Hi, I have a problem, I’ve been doing yoga for 3 years and I’m quite serious about it. With certain things I get faster or slower progress but my hips are really stiff. I have had various teachers, some say that we’re all the same, I just need to keep trying and it’s a block in my mind, but some say people are just built differently and it might be that that’s juts the way my hip joints are built. So which one is it? I try to do all of the hip opener postures but they hurt so much I just want to cry. When I was still in high school I was able to do the lotus and all but now I’m nowhere near. How do I figure out what I can and cannot do? Thanks!
Hello Margot,
First, it is challenging for me as a yoga teacher to give you the best possible feedback as you’ve not shared enough in this post for me to do so. I don’t know if your Yoga practice of three years is a slow-moving Viniyoga or a frisky power vinyasa. I dont’ know if you are 27 of 67. I don’t know if you’re leading an active life or a sedentary one, and I don’t know how you are living in terms of nutrition and lifestyle.
Are we all different? Absolutely! Are we all the same? Absolutely. In the practice of yoga we learn about contradictory yet complementary things. This prevents us from rooting in dogma and flexes the fabric which connects our cranial bones.
While you and I share a very similar DNA structure we are also inherently unique. Add to this that what we come into the world owning we spend a bit of time adding to. In other words, you have that which you inherit and that which you create. This latter element is what makes your living, your resting, your nutrition, your thoughts, your feelings, and your self-exploration (cumulatively called “your choices”) part of your hips.
I also want to mention that Yoga practice itself has just enough leeway for misinformation, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation. I mention this as a preface to the concept of a difference between poses that require hips to be open and poses which facilitate hips to be open. Again, here you’ve not outlined “hip openers” and so I don’t know if you are doing Supta Padangusthasana which is a hip opener, or Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (pigeon) which [I]requires[/I] hip opening.
If you are doing poses which require open hips and you do not have open hips you will likely experience more pain than growth and the practice may become unpleasant to the point of repulsion. If, on the other hand you are doing appropriate poses for hip opening AND that is very painful then we should look at how you are doing them (alignment and actions) as well as potential ways to modify them so that you can find a deep sense of joy in the doing.
As you likely know from your three years of practice, the practice itself should balance effort ([I]tapas[/I]) with contentment ([I]santosha[/I]). That means while trying to grow yourself as a person (including physiologically) you are also quite content with where you are right now - yet another contradictory but complementary set of elements. 
gordon
Margot,
A mental block? No. A shift in awareness? Maybe.
The term “hip opener” is a misnomer in my view: emphasizing an arbitrary value that anticipates something is closed, something needs opening, that there is perhaps a “key” of some kind. A key to what? To where? When in fact, being more comfortable and relaxed in opening your hips (or anything for that matter) is connected to your whole, head-to-toe self. Back away and review your mechanics, your focus.
I would suggest revisiting how you use your breath with your stretching. Ask for more instruction: coordinating inhalation/exhalation, holding and in transition, be more focused and deliberate, more complete. If you do, you might find that blockage or tension lie elsewhere in the spine, the shoulders or neck. Sometimes a slight shift in focus is the “key.”
peace,
siva
Hi Margot,
I feel your frustration. Forward bends have been my bug-bear. It changed for me when I accepted where I was in terms of flexibility and just enjoyed the pose, going into it only as far as I comfortably could. Before this I would always strain, and I think this slowed my progress. What you resist, persists. So now I think if I don’t improve my flexibility, that’s OK, I’ll get alot of other, more profound, benefits. So I say enjoy your yoga practice and accept your hips and self as they/you are. By the way, my forward bends are coming along, slowly.
just enjoy the process, the ride, if we were all “gumbies” and amazingly flexible there’d be no challange in yoga. Gymnastic people would make the best yogis, and they do not.
the goal isn’t to get your leg behind your head it’s to learn about your true inner self along that journey using the physical effort for better self understanding. There’s no goal for the asana, no final destination, no completed pose, you’re always moving into the post. Where you are is where you are and that’s it.
some struggle with hamstrings, some hips, some shoulders. It’s the journey that’s important. Some will never be able to get their heels down in downward dog. There’s nothing wrong with that.
just breathe into the hip area and don’t worry about what you feel you should be able to “do” or “accomplish” or where you "should’’ be. That’s a trap. there’s no timetable. Sometimes just letting go of such goals will actually help you take the next step.
I can remember a gymnast telling me the Russians use to take x-rays of youngsters and weed out the ones that would be limited in the sport, something to do with how the bone structure is, some hips rotate in some rotate out? Anyone every heard this before? I have taken notice people who easily do Upavistha Konasana (seated angle pose) usually have a challenge with Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose) and vice versa.
Margot,
Has your teacher watched you move in, remain and move out of the poses? (speaking of hip openers, sorry Siva. Just lack of better words at the moment) Is your practice balanced? Do your hips move? Sounds silly, but many students think their hips are moving when they aren’t. Either stand or sit and squeeze hips tightly as you move forward. You should stop when your pelvis stops moving. Period. Another question is how are your hamstrings? Tight or pretty loose?
Abduction, adduction, flexion and extension of the hips need to be worked, strengthened and stretched.
Talk with your teacher. Ask her to watch you. And go from there. Don’t resign yourself to oh, well that’s the way it is.
Best of luck! Hang in there.
@Ray,
I’m one of the lucky ones who has no trouble with either. Upavistha Konasana is my favorite asan. Hands down. But I struggle with Utkatasana of all asans. Go figure!
@ Margot, It?s always nice to see certain individuals walk into class knowing I?ll have an aspiring pose to point out.
Hips are made up of tremendous amounts of intertwined connective tissue they are huge storage depots for collecting stress, it takes time to open em up and ease the tension, the good thing is when hips open they usually stay open and it feels good. I will admit I?ve seen gymnast and dancer come into class impressively moving through routines; flexible, strong, balanced but also mindful of control, breath, focus and disciplined. But having said this, I like to think it?s not about who does the most impressive asana but more about who feels the best afterwards; understanding why helps some individual?s progress in more ways than they originally intended, one thing leads to another.