The Hip Trip
Hip Equipment
The hips, our largest joints, are a support system for the whole body. The hips enable the pelvis to carry the load of the upper body and work together with the spine to support movement. Spanned by >20 muscles, including some of the body’s most powerful muscles like the glutes, the hips provide stability and enable all kinds of movement as basic as walking and sitting.
The hips are ball and socket joints and must be regularly moved through their full range of motion to stay pliable and supple. When we don’t use the full range of motion that the hips are capable of, hips can become stiff and even immovable. When hips are stiff, new problems are introduced as they increase load and cause mis/overuse of the spine.
Conversely, when hips are mobile and healthy, this can alleviate low back pain and support whole-body alignment. Cultivating hip flexibility and stability can also facilitate balance, circulation, improve posture and range of motion and prevent injuries down the road.
Yoga is great for opening this area. While most yoga poses involve the muscles around the hips and pelvis in some way, we can also think of “hip openers” as a specific group of asanas whose main anatomical function is to maintain and develop a full, healthy range of motion in the hips.
Basic Hip Anatomy
Common Complaints
The bones of the hip include head of the femur (the bulb at the top of the thigh bone) and pelvis. These make up the largest ball and socket type joint in the body, capable of a wide range of motion; these joints also provide stability needed to bear body weight.
Surrounding the bone inside the hip is cartilage and fluid, which enable the hips to move smoothly. Ligaments keep the ball of the joint from slipping out of the socket. Then there's the muscles which surround the hip to both stabilize (protect) and mobilize the joint.
The hips are naturally very stable and while it takes a lot for healthy hips to become damaged, it is not impossible and hip pain or injury can impact the whole body. Typical issues experienced in the hip region include:
General tightness
Pain and discomfort from wear and tear in the ball and socket
Instability walking
Muscular weakness and injury to the muscles, tendons and ligaments around the hip area.
Eventually even immobility
Range of Motion
There are six ways the hip ball and socket joint can move (the femur head can move in relation to the pelvis).
1. Flexion – moving the thigh towards the chest (forward).
2. Extension – the opposite action, moving the thigh behind the torso (backward)
3. Adduction – moving the thigh toward the mid-line (inside)
4. Abduction – the opposite action, moving the thigh away from the mid-line (outside)
5. Internal (Medial) Rotation – rotating the thigh inward
6. External (Lateral) Rotation rotating the thigh outward
These movements can be done in combinations of up to three actions at the same time (one from each group).
Muscles of the Hips
Over 20 muscles are involved in hip movement. These can be simplified into four major groups: the hip flexors/quadriceps in front; hip extensors/hamstrings in the back; the adductors and internal rotators (inner thigh muscles); and the abductors and deep lateral rotators in back (outer thigh and glutes).
Hip opening poses in yoga will have one or two of these groups as their main target area.
Muscle groups:
Hip Flexors and Quadriceps (4 of each) – at the front of the leg and hip
Hip Extensors, Hamstrings and Glutes (3 major and 1 minor muscle) – the back of the leg
Adductors, Internal Rotators and Groin (7 muscles) – in the inside leg
Abductors, External Rotators, Glutes (3 gluteals, 3 external rotators + the IT Band which is a large tendon) – on the outer side and back of hip/butt.
Abduct the leg (wide-legs) to open and stretch the adductors. Adduct the leg (cross-legs) to open and stretch the abductors.
Note on glutes. They perform three main movements: Glutes extend, abduct and externally rotate the leg.
Tension vs. Compression
There are two physical factors which can limit our hip range of motion –
Tension / Flexibility – Flexibility relates to the tightness of the muscles, tendons, and fascia in and around the joint. Tension is the familiar sensation of tissues being stretched. When you are feeling tension, and you stretch your body gently, the tension will decrease over time as the body's flexibility increases and starts to open in response to continued practice.
Compression / Skeletal Differences – Compression, on the other hand, is the sensation of tissues being pressed or pushed together. This means that you have hit a boundary that cannot change over time. This is the skeletal structure of your body reaching its limit: bone hits bone. The ultimate limit to range of motion in hip openers (and all poses) is the skeleton. Bone will not (should not) move past bone no matter how much range can be improved.
Our individual skeletons vary widely, in terms of the width, length and angles of pelvis and femur and how they join. We are also all asymmetrical; often we feel we have a “better side.”
Torsion in the femur
The torsion (degree of twist) in the femur – as bones grow in spirals we each vary from one another in the angle of the knee in relation to the head of the femur. These skeletal differences affect the width of our hips and stance; whether we are more internally or externally rotated, and to what degree we can flex and extend our hips/thighs. This is not to say we can’t all work on hip openers just that different variations and poses will be more effective and accessible for different people.
Hips and Yoga
Yoga moves our hips across all major planes of direction and ensures the hip joint stays lubricated and flexible in both muscles and surrounding tissues. Aim to feel movement in muscles rather than joints (bones and ligaments); further, feel the stretch in the belly of the muscles rather than at the attachment points. Sharp sensation is your body’s message it’s gone too far too fast; gently back out of the posture and try a variation or something different.
A note on the knees: While the hip joint is capable of a large range of motion and rotation, the knee (a hinge joint) is not. Yoga should work for you (not the other way around) and never sacrifice your knees (etc) for the sake of a pose.
You’ve Got Me Feeling E-eemotions
Opening the hips can create an energetic release and shift; it can give us access to freedom in our body and expression. Hip-opening can create space for the birth of new ideas and new pathways.
Yogic tradition holds the hips as a storage ground for emotion—particularly negative feelings related to control in our lives. Working on deep hip tissues can release both physical and emotional tension.
On a physiological level, the muscles of the hips have a relationship with the fight or flight response – we are born with the reflex of flexing the hip to bring us into a fetal position when scared. One of the hip flexors, the psoas, is also connected to the diaphragm, impacting breath.
In particular, restorative yoga, such as Yin, can be quite beneficial as poses are held for longer. The poses are designed to penetrate deep into the fascia, beyond the muscles. This provides a deeper release.
On a psychological level, how we approach hip openers (et al poses) reflects how we approach other challenges in our lives. Hip openers necessitate a soft surrender into the pose, remaining wholly present with the breath.
