Spacious Hips

Welcome. Join me in a practice to find a bit more ease, spaciousness and mobility in our hips and through our hip joints. So for this practice it'll be nice to have a blanket to start with on your mat to help us move around and strap will be useful as well later on in our practice. So find your way onto your back and take a few moments to settle making adjustments, bending the knees, bringing feet about hips width apart, open your arms up into the shape of cactus or goalpost arms. We'll begin to warm our spine starting with some cat cow and breath work. So keeping your pelvis on the floor, let's move into the arch position. As you inhale, lift the lumbar spine up, move into your shape of the back, bend, arch the back and as you exhale, curl the tailbone under, navel to spine, lower back finds the floor, feeling that strong scooping in the deep low belly. Inhale, arch the back, let the chin soften down, exhale, curl the tailbone under, navel to spine and continue finding your own pace and rhythm articulating the spine. Inhale to arch, chin softens down, exhale, curl the tailbone under, the head rocks back and up as the jaw softens. Couple more rounds here articulating the spine nice and easy through the eyes and inhale to arch, exhale, curl. This time as you inhale, arch, exhale, curl, press through the feet, lift your pelvis up like an inch just a smidge as you press through the feet, feel that strong scooping in the deep low belly, lower the pelvis, take a big breath into the belly, arch the back, exhale, curl, press through the feet, baby bridge, press through the feet, lift the pelvis up an inch, lower down, inhale, breath into the belly, arch the back, chin softens down, and exploring the full range of movement through your spine, exhale, press, lift up a little, feel that strong scooping of the belly, let's find one more, inhale, arch, exhale, curl, press, hover and lower down, take a moment here, pause and relax the effort. Okay from here as you're ready go ahead and stretch your legs out and stretch your arms overhead, we'll find a full body stretch here coming into our supine tadasana or mountain pose, feel how you can begin to engage your legs, so drawing your toes towards the face and increasing the stretch through your hamstrings, you can keep a soft bend for your elbows here or if it feels good, you might bring your fingertips around your elbows, drawing your toes towards your face, might feel the navel draw towards the spine, so your front ribs drawing down and in, the low back, the tailbone lengthening towards your heels, nice, and then just begin to stretch a little bit more through your inner right heel and then lengthen through the right elbow, nice, right side of the body lengthens as the left hip hikes up and then stretch and lengthen through inner left heel, left elbow, right hip hikes up, feeling that ease in the neck, a few more times on each side gliding, lengthen through the inner right heel, right elbow, notice if the head naturally wants to fall to one side, lengthen through inner left heel, left elbow, right hip hikes up, maybe the head rocks towards the right, a few more times, feeling this gliding through the sacrum, the hips hiking, as you lengthen through inner heel, elbow, you feeling some movement through the ribs, nice, good, and then last moment here, lengthen evenly through the elbows, evenly through the legs, inhale and then exhale, relax the effort, bend the knees, let's find some windshield wiper action, feet nice and wide, cruising on to the inner outer edges of the feet, now your palms might be up or down, whatever feels best, and then you might here emphasize the arching of the back, so as your knees fall to one side, let your back arch, lift the kidneys, the low back, up and in and gaze opposite the knees, and do that on the other side, a few more rounds like this, nice and fluid through the hip joints, the spine up through the neck, nice, and then stretch the legs out on the floor again, pause, legs nice and wide, keep your legs where they are and just turn the toes, the feet in towards each other, finding the internal rotation and then external rotation through the hips, feet fall away from each other, and again, internal rotation, external rotation, and then we'll move into the leg flaps, so keeping your heels where they are, relax the effort through the legs, the muscles, the bones, and like windshield wipers, in and out, in and out, in and out, make sure it feels okay in your knee joints, and a few more times, just relaxing here, flopping, in and out, in and out, in and out, good, and then pause, and notice how you feel, feeling you're sensing some warmth or vibration, clearing breath, inhale, exhale, release, let's explore a little bit of unwinding work, kind of building on our windshield wipers, so keep your right leg long, go ahead and bend your left knee, ground the sole of your left foot, let's rotate our palms down towards the floor, so the hands are right out from the shoulders, you're going to keep your left foot on the floor, but let the left knee move across the midline towards the right, and then press through the inner edge of your right foot as your back arches, moving into the shape of the twist here on the floor, and then let your head gently rotate away towards the left, beautiful, and then unwind, and just let your left hip and knees swing open, like a casual open tree, and then exhale, left knee moves across, press through the inner edge of the left foot, let your back arch twist, enjoy the stretch, beautiful, unwind, and let's continue a handful of rounds, left hip and knees swing open, exhale across, press, arch twist, gazing towards the left, unwind, open the hip, and let the knee move across the midline, press, arch twist, and unwind, and maybe there's two or three more rounds at your own pace with the breath, and relaxing the muscular effort, and tapping into the fluid body and unwinding here, yeah, left hip and knees swing open, exhale, knee moves across, press through the inner edge of the left foot, let the back arch, gazing across towards the left, and then unwind onto your back, when you feel complete with that side, just go ahead and stretch the leg out, relax the effort, open the palms, take a moment, pause, attract a feeling through the body, there's a bit more space through the left hip joint, the flow of blood, circulation, lymph, little vibrations, clearing breath, inhale, exhale, release, you're ready, feeling into our second side, stretching your arms out, let's turn the palms down again, bend your right knee, ground the sole of the foot, and as you're ready, just let the right knee move across the midline to the left, keep the foot grounded, press onto the inner edge of the right foot, let your back arch, and begin to twist, kind of gazing towards the right arm, keep that right arm heavy, and then just slow, unwind, right hip and knees swing open like a casual tree, exhale, right knee moves across, press, arch, enjoy the stretch, gazing to the right, unwind, continue at your own pace with the breath, twisting, unwind, right hip and knees swing open, exhale, right knee moves across the midline, press through the inner edge, arch the back, twist, enjoy the stretch as you gaze to the right, open the hip, inhale, exhale, right knee moves across to the left, press, arch, twist, maybe there's two or three more on this side, find that ease in the neck, nice fluid movement here, inhale, hip and knee open, exhale, right knee moves across to the left, press through the inner edge, arch the back, twist, unwind, open, inhale, exhale, twist, arch, just unwind onto your back when you feel complete with this side, stretch the legs out, stretch the arms out, palms open, and notice how you feel, and pouring your awareness down through the hip joint, noticing any movements or sensations in the inner landscape, clearing breath, inhale, exhale, release, from here go ahead and bend the knees and bring the soles of your feet together, knees wide into a baddha konasana and take a few moments to settle here, and then as you're ready you will go ahead and bring the hands behind the head, interlacing the fingers and pause here, opening the lungs and the shoulders, feel how you can press the elbows down into the floor and activating the shoulder blades, opening the chest, and keep your lower body where it is and just slowly begin to draw your legs towards each other, coming into an internal rotation, bring the knees together, feet on the floor, finding that internal rotation and then nice and slowly, slowly working with gravity, or against gravity, and letting the hips open, coming into your baddha konasana, external rotation, and again slow drawing the knees towards each other, toning the pelvic floor, hips, and then just slowly opening the knees, hips, and then adding on from here, so with your elbows wide begin to go into your arch position, so lift the lumbar spine up, you're moving into the shape of the back bend here as you open the chest, and then exhale manually, lift your head up off the floor, draw your knees together, curl the tailbone under, press your feet on the floor, slowly lower down, elbows wide, hips open, knees wide, go into your back bend, arch the back, exhale, lift and curl, bringing the knees together, feet on the floor, elbows towards each other, all these butterfly sit-ups, elbows wide, legs wide, arch the back, exhale, lift and curl, lower down, arching, opening lungs, elbows, hips, exhale, lift and curl, and one more together, elbows wide, knees wide, arching the back, exhale, drawing the knees together, curl the tailbone under, bringing the elbows towards each other, and then lower down, good, and stretching the legs out again one at a time, stretch the arms out, take a moment to pause, feel the weight of the body, the weight of the bones drop, and notice, nice clearing breath, inhale, exhale, let's hug the knees into the chest, rock a little bit from side to side, and stretching the legs up for a moment, just circling out through the ankle joints, through the wrist joints, both directions, feels really nice, hug the knees back in, from here we'll transition up to a seat, so you might rock and roll up, you might roll to one side and pause, use your arms to press yourself up, we'll come into a seated barakonasana or seated butterflies, you might sit up on a blanket or you prefer a bolster, a little bit more height, we're gonna work with our strap here, it's not essential but it's nice to have one, and we're gonna bring the soles of the feet together, knees wide, bring your heels in towards your pelvis, as far as feels right for you, if you're working with any knee sensitivity or achiness in the hip, you might even bring a block or support underneath the knee, and let's go ahead and bring the strap around the bottoms of the feet, like so, and then bring the strap on top of the legs, and the strap is really just support to help find that extension and lift through the spine, so kind of opening up so you can hold the strap and then draw the spine into the back and feel that beautiful broadening through the front body, the chest, collarbones, softening through the jaw, so feeling the essence of like your mountain pose, your tavasana here, feeling this opening through the groins, the hips, letting the knees release towards the floor, and tuning towards the quality of the breath here and the spine, notice if there's any hardening in the back body, in the back ribs or the kidneys, see if you can find some kind of fullness or awareness there in the back body as you continue to lift and lengthen and open, just a few more moments in this seated meditation in baddha konasana, and jaw relaxed, even allowing your inner ears to open, lovely, you might stay with this a bit longer when you feel ready to release, you can go ahead and remove the strap, keep the right foot in, we'll stretch the left leg out on the floor and bring the sole of the right foot towards the inner thigh, taking a few moments to pause here, as you know this is one of my favorite shapes, together let's inhale stretch the arms up, feel the extension through the spine and exhale we'll twist to our right, bringing the left hand on to the right leg, right hand behind you, flex the left foot, inhale again, draw the spine into the back, feel the length through the front body and then exhale just a gentle twist to your right, breathing, feeling the rotation of the ribs, the lungs, stay on the twist, slowly rotate your head forward and maybe over your front left shoulder as you breathe in, exhale let the body unwind and slide the left hand down the leg towards the shin, inhale reach the top right arm up towards the sky, feel how you can root and lengthen, adding a little bit more space through right lung ribs, you might take it up out and over, you might bend the elbow, opening up through the shoulder and then just kind of resting the back of your head into the hand as you open up, this feels really nice, you might stay right where you are, if and as you need to feel more you might continue your journey into the side bend here, of course breathing into where you feel it, finding a place where your neck feels good, so maybe for you that's rotating the head down towards the floor, when you feel ready, inhale come all the way back up, release the arm, pause, feel that first wave of breath, exhale, release and then slowly, mindfully free the right leg, you might lean back, draw the left foot in, bend the knee, open the hip, bring the sole of the foot towards the right leg, bye, take a few moments to settle in flexing your right ankle and as you're ready, inhale, feel that beautiful length in your spine, exhale twist to your left right hand on the left leg and inhale to lengthen, find a little bit more space in the front body, exhale gently twist towards the left, my visualizer sends that spiral up through your spine, from the tailbone all the way up, the turning of the ribs, the lungs, the gaze, and find that quality of fullness in the back ribs, if there's any hardening or rigidity there, a little juice through the right foot, stay in the twist slowly, rotate your head forward, maybe stretching over the right shoulder if that feels good, breathing in, exhale to unwind, pause, sliding the right hand down the leg, inhale, reach your left arm up, this feels so nice, you might stay right here, you might begin to reach it up out and over, extend and lengthen through the arm or if you'd like to bend the elbow, support the head, feel the back of the head, and a rest in the hand, breathing here, and stay right where you are or continue the journey over, find that ease in the neck, take your time, stay here a bit longer, and when you're ready, inhale, come all the way up, exhale, release, pause, and then mindfully lean back, breathe the left leg, shake it out. From here, let's transition into a side saddle position, bringing the right leg forward, the left leg back, so you might bring your blanket out from underneath you, so the front leg is an external rotation and the back leg is an internal rotation, just take a few moments to settle on your side saddle position, good, and then from here, we'll begin to twist a little bit towards the front right knee and then begin to walk the hands forward, so you'll most likely feel a bit more sensation there through the right hip and the piriformis, and then what would it feel like to slide and lengthen through the left arm, and finding that ease in the neck, most likely feeling a bit more sensation through the left side body, through the ribs, and through the right hip. A few more moments here, breathing, and take your time slowly walking the hands back up, and just twisting to the right, bringing the left hand onto the right knee, right hand behind you, and inhale to lengthen, and then exhale, twisting to the right, and finding that appropriate edge of rotation and sensation through your body, and if you'd like again, stay on the twist and slowly rotate the head forward, and maybe stretching over the left shoulder again, breathing in, and then exhale, unwind, and pause, feel a wave of breath come in, exhale, release. Slowly and mindfully, we'll find the other side, so reorganize your legs, bringing the left leg forward, the right leg back, take a few moments to settle in here, and mindful of your back knee, begin to rotate forward towards the front left leg, and maybe walk the hands forward, you might pause when you first begin to feel something in your left hip, you might stay right where you are, you might experiment with sliding your right arm forward as you release the head, and kind of feeling the ribs, and the more sensation through the left hip, easy through the neck, and breathing, and you're welcome to stay here, work with this a bit longer, and when you feel ready, just slowly begin to walk your way up, and just continue twisting towards your left, right hand finds the left leg, left fingertips and arm behind you, and inhale to lengthen, and exhale to twist, few breaths here, stay in the twist, and slowly rotate the head forward, maybe continue rotating over the right, front right shoulder as you inhale, and then exhale, unwind, pause, and allow for an inhale, exhale, and mindfully free the legs, and we'll transition into a tabletop position, so on a reorganized, so you might even bring the blanket back underneath your knees for support, and let's come back into our tabletop cacao for a few rounds, spreading the fingers, tucking the toes, inhale, arching, exhale, curl round, stretch the back, inhale, drop the belly, lift the heart, exhale, curl and round, continue a few more rounds at your own pace, and you might circle through the hips, up through your ribs, shoulder blades, and neck, eventually easing your way up and back towards downward dog, spreading the fingers, tucking the toes, begin to lift and reach up through your sitting bones, and here in your downward dog, it might feel nice as you bend the knees and lift up through the sitting bones, bend the right knee and just stretch the left calf and heel down towards the floor, bending the left knee and stretching the right calf and heel down towards the floor, and a couple times like this, pedaling out the feet, now waking up the knees, the back of the legs, hamstrings, eventually take a moment to pause and settle in your down dog, and lengthening through the spine, releasing through the neck and the head, and then when you feel ready together, let's walk our hands and feet towards each other and pause in the standing forward bend, uttanasana, so let your feet be about hips width apart, bend the knees a lot, let yourself dangle and release here, feel the weight of the head releasing, the weight of the upper body, slow as you're ready, soft bend through the knees, chin into the chest, curl the tailbone under and we'll slowly roll up together with the head last, pressing through the feet, tap into the strength of the legs, sort of unfurling the spine, feeling the heart, feeling the shoulders, feeling the head, and pause, just let, let your energy settle, let the blood settle back down into the feet, and I feel this spontaneous reorganizing of the spine, now let's pause for a few moments into asana before we move into a few standing shapes in asanas, spreading the toes wide, even soft bend through the knees, you might bring your hands onto your lower belly, feel that gentle kind of drawing of the abdominals in, the support there, there, the tailbone descending towards the heels, drawing the energy up through the inner arches of the feet, up through the inner lines of the legs, feeling the essence of support from the pelvic floor up through your spine, and feel the skull gently drop back and slightly up, the chin softens down, might let the palms open here, a few more moments in asana, mountain pose, bottoms of the feet opening, and is spacious through the pelvis, the hips, and generous through the heart, notice the quality of the breath, still allow for an inhale, nice full deliberate exhale, as you're ready, let's go ahead and step the feet wide coming into a warrior tube, we'll internally rotate the left thigh and foot, and externally rotate the right thigh and foot, so the right foot is parallel with the mat, take a look down, so the right heel is in line with your left inner arch, and let's go ahead and bend the right knee, so the knee is tracking over about the second third toe, kind of rooting through the outer edge of the right foot, and lengthening the inner thigh, rooting through the outer edge of the left foot, and then from here, opening the arms up, feeling the lift up through the spine, the essence of tadasana, as you open up through the palms, and feel that energy up through the spine, the heart into the hands, from here we'll move into our warrior dance, as you're ready on an inhale, press through the ball of your right foot, right leg straightens, arms reach up, and on your exhale, right knee bends into your warrior tube, again inhale, press through the foot, straighten the leg, arms reach up, exhale, right knee bends, warrior two, let's find three more with a breath, inhale, gather the energy, arms reach, exhale, right knee bends, warrior two, inhale, arms reach, exhale, warrior two, eventually let yourself pause for a few moments, and feeling some internal ease within the effort, within the intensity, beautiful, and then hands on the hips, press through the ball of your right foot, straighten the right leg, we'll internally rotate right thigh and foot, externally rotate left thigh and foot, on a reorganized, check out your foundation, bending your left knee, and see how that feels through the hip, lengthening the inner thigh, left knee tracking over second, third toe, feel that intentional rooting through the outer edge of the right foot, okay, this is a dynamic shape here, dynamic asana, and then float the arms, feel the tadasana through your spine, see what it feels like to turn the palms up, soften a high's jaw, as you're ready, let's stand, inhale, press through the ball, the left foot, arms reach, exhale, left knee bends, warrior two, and inhale, arms reach, left leg straightens, exhale, left knee bends, warrior two, let's find three more with the breath, inhale, arms reach, exhale, warrior two, two more, inhale, exhale, taking up space, last one, inhale, press, reach, lift, exhale, warrior two, pause, feel the support of the abdominals, the length through the tailbone, ease through the face, as you're ready, hands on the hips, press through the ball, the left foot, and then internally rotate left thigh and foot, and let's just heel toe, heel toe the feet back into mountain pose or tadasana, pause for a few moments and notice how you feel, feel a bit of sensation through the thighs, the legs, the hips, letting the palms open, and allowing the body to reorganize, and a clearing breath, inhale, exhale, release, one more time, step the feet wide, internally rotate left thigh and foot, externally rotate right, coming into your warrior two, bending the right knee, we'll pause, and a transition towards extended side angle, from here as you're ready, float the left hand down the leg, inhale, reach the right arm up, coming into your reverse warrior, and then exhale, side angle, bringing the right forearm on to the right thigh, and sweep the left arm up towards the sky, we let the palm kind of turn open, and fan the fingers nice and wide, you might stay right here, feeling the space between the right shoulder and the ear, you might sweep the top arm overhead, feeling that internal rotation through the shoulder, feel the turning of the ribs towards the sky, the rooting from the outer left edge of the foot towards the fingers, it's a beautiful stretch through the left side body, and find a place where the neck feels good, maybe that's looking down towards the floor, as you're ready, strong for the legs, stay low in the legs, inhale back into your warrior two, hands on the hips, press through the ball of your right foot, we'll find the other side, internally rotate right thigh and foot, externally rotate left, bend the left knee, settle in, warrior two, take a moment to pause, moving into our reverse, slide the right hand down the back leg, inhale lift the left arm up, keep the left knee bent, feel that space through the left side, and then exhale side angle, left forearm on to the left thigh, now your right hand might stay on the hip, as you kind of revolve the rib cage in the lungs, you might reach the right arm straight up to the sky, feeling the energy, you might reach the arm over the ear, finding that internal rotation through the shoulders, as the bottom lung spins up, as the ribs revolve, and they're rooting through the outer right edge of the foot to the fingers, breathing here, find that ease in the neck, and stay low and strong through the legs, as you inhale rise back up warrior two, press through the ball the left foot, turn the foot in, this time toe heel the feet just a little closer together, feet parallel, hands on the hips, inhale lift and lengthen the spine, exhale hinge at the hips, forward fold, releasing the hands, maybe there's a soft bend for your knees here, and then walk the hands forward for hammock, bend the knees, shift the hips back towards the back, and feel the heart begin to soften towards the floor, hmm beautiful stretch for the spine, the hamstrings, like a variation of our down dog, with the legs wide, breathing, from here walk the hands back underneath the shoulders, go ahead and toe heel the feet a little closer together, heels and toes out, begin to bend the knees and move towards a bit of a squat, find what feels right for your body, your knees, your hips, your heels, might even bring a blanket underneath the heels or support, if it's available, might bring the hands together towards the heart, feeling the space through the front body, jaw softening, from here we'll transition into a standing forward fold, hands come down, toe heel the feet underneath the hips, soft bend through the knees, forward fold, as you're ready we'll roll up slow, chin into the chest, curl the tailbone, press through the feet, take your time to slowly unfurl, stacking the bones, feeling the heart, the shoulders, the head, nice full exhale, letting the palms open, feeling the shoulders release, allow for a exhale, feel the moments here in Tadasana, resting in the space and energy, nice, using our way into tree pose, like combining some of these elements here, just start by grounding through the left foot, spreading the toes, you might even work near a wall or piece of furniture, rooted and grounded through the standing leg, affirming the hip, and then external rotation through the right hip, just like our warrior two, our extended side angle, you might press the heel towards the inner ankle, maybe it's the calf, maybe it's the upper inner leg, you might bring one or both hands together at the heart, feeling the integrity of your spine, allowing for the movement, right, the wobbling, steady your gaze, okay, you might keep the hands right where they are, you might reach the arms up towards the sky, letting the energy move through the body, right, like a tree, feeling and tapping into the organic nature of your tree, balancing effort with ease, fluidity, eventually you might bring the hands together at the heart to allow for an inhale, exhale, release, and just shake it out, get good at shaking it out, letting it go, releasing any tension through the hip, standing leg, and we'll play with the other side, grounding through the opposite leg, maybe it's the right foot, and just kind of feel your energy, feel yourself land here, bottom the foot opening to the earth, feeling the support of your standing hip as you draw it in, and then we're externally rotating the left hip, like our warrior two, and you might press heel towards the inner ankle, maybe it's the calf, or above the knee, the upper leg, notice what you prefer to do with your hands, the hands are at the heart, feel how the heart can rise up to meet the hands, letting the shoulder blades gently hug into the spine, steady your gaze, your drishti, what is the quality of your breathing and your inner experience here, balancing on one leg, you might keep the hands where they are, you might reach the arms up towards the sky, and you tap into the feeling of tadasana, and the feeling of mountain pose here as you balance on one leg, nice, take your time when you're ready, joining the hands together, take a moment to pause, feel your center, and when you're ready, exhale, release, and shake it out, shake, shake, shake, let's bring the feet nice and wide apart, and let's release the spine side to side, swing the arms, kind of push off from the ball of the foot and feel that pivot through the hip, yeah, just allowing yourself to release and move energy, you more might notice one side of the back feels a little tighter than the other, few more moments here, eventually settling, breathing, palms open, soft and through the knees spacious, through the hips and the pelvis, the heart, healing the inner space and vibrations, let's bring the hands together at the heart, rubbing the hands, and a few quarter sun salutations, hands at the heart, breathing in together, exhale, pressing the hands down towards the earth, soft bend through the knees, grounding the energy, then inhale, press through the feet, arms reach up, maybe a slight back bend as you feel the lift through the back of the heart, exhale, hands together at the heart, just allow for an inhale, exhale, press hands to earth, your inhale, open the arms, sweep up, and exhale, hands together at the heart, last one together, breathing in, exhale, inhale, press through the feet, inhale, gather and reach, and draw it to the center of the heart, taking a moment to pause here, rubbing the hands together, gathering the energy of the practice, bend the knees, and then let your energy expand, and release, bringing the hands together, thank you for joining me, let's practice today, wishing you a beautiful day or evening, namaste.