8-Minute Yoga to Relieve Tension in Your Hips

Jaffer Hussain is a certified yoga teacher who specializes in athletic training and adapting your yoga practice to everyday life. Here, he leads a mini sequence to release tension in your hips.

If you spend any part of your day sitting, practicing hip stretches is a must. As the junction between your upper and lower body, your hips take on a lot of referred tension. Certain muscles, including your hip flexors, remain contracted when you sit, making stretching them not only essential but very, very satisfying.

If you need any additional reasons to give your hips the attention they deserve, the region is also thought to store pent-up emotions. Basically, loosening things up is beneficial all around, and this short yoga practice offers the perfect place to start.

Hip Stretches: 8-Minute Yoga to Relieve Hip Tension

You will need two yoga blocks for your practice. If you don’t have access to blocks or block-like props, tent up on your fingertips to give yourself more height.

Tabletop Pose

Begin in a Tabletop position. Hips should be stacked over knees, wrists beneath shoulders, fingers spread wide.

Take 1 full breath here.

Low Lunge

Now, reach for your blocks. Step your right foot forward in Low Lunge. Tuck your back toes and lift your torso a bit higher by placing your hands onto blocks or coming onto your fingertips.

Take one inhalation here, lengthening through your spine.

Half Splits

As you exhale, shift your hips back, straightening your right leg in Half Splits.

Repeat this pattern of movement 5 times with the pace of your breath.

Runner’s Lunge with Toe Stretch

The next time you come back through Low Lunge, lift your back knee into Runner’s Lunge.

Begin to shift your weight back and forth at whatever pace feels right to you, bending into your front knee and stretching your toes.

Three-Legged Dog

With your hands on your blocks, ground through your left foot and exhale your right toes toward the sky in Three-Legged Dog.

Pigeon Pose

With your inhalation, send your right leg forward, bending into your right knee. Bring your right shin somewhat parallel to the top edge of your mat and lower your back knee in Pigeon Pose.

Lengthen through your spine, placing your hands on your blocks or coming up on tented fingertips for additional height. Stay here for 7 full cycles of breath.

Downward-Facing Dog

When you’re ready, tuck your back toes, step your right leg back to meet your left, and lift your hips in Downward-Facing Dog.

Stay here for 4 cycles of breath, pedaling out through your feet and swaying your hips from side to side.

Child’s Pose

You’re welcome to move through a vinyasa here, finishing back in Downward-Facing Dog, or simply land your knees, shift your hips back over your heels, and take a breath in Child’s Pose.

When you’re ready, come back to Tabletop and repeat the following poses on the opposite side:

• Low Lunge
• Half Splits
• Runner’s Lunge with Toe Stretch
• Three-Legged Dog
• Pigeon Pose
• Downward-Facing Dog

Child’s Pose

Finish back in Child’s Pose. This time, take your hands off of your blocks and bend your elbows, stack your fists to create a pillow, and use them to support your forehead.

Stay here for 1-3 minutes or as long as you’d like.

Closing

Press yourself up to a comfortable seat, either kneeling in Thunderbolt or with legs crossed in Easy Pose. Bring your hands together at heart center and enjoy a full breath here, thanking yourself for taking the time to make it to your mat today. (You’re hips will thank you, too!)