Hips

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Easy pose

Cues:

• Find a set where you can lengthen your spine from tailbone to the crown of the head
• You may need to elevate your hips to allow you to straighten your spine
• Sit in a crossed legged bending each leg with one shin in front of the other

bound angle

Cues:

• Sit in a comfortable position that can allow you to lengthen your spine from tailbone to the crown of the head
• Inhale and place the soles of your feet together
• Exhale and allow the knees to fall out wide feeling a stretch through the inner parts of the thighs
• To increase the intensity you can

1. Bring upper body forward leading with your chest moving from the hips 
2. Bring your knees closer to the ground
3. Bring your heels in closer towards your hips

• Once you reach a sticking point you can allow your back to round and your chin to fall towards your chest
• If you move deeper into the stretch ensuring the movement comes from the hips

Elevated bound angle

seated figure four

figure four

Cues:

• Start in back bridge prep on your back, arms at your sides, soles of the feet flat on the and hip distance apart with your knees pointed straight to the ceiling
• Inhale bringing the left foot off of the ground and placing the left ankle across the right thigh 
• Exhale allow the left knee to fall to the side
• The intent is to feel a stretch in your left glut and outer part of the left hip
• If you have the openess you can inhale and bring the right knee towards your chest and possibly reach through the legs with one hand and the other coming to the outside of the right leg holding onto the right hamstring
• There are two ways to feel more intensity in this streatch

1. Move the right knee closer to the chest
2. Move the left knee away from the chest

figure four wall stretch

Cues:​

• Sitting on the floor bring your right hip to the wall with the legs extended out in front of you
• Keep the hip as close to the wall as possible bring your legs straight up the wall with the feet pointed towards the ceiling
• Bending your right knee place the sole of your foot on the wall pushing your hips away from the wall
• Inhale and bring your left ankle onto your right thigh externally rotating the left hip 

Figure four twist

Cues:

• Bring your legs into a figure four position
• Bring your arms straight out wide from the shoulders like airplane wings with palms down
• On an exhale drop your right knee and left foot to the right side and turn your head to the left
• If your left foot reaches the ground ensure that your left knee is pointed towards the ceiling
• To get more of a stretch in the left hip keep the foot and knee on the ground and inch the right knee towards the right armpit

frog

Cues:

• Start in table top pose
• Bring the knees out wide with a bend in the knees towards a 90 degree angle
• Engage your feet curling your toes towards your shins and allow the inner part of your feet come close to the floor
• Come down onto your forearms
• To intensify the stretch you can bring your knees out wider or push seat back towards your heels

half frog

Cues:

• Start in table top pose
• Bring one knee out wide with a bend in the knees towards a 90 degree angle
• Engage your foot curling your toes towards your shins and allow the inner part of your feet come close to the floor
• Extend the opposite leg out long behind you
• Come down onto your forearms
• To intensify the stretch you can bring your knees out wider or push seat back towards your heels

baby cradle 

Cues:

• Start in a comfortable seated position where you can have a long and strong spine and both legs extended out in front of you
• On an inhale lift your left foot off of the ground in towards the midline of the body externally rotating the hip with the left knee pointing away from the body
• If you are open enough to you can place your left foot on the inside of the elbow and/or wrap your left elbow around your left knee cradling your leg like a baby

Dragon Fly

Cues:

• Find a comfortable seat with your spine long spine and both legs extended out in front of you
• Keeping a long spine and keep the legs extending bring your feet away from each other
• Inhale feel your spine lengthen from your tailbone to the crown of your head on an exhale leading with your chest begin to bend forward at the hips bringing your upper body down towards the middle of your legs

Half Dragon Fly

Cues:

• Find a comfortable seat with your spine long spine and both legs extended out in front of you
• Bend your left knee and bring the sole of the left foot to the inside of the right leg
• Inhale feel the spine lengthen
• Exhale leading with the chest, bending at your hips come straight forward with your upper body coming straight over your left shin

Deer

Cues:

• Find a comfortable seat with your spine long spine and both legs extended out in front of you
• Bend your left knee to approximately a 45 degree angle with your left knee pointed out to the side 
• Bend your right knee so that your right foot is pointed back behind you 
• Place the sole of your left foot on your right thigh above the knee
• Inhale and feel the spine lengthen
• Exhale and turn the upper body towards the right side

Dragon

Cues:

• Come into a low lunge position
• For more padding under your back knee you can use a small foam block or fold the side of your mat in
• Inhale bring your lead foot to the outside of the mat placing your hands on the inside of the foot
• Feel the front hip come back and the back hip pull forward so that the hips come into a more neutral position
• On an exhale start to bring the knee of the lead leg forward towards the toes

upright dragon

Cues:

• Come into a low lunge
• Bring your right knee approximately an inch in front of the toes
• Bring your left knee back until you feel a stretch in the left hip flexor
• On an inhale place both hands onto your right thigh
• Push forward into your thigh with the heels of your hands and bring an arch into the back feeling an increased intensity of the stretch in the left hip flexor

Dragon with Hip opener

Cues:

• Come into a low lunge position
• For more padding under your back knee you can use a small foam block or fold the side of your mat in
• Inhale bring your lead foot to the outside of the mat placing your hands on the inside of the foot
• Feel the front hip come back and the back hip pull forward so that the hips come into a more neutral position
• On an exhale start to bring the knee of the lead leg forward towards the toes
• On an inhale turn the lead foot to a 45 degree angle pointing the toes to the top corner of the mat
• Exhale and allow the lead knee drop out to the side externally rotating the hip

Firelog

Cues:

• Begin in easy pose
• Start by have both shins on the ground with the right leg in front of the left
• If you still have more mobility you can bring your right shin on top of the left with the right foot at the left knee
• An alternative is to bring the left leg out long and place your right foot on your left thigh right above the knee

Goddess

Cues:

• Start in mountain pose
• Bring the feet out about a foot past shoulder width and turn both feel out at a 90 degree angle
• Inhale bring the arms overhead
• Exhale bend into the knees pushing the hips back while at the same time bending the elbows to a 90 degree angle with the palms facing forward

happy baby

Cues:

• Start by lying on your back
• Inhale bring both knees into your chest 
• Keeping the tailbone on the ground bring the knees out wide with the soles of the feet facing the sky
• Reaching with arms on the inside of the legs hold onto the outer edge of each foot 

Half Happy baby

Cues:

• Come onto your back 
• On an inhale bring your knees into your chest 
• Hold on to the shin of the right leg
• On an exhale extend the left leg out long
• On an inhale bring your right arm on the inside of the right leg
• Keeping the right arm on the inside of the right leg hold on to the outside of the right foot bring your right knee towards the outside of the body and in towards the chest
• On an inhale extend your left arm out wide like an airplane wing

Hero

Cues:

• If you are comfortable kneeling on the mat come into a kneeling position with a long spine
• An alternative would be to put a yoga block under your seat behind you bringing your knees together and your feet on either side of the block
• If you are open enough to from a kneeling position place your feet on either side of your hips and lower your seat to the ground
• A progression would be to use a small foam yoga block

IT band twist

Cues:

• Start by lying on your back holding both knees into your chest
• Extend your right leg fully, straight ahead and on the ground
• Place a strap over the left foot
• Bring the upper leg and your hip towards a 90 degree angle
• Keep your knee as bent as you need to to bring the hip and leg further towards a 90 degree angle
• Hold onto the strap with your right hand and extend your left arm straight out from shoulder like an airplane wing with the palm down
• On an exhale allow your left leg come across the body towards the right, twisting through the spine. 
• Turn your gaze to the left

pigeon

Cues:

• Your front leg should out towards a 90 degree angle at the knee, with the outside of your shin placed on the ground and the hip externally rotated
• Ensure that the toes of the front leg are curled towards your shin 
• Fully extend the opposite leg behind you straight from your hip joint
• Depending on the length of the hold the toes of the back leg may be tucked or untucked
• If you are open enough to you can start to bend forward at the hips bringing the upper body close to your front shin possibly coming onto your forearms or resting your head on the ground
• If this pose creates pain in the knee of the lead leg an option is to come into figure four pose
• You can also place a bolster under hip of the front leg

pigeon with quad stretch

Cues:

• From pigeon with the left leg forward place your left palm on the ground and bring the left arm towards straight bring the upper body towards an erect position
• Inhale bend the right leg and bring your right heel towards your seat
• Reach around with the right arm and hold on to the right foot stretching in the right quadriceps
• If you feel balanced enough with a strong sense of stability in the left hip joint you can bring right hand off of the ground and the torso towards an even more erect position

Revolved Goddess

Yoga Squat

Cues:

• Begin in extended mountain pose
• Bring your feet wider than shoulder distance turning your feet towards a 45°
• Exhale bring the palms together and the hands through the centre of the body bending into the knees and lowering the hips towards the ground
• Come to whatever openess you have once you have reach the end of your range of motion bring keeping your back straight and bring your elbows to the inside of the hips pressing out against the knees

Clam Shells 

Cues:

• Come onto your right side supporting your head​
• Put bend your knees to a 45°
• Exhale and lift the top knee up and out - externally rotate at the hip
• Inhale bring your knees together with control

Hip Adduction

Cues:

• Come onto your right side and support your head
• Place your left foot in front of you right side with the sole of your foot on the floor and your knee pointed to the ceiling
• Exhale and keeping your right leg straight and lift it off of the ground
• Inhale and lower the back down to the ground slowly

Shoelace

Cues:

• Come into an upright seated position
• Extend your left leg long out in front of you
• Cross your right over top of the left thigh feeling intensity into the outside of the right hip
• To bring more intensity into this pose you can then bend the left leg bringing your heel towards your seat

wishbone

Cues:

• This is a lot like shoelace, but on your back
• Start on your back 
• On an inhale bring both knees into the chest
• On the next inhale cross your right leg over your left 
• On an exhale bring your heels in towards your seat and hold on to the outside of each foot pulling the knees into the chest

Groin stretch with strap

Cues:

• Lying flat on your back with a strap in your hands
• Bring your right leg out long in front of you on the ground with the foot engaged and the toes curled back towards the shin
• Place the strap over the ball of the left foot and bring the leg to a 90° angle at the hip 
• Place both sides of the strap into the right hand and the left arm out wide like an airplane wing
• On an exhale drop your left leg out wide to the side stretching through the inside of the left side

Fire Hydrant

Cues:

• Come into table top
• Set strongly in your pelvis
• On an inhale keep your pelvis in a neutral position externally rotate through your left hip bringing your knee up and out like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant
• As you lift the leg ensure that both sides of your pelvis are even - avoid having one side stacked over the other

Elevated Hip rotations

King Arthur Wall Stretch

Cues:

• Come the wall
• Bend your left leg and place your shin and the top of your foot on the wall
• Bring your right leg forward into a lunging positioning with your knee directly over your ankle with your hands on either side of the front foot
• If you need more intensity in the stretch begin to bring the upper body up and your hands onto the right thigh