend your left leg out long, fully extend Solo the right foot to the inner left thigh, so the blocks are going to be placed on either side of the long left leg and then your bolster is going to go on top. If your right knee needs support, just roll up that blanket like you did before, give it just the right amount of support that it needs to relax, and you're going to take your hands to the bolster and you're going to use the hands to help you leverage your navel, your heart, your eyes toward that left foot. You hold here for a couple of breaths. Lots of sensation here, right.
Mandy Ryle:Okay, on your inhale, let's prepare the exhale. Bring your navel closer to your foot than your heart, than your eyes, and then set up your stone hinge so you're supported just the way that you'd like to be in your half butterfly. So, if you're not super flexible, bring those props all the way up to you, almost like a little hug, so you can sit mostly vertical with comfort, with integrity. And if you have the flexibility to bring your elbows to the bolster, I'd like for you to try to support your head with your hands, if it's possible. The hamstrings here are really probably the primary thing. That's where most people are going to feel stretch, although a lot of people feel stretch in their back as well, or maybe a combination of both. Equally, use your breath to befriend and serve these areas. Let's take two more of these breaths Expansion, friendly and then releasing, letting go, drawing out what used to be necessary, helpful, adaptive, and letting it go now and then you will bring your hands onto your props to help you up to vertical.
Mandy Ryle:We're going to take the blocks out in front of that right knee and set them up so that you can make, once again, just a stone hinge. It doesn't have to be a perfect stone hinge, it's just. For a moment, turn your body toward those props, bring your right shin so that it is parallel to the long edge of your mat and then bring your left heel, swing it around so that your left heel is in front of your right knee. So what you have is a square shape. And if this is a really tight, difficult spot for you, bring your knees out wider, but keep your heels more forward. Support your knees. If they're way up high, just support them. This is part of befriending, is offering support when necessary. Place on that bolster and you'll tilt your pelvis back and it should jetzt be ready. And then the inhale is for drawing the pelvis forward.
Mandy Ryle:This time the heart and the eyes lift. Exhale for the rounding, releasing, letting go, accepting. Inhale, expand, offering friendliness, peace. Three more of those, and here's our last one. So, with your heart forward, you'll stay and then set up your props however you want to use them.
Mandy Ryle:Are you gonna go for a vertical bolster, something to hug? Are you going to do a ramp with a medium or low setting bolster tucked under your ribs. It's up to you. It's up to you. And then go ahead and lay down on those props as best as you can. Don't worry if you're not in the deepest forward fold. Everybody's different. So it's the left hip now A friendly, expanding, exploring, offering peace, friendliness and an exhale which removes things that may be once, were helpful, useful, adaptive, but are no longer. And that doesn't just mean the subjective feeling of stiffness, it means those negative feelings you have about your hips, those insecurities. Maybe when there's pain it's pretty normal to get a little mad, so maybe you have to let that go.
Mandy Ryle:Three more breaths, okay, you'll press your hands down into something, come up to vertical and this time your bolster you're going to bring over to your left, this time latitudinal, so the short edges of the bolster are to the long edges of the mat. You don't need your blocks, your blanket. If you prefer, you may fold and bring it to the back of your mat, that's to the right, so that you could rest your head on it or you could keep it exactly where it is. And then you're going to take your thighs over the bolster so that you can lay down with your legs supported. Don't worry if your butt isn't super close. No need to bring it closer to you now because you're actually going to step your feet onto it. Step your feet onto that bolster and windshield wiper a little bit side to side.
Mandy Ryle:So let's inhale the knees to the center. Radical acceptance, exhale the knees to the side, alternating, letting go. So knowing that the hips got this way for a pretty valid reason, right, maybe what we're like letting go of is our antagonism, and maybe that will help you to release some of the stiffness. It's possible. Radical acceptance in release on the out, one more to each side. And then the next time the two knees are vertical, send the legs out long over the bolster, make sure your heels can touch and bring your heels out about as wide as your mat. Rest your arms. Let's take a moment just to notice the hips. Observe them now, right and left, front and back. Even notice the inside of the hips. What's in there? Of course, some of the most important stuff of all. I invite you to stay in this position, in this shavasana, for as long as you can today. Thank you, as always, for sharing your practice with me.