There are lots of good reasons why hip openers are so important for the body. Most of us suffer from tight hips caused by modern life – if you hike, ski, run, bike, walk, and/or sit at a desk, chances are that you have tight hip flexors. Hip flexors allow for forward movement and the ability to lift the leg up. They are made of three different muscles – psoas major, illiacus, and rectus femoris (part of the quads).
Over the next few weeks we will be stretching these muscles using a variety of yoga postures, many of which are simple and gentle enough to practice at home. This will have a really positive impact on your health moving forward as we try to regain the openness and range of motion throughout the body, which will help keep us moving as we grow older.
In yoga, hip openers often coincide with emotional release. The hips stabilize us in our daily life and are said to store strong emotions of anxiety, sadness, depression, and being guarded. Whether the mind-body connection is apparent to you or not, you may be caught off guard with emotional release from time to time during and after several hip openers. It is also important to treat the body particularly kindly when practising hip openers. Long, slow, deep breathing is recommended as is taking your time to settle into the postures to really allow for the gradual releasing of tension. Be careful not to pull or overstretch as this can lead to injury.