Happy Hips

Thank you for joining me for happy hips. For this practice, we will be using a chair, a block, a strap, a blanket, and a bolster. We're gonna get started in a seat. So come into a seat, moving towards the edge of your chair, reach under, see if we can slide the flesh out from beneath you. So we really find ourselves sitting right on the center of the sits bones. Bring your hands onto your knees so you make a really good fit of the hands and the knees.

Start to pull back into the knees with the hands to lift the chest. Roll the shoulders back. Just take a moment to close your eyes. Take a nice big full breath in through the nose. Exhale out your mouth.

Again, big full inhale. Big full exhale. Skeping your eyes closed for a moment, move your awareness down into your pelvis, down into your hip joint. Just becoming aware of any areas where we feel stuck, where we feel disconnected, and just allowing your awareness to begin to create volume, to begin to help you to excavate space through the largest joint in our body. Feel the sits bones plugging down into the seats.

From the sits bones plugging down, lift the chest. Tip your pelvis forward. So the pubic bone is moving forward. Feel the slight rise through the navel, through the sternum. Sholders are back.

Push your right knee forward into your right hand. And as you push the knee forward into the hand, think that your left hip is moving back and slightly over to its own side onto the left. And now push your left knee into your left hand, and think that your right hip is moving back, and your right hip is moving over a little more to the right on its own side. And do that a few more times. So move the right knee forward, the left hip back.

Move the left knee forward, the right hip back one more time, see if we can get a little more space, right knee forward, left hip back, left knee forward, right hip back. And then push both knees forward into the hands. And then very slightly, just feel as if you could push the heels down into your mat and pull the mat apart with your heels. So we find a little more broadness across the sacrum. Take a nice big full breath in.

XL release. Relax the hands and the arms, gently blink your eyes open. We're gonna grab our one block. I'm gonna place it out in front of you at the lowest setting. Grab your strap We're gonna place the heels onto the block.

So see if you can really scooch forward a little more towards the edge of the seat so we can find that nice forward tilt of the pelvis. Flex your feet. We're gonna take our strap. You're gonna swing it around the balls of your feet, give yourself a lot of room here with the strap. From here, you're gonna pull the strap back.

So we're going to pull the outer edges of the feet in inviting a little more internal rotation through the thighs. Lift through your chest. So as you pull back, keep lifting up through the chest. Draw all the low belly in towards the spine. Keep pulling back into the feet, keep lifting up through the chest.

Relax the shoulders. Push down into your left heel. And as you push down into your left heel, think that your right hip moves back. Push down into your right heel. And as you do that, think that your left hip moves back.

Do that a few more times. So push down into the left, right hip moves back, push down into the right, left hip moves back. Public bone moves forward, lift up, rise up, and just feel that space. Take five more breaths here. And then when you're ready, Just relax, take the strap off the feet.

You're gonna set your feet onto the earth. And from here, just go ahead and windshield wiper your knees ever so softly side to side. Bring your hands onto your thighs, inhale arch the back, lift the chest shoulders back, exhale curl and round into yourself. Let's just move forward and back a couple more times, arching and opening, exhaling rounding. Again, inhale open.

Exhale round, and then come back up. We'll come up to stands. You can move your block off to the side. We'll move our chair a little more towards the top of our mat. Have your strap.

We're gonna place the strap around the ball of our right foot. So from here, what we wanna do is we wanna be able to send our right leg up onto the top of the chair. So that right above the heel, the top of the chair is supporting. And we're able to hold our leg. Bring your hands around the strap.

And as we did before, see if you can pull the strap back so we invite a little bit of internal rotation here through the thigh bone. Lift your chest as you pull back, lift through the chest. Think that you're sending your right hip crease back as you gently push forward through the ball of the right foot. You can keep a little bend to your left knee, lift through the sides of the chest, relax the shoulders. And then perhaps both ends of the strap can come into the right hand, I only can start to reach the left arm up to the sky.

Lift through the chest. Push out through the ball of the right foot. Keep lifting and lengthening up and away from the pelvis. He'm drawing that right hip point back. Let's take five more breaths here.

Let's let your eyes focus on something out in front of you that isn't moving. Giving you that nice soft gaze or drishti. Two more. And then release your left arm down. We'll take our right leg off.

Just take a moment, shake it out. So we keep the chair right where it is. You're gonna step your right foot into the strap. Hips are straight ahead. We're gonna take our right leg back to the top of the chair.

Now, we're finding this external rotation, this opening through the right thigh. Keep flexing your right foot. Pull back with the strap, and think that as you pull back, you could turn the hips forward even more, lifting and lengthening through the sides of the chest. Maybe reaching that left arm, right up to the sky. Five breaths here.

Keep that right foot flexed. Just feel that opening, that external rotation. Give lifting through the sides of the chest. My soft gaze forward. Two more breaths.

And then that left hand comes down, you'll slide your right leg off, shake it out. And let's do the other side. So we'll turn to face the back of the chair again. Step into the straps, the straps around the ball of the left foot. We'll swing our left leg up and over the top of the chair.

We'll start with both hands wrapped around the strap. We're gonna start to pull back into the foot, find the internal rotation so the outer edge of the foot is drawing in. Will flex the foot as we pull back, lift the chest up. So lift up and away from the pelvis. Find that soft gaze out in front of you.

Keep your vision forward, shoulders, relax, and perhaps left hand gets both ends of the strap. Right arm perhaps starts to reach up Rapping the armpit in towards the ear. Keep lifting up and away from yourself. Take up space. Few more breaths.

And then bring your right hand down. Swing your left leg off. Shake it out for a moment. And then we'll turn to the other side. So you'll take the strap under the ball of the left foot.

We'll swing our left leg over the chair. Remember your hips are steering straight out in front of you. Both sides can be quite different. So feeling this external rotation, flex your left foot, pull back into the strap. And as you pull back into the strap, lift up and away from yourself, especially through the left side of the body, right arm may be reaching up to the sky, keep that left foot flex, keep that nice soft gaze straight out in front of you.

Little bit of a bend to the right knee. Few more breaths here. Big breath in. Big breath out. Go ahead and bring your right hand down.

Step out carefully. Release the strap. Shake it out. Shake out your legs. Then we're gonna take our chair towards the back of our mat. You're gonna place your bolster so that the bolster is vertical on your seat with the majority of the bolster hanging off the front of the seat.

You're going to step your right leg through the chair and over the bolster, and we're going to slide our left leg back finding a high lunge. So the bolster is giving us a lot of support here, so that we're not sinking too deep into the pelvis and to the hip joint. We have a nice 90 degree bend to this front knee. And I want you to push down and slightly forward with your hands so that you can lift your chest. And as you lift your chest, move your right hip back, move your left hip forward, and just feel that space through the hip joint, and through the pelvis. I'm going to take five or six big full inhales.

And long exhales. One more big breath in. Big breath out. Keep the right knee, keep the right leg where it is. You're just gonna spin the back foot down about 45 degrees, finding warrior two.

So big opening here through the hips. You may feel as if you're kind of sinking a little too deeply. And if you do, I want you to push down into your heels and lift softly up and away from the bolster. Almost imagining there's a sheet of paper right under the pelvis. Stay anchored into the back foot, so the back knee, back thigh isn't sinking in, But instead, we're pushing down through the foot to continue to lift up and out of the hip joint.

Open your arms up nice and wide. Lift through the sides of the chest, Gazes over the middle finger of the right hand. Take a few more breaths here. And then bring your hands back into the top of the chair, swing your left leg around. You're gonna stand up.

We'll step our right leg out. Take a moment and just shake it out. Notice the difference. Feel the difference between the right and the left side. Okay. Now, we're gonna do the other side.

So we're gonna step our left leg through the chair. Over the bolster, bolster should be right under the pelvis. Our right leg is back, and it's quite active. So I'm pushing back through the heel to keep that back side lifted. Hand are going to find the top of the chair.

Push down and slightly forward so that we can lift the chest up, lifting up and away, making sure we're not sinking too heavy into the hip joint. Take a few breaths here. Keep your vision forward. Big inhale. Big exhale.

One more time inhale. XL. So again, we're keeping this left knee, this left leg right where it is. You're just gonna spin that back heel down 45 degrees, finding warrior two. So nice opening here through the hip joint, open the arms.

Notice if you're sinking. If we're sinking, push down, lift up. So it's like we could slide a piece of paper right under the pelvis. Gazes over the middle finger of that left palm. Low belly draws in. Stay active through the right foot.

Relax your shoulders. Few more breaths. And then bring your hands to the top of the chair. Spin up onto the ball of the back foot. Stand up and step out.

You can take your bolster out. Step your left leg out. And just shake it out for a moment. Just release all of that. We'll move our chair back just a bit further towards the back of our mat.

From here, we're gonna grab our blanket. Place your blanket on top of your seats. So we're gonna move into a variation of pigeon. So you're gonna use your hands into the top of the chair. Bring your left knee left shin onto the blanket.

The shin does not need to be perfectly parallel. Right. The knee will tell you how far you can go. Bring your hands down into the seat and then start to slide your right leg back. Any amount. Now, the tendency here is that we want to dump down.

I want to encourage you to push down into the chair to lift the chest up. Move your left hip crease back, move your right hip forward, and keep lifting the chest. Push back at the same time through the right heel. You can totally stay right here. If you want, bring your hands up into the top of the chair.

Push down and slightly forward, lift your chest and take five more breaths. One more big inhale. Big exhale. Bring your hands into the seat, carefully slide that left shin off. Keep your hands on the seat and just pedal out your feet a little bit.

Maybe wag your tail a bit side to side. Shake your head. Yes and no. And then we'll do the other side. So again, take your right knee or right shin onto the blanket. Don't worry about the shin being perfectly parallel.

The knee will tell you how far you can go. And then from here, start to slide, left leg back. Any amount. Start by bringing your hands into the seat. Move your right hip back, your left hip forward, shoulders out of the ears, lift the chest. So there is a sense that as that left heel pushes back, you're reaching forward and away from that left heel.

You're welcome to stay right here. This is great. Or perhaps bring your hands up onto the top of the chair. Push down and forward, lift up and out even more. Gonna give you more opening and more volume through the hips.

Breathe. Five breaths. One more big inhale. Big exhale. Hands come on to the seat, carefully slide that right shin off one more time.

Just pedal out your feet. Wag your tail a little bit side to side. And we can take our blanket off of the chair. And from here, we're gonna come down into our backs close to the chair. So lie onto your back, bring your feet to the edge of the chair, and just windshield wiper your knees side to side.

Go ahead and bring the bottoms of the feet together. Just allow your knees to fall open for supta baddha konasana. So big toes and her heels touch, thighs are opening. If you would like with your hands, you could trace from the bottoms of your thighs all the way up towards the knees very gently. It's giving your thigh bones a little bit more tractioning right out of the hip socket.

Let's take a few more breaths here. And then carefully using your hands, bring the knees in towards one another, bring your legs up over the chair. Just let your legs relax, let your arms relax by your sides, flip your palms up. Close your eyes. Take a moment to rest here.

Take a moment to receive. To really feel the space that you have opened up, becoming aware once again of the pelvis of the hip joint. Of the low back, become aware of the whole back. The whole front of your body, deepen your breath. And breathe into the whole body.

Take a nice big full breath in. Exhale release. One more time. This time, fill up all the way. I want you to hold the breath at the top. Hold the breath, and then exhale sigh it out.

Will your toes and your fingers, move your head side to side. Bring your feet to the edge of the seat. Roll over onto your right side. Just curl up into a little fetal position just for a moment. And then use your hands, press yourself up finding a nice comfortable easy seat.

Nice tall spine. Placing your hands on your knees, moving the knees forward into the hands, pulling back into the knees with the hands, lift the chest. Close the eyes, turn the gaze down towards the heart, seal in your effort, seal in your practice today with gratitude. Thank you so much for practicing with me, Namaste.