Hip opener with blocks

Out of all the different type of yoga poses, my major love got to be anything that’s related to hip-opening. In yogic philosophies people view hips as an area where people stored negative, pent-up energies, especially those related to relationships and control. One thing I know for sure whenever I come out of a hip-opening posture, I feel a good stretch in my entire body and a general shift in energy inside me as I definitely feel more relaxed.

When I first encountered Seated Wide Angle fold in a class, I was dumbfounded on how could someone bring the entire front part of the body to meet the floor. I could not even place my forearms down on the floor without rounding my back and the teacher actually asked me to take a step back and just straightened my elbows, with hands on the floor. When the class ended, I asked the teacher for tips on hip-openings and he kindly demonstrated the following to me.

1. Place two blocks against the wall in this manner. 

2. Lie on your right side of your body, with your bum and feet touching the wall 

3. With your left palm on the floor, pushed and flipped onto the blocks. Make sure your bum is touching the wall, that really assists you in giving yourself a goooooood stretch! Your hips and lower back on the blocks.

5. Open wide your legs to a comfortable width. Don’t worry about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone here because we will be staying in this pose for more than 10 mins! When you relax into this pose i.e do. not. tense. up. those. muscles. you will realise Gravity will be doing the job for you. After a few minutes, if it feels okay for you, widen the width that little bit more. There’s no need to flex those feet as well. 

6. You can chose to observe your breath… or the more common-man-way will be to use the phone while waiting for time to pass. 😀

7. After 10-15 minutes, bend your knees and slightly bring your feet together to meet. Shake your legs! Flip to your left side, off the blocks. (If you find 10 minutes too long for you, you may want to start off with 5 minutes first then gradually increasing the duration)

Hope this little tip is of some help to you!

Love & Light, Kaiwen April Weekend YTT Batch