Joy of Open Hips

Thank you for joining me today for the joy of open hips. Let's get our hips open and start now. So we're gonna start at the top of our mat. And a squat. I'm going to use a block because you're just gonna be here for a little bit. So, I'm gonna have a block at the high setting. I'm gonna bring my feet wide I'm gonna start to sit down on that block and wiggle my feet out so that my ankles are right under my knees.

My knees and my thighs are open and I'm gonna bring the hands to the heart and just very lightly pressing the back of my arms and my inner thighs together. And I want you to actively press the inner thighs and the outer arms together and then relax. We're gonna do that a couple more times. So actively press the inner thighs, the outer arms together. Relax.

One more time. Press, press, press, press, and relax. And then from here, with your thumbs, just deliver your forehead right into your thumb. So we're bowing the chin in towards the chest. Should feel a slight little bit of pressure here of the thumbs and the beginnings of the eyebrows. Really lovely pressure point that helps to open up the sacrum. Homes to release through the low back and through the hip joint.

Close your eyes for a moment and just allow yourself to experience a release of the tail, the release of the low back, and the beginning of the opening of the hips. Notice any gripping, any grabbing of the inner thighs. Let the inner thighs relax. Allow your jaw bones who relax the belly of the tongue to move away from the roof of the mouth so that we find lots of space and the throat. Stay soft through the low belly so that as you're ready, you can begin to deepen your breath.

Once you breathe in feeling the belly dropping down. And as you exhale feeling the belly drawing in and slightly up, and let's take a few more. Big, full inhales, belly, expanding, dropping down, exhaling, belly drawing in, and slightly up. One more time. Big full inhale. Big full Excel. Release your hands down to the mat, lift the buns up to the sky, Walk your feet in any amount.

If you were sitting on a block, just move it off to the side. Keep your knees bent here and just sway side to side for a moment. Give the head a good shake. Yes. And a good shake. No. Maybe blow through your lips softly to release the jaw.

And then from here, we're gonna step our left foot back Keep the right foot quite wide. So our hands are inside of the right foot. You're gonna lower your back knee down. I look for us to bring our hands nice and wide at an imaginary tenant 2 o'clock so that you can start to fit your right knee into your right armpit. It's gonna feel quite snug.

And let's just start to circle the hips. So we're just waking up the hip joint, getting all the good juices flowing through the hip joint, take it in the other direction. And then we'll find stillness. Bring your hands inside of your right foot. You could stay on your hands, or for the lizard, maybe coming down into the arms.

Let the right foot peel open. Let the right side peel open if it wants to. We're just here for a few breaths. Move the shoulders back. Crown of the head forward.

And then we'll come back up onto our hands. Right foot for a moment is gonna go to the left side of the map finding our pigeon. We'll slide down onto the top of the back leg, top of the back foot, come down into your forearms, Maybe resting your head. We're not here for long. We're just finding a soft awakening.

So feel the heart moving forward. Feel the tail moving back. And let's take a couple of big inhales. Big exhale. One more time. Big inhale.

Big exhale. Come up into your hands. Lift through your chest, tuck your back toes, lift your back knee, right leg floats back, downward facing dog. Take a moment here. Just move your feet.

Open up the backs of the legs. I like to circle my hips a little bit in the down dog. You might find it nice to bend your knees quite deeply and pulse the chest in towards the thighs. Maybe give the head a good shake. Yes and no again.

And then finding stillness. Take a nice big breath in. Big breath out. Take your right leg high to the sky. And let's step or walk the right foot forward between the hands coming up into warrior 2.

So really wide stance here, right knee on top of the ankle, back leg, super charged, drawing the belly slightly in and up. And for this practice, bring all ten fingers together. Just you really start to utilize the arms as well. There's a slight tipping back of that right hip flip your right palm up, reach up and back, keep your right knee moving forward for peaceful, and then pressing into the ball of the right foot. Start to extend your right leg.

Keep pressing into the ball of the right foot so we find a soft little bend to the knee. Start to reach the right arm forward. As you reach forward, see if you can hug your right hip back. So we're finding some neutrality here in our hips. Reach for it as far as you can.

Keep that right hip hugging back, bring the back of your right hand inside of your right shin or feels better, just let the right hand rest on the right shin. And then start to lean gently back, turning your right eye up to the sky. Maybe letting that left arm reach up. Trikonasana triangle. Moving the left shoulder back, moving the right shoulder back, using the back of that right hand and the right shin to turn those right ribs up to continue to find a back bend in the shape.

Keep pressing into that back foot. Just five more breaths here. Big full inhales all the way down to the belly. And exhales emptying and releasing. Couple more as you keep reaching up through the left fingertips.

Reaching down through the right fingertips. And then when you're ready, let's come up reverse triangle Right arm reaches up and back. You're pressing into the ball, the right foot. And then from here, we're gonna bend the right knee. I'm gonna grab my block.

I'm gonna place it slightly in front of my right foot and outside of it as we shift forward into half moon, Arda Chandraasena. So I like to be on the fingertips. Your hand could be down. Find the big toe of the right foot. Left leg is lifting.

Hard flex to the left foot. So left leg is extended. Once we feel that we find our balance, search to spiral the right ribs up, maybe left arm reaches up to the sky. So feeling that beautiful opening and stacking of the hips, of the heart. We'll take 3 more breaths.

And if you fall out, you fall out, just come right back in. Last inhale and exhale. Softly piece for your left foot lands. Right arm reaches up and back. Right shin moves forward.

Cartwheel your hands down. Downward facing dog. Let's come forward into a plank halfway down. Chaturanga. Upward facing dog or baby cobra, fold the hips up and back downward facing dog.

Take a moment. Feel the difference between the right and the left side here. Take a big breath in. Take a big breath out. Inhale the left leg high.

Let's step the left foot outside of the left hand. Bring your hands wide. Let your left knee fit into your left armpit. Again, it's gonna feel snug and that's good. We're gonna circle the hips. A nice little massage, the armpit, little lymphatic drain, go the other way, Find stillness.

Bring your hands inside of the left foot and you might stay here, or we might come down into our forearms. If your left foot left thigh wants to open, allow it. Just here for a few breaths. Heart moves forward. Tell moves back.

Come up into your hands. Left foot. Over to the right side of the mat, finding our pigeon. So sliding down into that back leg, coming down into the forearms, Perhaps the forehead finds some support. Shoulders are back.

This breathing. Relaxing through the belly, noticing the difference between the right and the left side. One more inhale and exhale. Go ahead and come up into your hands. Lift through your chest.

Tuck your back toes. Lift your back knee. Let's step back into downward facing dog. Peddling out your feet. Just for a moment.

And then we'll raise our left leg high to the sky. Our left foot's gonna step. We'll walk it forward between the hands coming on up into our warrior 2 on this side. So nice wide stance. Pressing into the back foot so that back leg is super straight, super strong, left knee on top of the ankle, soften through the shoulders, You're moving that left knee forward and then let's zip all ten fingers together so we activate the arms.

Peaceful warrior left palm flips up, reach up and back, send your left shin forward. And then find the ball of your left foot press into it to extend through your left leg. Keep the contact of the ball, the left foot. So that we keep a soft bend to the left knee and then reach and lengthen 4 as much as you can. As you reach in length and forward, your left hip's gonna hug back.

The back of your left hand finds that inner left shin. And then let your left eye spin over to the right and up for our triangle. Maybe the right arm reaches up. But we just feel that stability in the legs, the openness of the hips, keep hugging the left shoulder back, the right shoulder back, Breathing into the belly. Few more breaths.

And then come on up reverse triangle, left arm up and dot. Warrior 2 half moon. I'm gonna grab my block, place it outside and slightly ahead of the left foot as I shift forward into the left leg. Lift the right leg up. Keep the gaze down as long as you need to. Pressing into the big toe of the left foot, lift the right leg high, feel the hips peeling open the heart, and then right arm maybe up to the sky.

Maybe we start to look up past the fingertips of the right hand for a few breaths. And then peaceful warrior, right, foot lands, Left arm reaches up and back. Heart wheel it down. Downward facing dog. Find your plank.

Halfway down Chaturanga, upward facing dog, downward facing dog, Carefully lower to your knees, finding all fours. So from our hands and from our knees, They're gonna move into puppy pose. So you're gonna keep your hips where they are. We're just gonna crawl the arms as far forward out in front of us as we can. And start to lower the chest down towards the earth.

So some of you, your chin will comfortably rest in the mat. Some of you will be your forehead. We want those hips up nice and high. I'm gonna feel the nice opening through the back of the heart. And let's take 5 more breaths here.

Stir and melting down, belly filling, and expanding. 2 more breaths. And then carefully as you're ready, press back up into your forms. Bring your hands back. Circle your hips a couple of times.

And from here, I'm gonna move into a really powerful hip opener. One of my favorites and it's frog. I'm gonna recommend, especially if you are in a hard surface, that we have a blanket. You're gonna take a blanket, fold it up so that it's nice and wide, east and west on your mat. From here, I'm gonna bring my knees onto the blanket, and my knees are gonna be quite wide.

So usually about as wide as the mat, maybe a little bit wider. And then I'm gonna start to find the puppy post, so where we just were in my upper body and melting the chest down. You might stay right here. So this is tadpole. This is like a little baby frog, and this might be enough, which is great.

If you wanna move into full frog, Open your feet out, ankles under the knees, soft flex to the feet, drop the chest down, and breathe. So as we breathe here, Feel the rib cage expanding. See if you can release any holding, any gripping, and the hips, and the glutes, the inner thighs so that the breath can move all the way down into the hip joint. Notice that the forehead is scrunched up, but it relax. And the next five breaths, long, slow inhales, and slow exhales.

2 more. And now we wanna carefully come out of the shape So first, I'm gonna lift my head. I'm gonna lift up onto my elbows. I'm gonna crawl my hands back. And if I've opened up into the full frog, first thing I wanna do is bring the big toes back together. Last thing I'm gonna do is bring the knees together, and we're gonna rinse this out.

So just circle the hips, move it around. Anyway, that feels good. And then we'll come off of our blanket. We'll fold the blanket and set it off to the side. We're gonna come onto our backs.

It's come onto your back. Bring your feet onto the mat as wide as the mat. And let your knees come together to touch for a moment. Just so we feel the sacrum, we feel the low back, really making that contact with the earth. And then we're gonna bring our knees into the chest.

Take your left leg and swing it around the right leg. Drop the knees over to the right, finding twisted roots. So it's quite a deep twist. If it's too much, unwrap the legs and just drop the knees over to the right. We can let the left shoulder just melt down so the left collarbone is open.

Left palm is up to the sky. My right hand might be on my left side or it might be down by the side. Close the eyes, let the breath slow way down now, and just feel all that space that you're opening up in the back of the hip now. Few more breaths. Last one.

Scatten your knees in. Unwrap your legs. Set your feet down to reset the spine and just pause for a breath. And then we'll bring our knees in, take the right leg around the left. Let's drop the knees over to the left.

Let the right arm open up. Let the right shoulder relax. With the breath be full. Let's feel all that space in the back of the right hip opening up now. Take a couple more breaths.

Last one in here. And exhale. Guide the knees back in. Set the feet down. Take a quick breath and then hug the knees into the chest.

Grab the outer edges of your feet, the backs of the thighs of the big toes, and let's find a nice happy baby. So just opening up the legs, rocking side to side, feeling all of that space that we've opened up through the entire hip joint. And then squeeze the knees in. Let your right leg go long. Let your left leg go along with the arms respire sides just for a moment.

Let's take a quick shavasana. So allow in this moment every muscle, every bone, every piece of your tooth surrender. The hip joint is the largest joint in our bodies. We've done quite a bit of opening and movement. So just let all of that settle in.

And you are so welcome to stay here. Or if you would like to come up with me, start to wiggle your fingers, your toes, reach the arms up over your head, stretch the whole body, hug the knees into the chest, and then roll over into your left side, use your right hand, come up, finding any comfortable seats, I'm placing both of your hands on the center of your chest, closing your eyes. Bowing your head towards your heart and just celebrating all of the space that you have opened up today in your practice. Thank you for sharing your practice with me today.