Hi Guys,
I have been training for many years now; namely weight training and various forms of CV with very little stretching I might add. I decided to take up Yoga to incorporate stretching into my training regime and increase my flexibility. I have been practicing Yoga for about 2 months now and have noticed significant improvements in most areas of my flexibility, however I seem to have a problem improving my flexibility in my left hip. My right hip flexibility has improved a lot but my left doesn?t seem to have improved at all. My left hip is so tight that I cannot sit in the ?easy sitting? cross legged position; my left knee sticks up at about 45? and I feel like I?m going to topple over backwards. This is still the case when sitting on a block. I think it is the external rotation that I am having difficulty with although I?m not entirely sure. It is very frustrating not being able to sit comfortable in this or any other cross legged position. Can anyone please tell me if this is a common problem and if I can expect my left side to catch up with my right after a period of practice?
Your advice will be very much appreciated, thanks
John
I’d suggest you do more relaxation when sitting in that posture. You have to feel that hip and try to imagine that wtih every inhalation you bring more positive energy to that hip, and with every exhalation you exhale tension and “bad energy” from that hip. I’t won’t loosen up if you try to stretch it forcefuly, only while consciously relaxing and relaxing that part of the body. But while relaxing you should be in maximum extension position.
Asymetry in the body is very common even for experienced practitioners.
So “yes” to your first question.
Expectations in yoga are to be released. The practice is about awreness and process rather than result.
The catching up of your one hip to the other depends on your practice my friend. Tell me how you will work and I will tell you if it’s likely that method will bring you to balance in your hips.
Hi, thanks for the replies.
You ask me to tell you how I will work; I’m not sure what you are asking me here, please explain.
Thanks
im real tight in the lower body as well, i have to stretch a good bit before i can even sit in india style (or easy pose)
if you take ace bandages and wrap them around your knee this helps (based on iyengars teaching of using straps to pull behind the knees)
also the pose called “Pigeon pose” works great.
also kneeling (virasana) with your heals touching your butt is good, youll probably need to put folded blankets under your ankles and under your butt, but be careful putting stuff right behind your knees (you dont want to stretch your knees out too much…let the flexiability come from yuor hips, focus on the hips more than the knees for safety…knees are very delicate)…the more advanced version of this pose is when you psred your heels apart keeping your knees together and then sinking your butt to the floor (dont even try dude).
also you need to learn how to breathe into a stretch, when you inhale your tummy gets bigger causing mroe intense stertch, then on exhale it gets smaller and relaxes a little (assuming youre breathing properly)
also when you sit in indian style remember to switch your legs back and forth.
also bending forward with your tummy hitting the ground first then the rest of the upper body followiong is a good stretch for all of the above poses.
also in my iyengar book all of the standing asanas come before the sitting ones, it makes sense to me to MASTER them before you can really attempt much of the sitting poses.
a yoga class will help you a million times better though…its ebtter to practise an hour correctly than 1000 hours incorrectly…its probably beyond your current comprehension how much detail is involved and anything done incorrectly will have equal consequences.
oh and remember that a big part of yoga is devoloping posture, so keep your back nice and straight during all of this…oh and the butterfly pose is great too for opening the hips and building lower back strength.
In your initial post you ask if the hip on one side WILL catch up to the other hip.
The question is, what will YOU be doing. With whom will you be studying? How often will you practice? How good a listener are you? How resistent might you be to new ideas? What changes are you willing to make in your life to open up these hips? How much effort will you put in to finding the right teacher. Will you find a teacher or do this at the local club or from DVD’s?
Once doing asana as direccted will you effort to be gentle with your progress and not compete with others or yourself on the yoga mat?
This is what I meant by “how will you work?”.