Home yoga practice for the hips with emphasis on adductors and abductors
This home yoga practice for the hips will help you release tension in the inner thighs (adductors) and strengthen your outer hips (abductors). You will need a yoga block (preferably foam) for this practice. If you have sacrum issues, be very careful with asymmetrical movements.
When our hips feel stiff, stretching them out seems like a good idea, but this is generally not the best course of action. Usually, your hips feel stiff or painful for one of three reasons.
Hi Olga,
Thank you for your reply on the other thread. I appreciate the recommendation of the other sets. I am afraid to do the one to assess the hips, because mine still really hurts. It feels inflamed. I’ll watch the video, though. I know that I can’t get my left hip bone on the floor very well for cobra or any of the locust poses. Same problem when I lift the leg and carry it out to the side in this sequence. It’s fine on the right, but very weak and behind where it should be on the left.
I do feel my inner and outer thighs coming back! My legs are starting to look more like they used to, too. This is a great class. I’m doing it every other day. I do a different set on the alternate days. Thanks again!
I just found these videos and have finally figured out that my years of hip pain are really hip abductors. Nobody diagnosed this properly. For the hip abducctor video, I’m w ordering which of the poses are specific to hip abductor because I noticed that some of these are done in other videos. Are all these poses meant to help hip abductors?
Hi Deborah, I am glad to hear that you’ve identified the problem! The trick is that nothing in the body works in isolation, so it’s proably important for you to work on adductor/ abductor relationship, since they are always trying to balance each other. With that said, if we are being specific, the following poses will work on your adductors (some strengthening them and some stretching them): #6, 8, 9, 10 and 13. I wouldn’t recommend though that you do those in isolation, since you have to compensate for those poses not to mess up something else. If you are short on time, you can start at #5 and finish with #13. Hope this helps!
Olga. Thank you- I didn’t realize you had replied. I’m grateful. Now to show you how powerful your program is… I got lazy the last 2 or 3 weeks and either stopped this or rushed through it. Result- hip pain that keeps me up. So Olga, I’m back to being faithful and just did the full sequence with you. It felt amazing.
This is so generous of you to offer this to us. I’ve shared this with friends and told them how powerful this is. Also, you have a nice way of taking us through this. Thanks again.
Thank you Deborah! I am so happy to hear that it is working for you! Hopefully sometime soon the practice will become something that you only need to do now and again because your hips will return to the natural state of balance; for now it sounds like regularity is the key!
I have been having problems with my hips for more than a year now. Last summer I had a bad case of hip bursitis in my right hip. For whatever reason, they are pretty much always tight. The tightness was particularly bad this morning, so I did an internet search to read about possible causes. I found an article that contained useful info about not crossing your legs when sitting and not putting your feet together in mountain pose. It also contained a link to this video. It’s funny that I found your yoga videos this way, because I love yoga and usually do 40 minutes to an hour each day. I just finished this video and I thought it was wonderful. It relieved a lot of the hip tension that I was feeling. The article that linked to this gave me the idea that maybe I have a habitual way of standing with legs together and inner thighs tight that might be contributing to my problem. I also work on a computer for most of the day, sometimes with my legs crossed, so I guess I need to break myself of the habit. I really enjoyed this video and I will be back soon to try more. Thank you for a great yoga routine – I really enjoyed it!
Hi Elise, thank you for your comment! I am so happy to hear that you found the practice useful! Indeed, it’s often the small things that we do all the time that gradually build up the tension in the hips. Sitting is certainly one of them. Have you tried alternating siting with standing when you work? Changing the routine in small ways can have a great impact. I also have three little routines here that you can do during your day to counteract the effects of sitting (if you have some privacy for that, of course 🙂 http://sequencewiz.org/2014/06/06/stretch-breaks-sitting/ Thank you for reading and commenting!
Thank you for this great sequence! Despite practicing and teaching yoga, I have chronic tightness in my hips. This sequence felt wonderful and challenged my weak areas. Thanks again!
Fantastic Kate, this is great to hear! Yes, unfortunately practicing yoga doesn’t make us immune to hip tightness and other ailments 🙂 It’s always great to find something that helps!
namaste olga – i have had problems with my right leg/hip for about a year now; it has been debilitating as i have been unable to walk any distance because my right let just seizes up and i am limping like someone much older than my 55 years! it thought it was ITB tightness but i actually now think its the adductors and abductors, as i have been experiencing some incontinence issues as well. i tried pilates but to no avail. i have done this sequence and it feels as though so much ‘tightness’ has disappeared. thank you so much. i will incorporate this into a daily practice.
Hi Debbie, it’s great to hear that! Yes, the adductor/abductor relationship frequently goes overlooked, yet an imbalance there can impact our essential activities (like walking!) I hope you adductors will continue to get stronger and those pain issues will be the thing of the past!
Hi, Olga,
I just wanted to thank you. I found your site though your super-popular post on asymmetrical poses, and then the post on hip pain. I’m a former part time yoga teacher who has been suffering from hip pain for years, to the point where I’d pretty much abandoned my own yoga practice. This has been going on for YEARS. I’d been to a physical therapist, an osteopath, and a hip surgeon who ran an MRI and did X-rays, and not one of them thought to question whether my abductors were weak. As soon as I read your article, I realized that my abductors were the problem, and I’ve started doing your practices for the sacrum, abductors and adductors — and I’m seeing improvement already. You’re fantastic! Thank you soooo much!
Heather
Hi Heather, thank you for your lovely comment! I am so happy to hear that my articles has helped you. I hope that your abductors will continue to respond to the practices and wake up to their job of supporting and balancing out the hips 🙂 Please stay in touch!
Thank You! I found this sight last night looking for inner thigh stretches. I’ve been having hip and groin pain for the past 4 years. I only did the first 35 minutes of the video because it was very late. I slept well, less hip/groin pain and today during the day was better too. I am headed to the living room to do the whole hour video now. My experience was much like Olga Kabels. Drs with no good answers. Wondering, my problems began a month after my father died. Is there a connection between grief and the hip/groin area? Sometimes when I try to get into pigeon pose I want to cry because I feel such sadness. Your opinion? Thanks!
Hi Olga,
I followed your video twice and already it has changed a lot of things for me!
I run a lot, which leaves me with really bad pain in my outer thigh and upper butt. So far I had tried to remediate that with stretching (pigeon pose addict if there ever was one!), but I could tell it wasn’t the solution – sometimes I felt worse afterwards. I am super flexible, so it’s hard to get a satisfying stretch without hurting myself.
The pose “standing on the block and holding one leg out” was really hard for me to do (I felt the burn!), which shows me that there is a weakness there. After the practice I feel light and springy, my hips are MUCH happier! And right away I was able to sleep on my side again.
So I have a question for you: is this practice something I could/should do several times a week, or should I alternate it with some other exercises? I do a regular Vyniasa class once a week as well.
Thanks so much for your help!
sarah
Thank you for this lovely sequence. Can I just check if the opposite leg should be straight or bent when doing the hip raises and lowerings?
Hi Avril! Are you talking about move #14? If so, we usually keep the bottom knee bent for stability.
How often should I be doing this routine and how long do you think it will take till I notice improvement. I have a lot of aching and soreness all on the outside of my hips and outer thighs, especially when standing from a sitting position. I can walk it off after 10-20 steps but if I sit again for any length of time and then go to stand it is so sore again. I am assuming these muscles are weak. This was a problem before and then I had bunion surgery on both feet and now it seems even worse, lots of sitting during recovery. Thanks! 55 Years old F
Thank u so much for this video . I have been in almost constant pain in my right leg n hip n saddle bag area for more than a year .. the throbbing pain would wake me up at night .. I did your yoga video and got instant relief.. the constant ache is gone ! Tears of joy stream down my face as I lay in the final pose .. finally an answer to my pain .. thank u and bless u
Hi Ericka! I am so excited to hear about your experience with this yoga practice! I hope that this relief will last. Wishing you speedy recovery!
Hi Olga, I have a tight piriformis on both sides. The right one is tighter, causing me some problems with muscle imbalances. Should I do anything any different on one side or will do the same? I m working my abductors with sidelying leg lifts and gentle stretching for my very tight adductors. One last question, sitting is a big problem for me. The pt told me i have a tight OI on the right. What can I do for that, sometimes it causes a lot of leg pain? I m limited on what I can do at the moment. Lastly what can I do during the day between my excersises? Thanks a lot
Hi Olga,
Love your Hip sequence!
Namaste,
Rebecca
Hi Olga
I found the hip sequence very helpful
Julian
Thank you, Olga. I’m lucky to have found this. I have inflammation and pain from SI joint to big toe and this has really helped. Beautifully delivered. Namaste ? x
Thank you so much! My hips and bum have been hurting on and off for years. Physio wasn’t helpful and neither was massage (they blamed my 2 pregnancies). I will continue to do this practice and I have hope my legs will finally be better!
I hope this helps Michelle!
Olga, I just discovered your website and am so excited to try all of your sequences. Thanks a ton for sharing these 🙂
Yes, welcome to our community, Geetha! Let me know fi you have any practice requests!
Hi Olga, I’ve found your yoga sequences helpful over the last couple of years; especially Releasing Piriformis Tension and the ones for pre and post jogging/hiking. I appreciate the solid and detailed prompts you provide during the sessions. Now I’m branching out and sampling some of the others too. In pose #6 of this workout I find that I feel the muscle exhaustion in the muscles on the outside of my hip of the standing leg, not so much with the moving leg. What is this telling me? That I’m doing this exercise wrong? Or that my stabilizing muscles are weaker than the ones involved with movement? Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Hi Kathe, thank you for practicing with me! In this movement it’s the same muscles (abductors) that are doing both the moving of the leg out and stabilizing your pelvis when you stand on one leg. In our daily life their stabilizing function is more important, because it comes into play every time you take a step. So what you are experiencing is totally normal, it probably just means that those muscles need to be strengthened in their stabilizing and weight-bearing role. One thing thing that’s important to note – please make sure that your pelvis stays pretty stationary and leveled with the ground as you move the leg. Muscle exhaustion is normal, just make sure that you do not have any discomfort traveling into your lower back while you do this pose. I hope this helps!
Hi Olga, I have been having some pretty significant discomfort in my buttocks, hips and groin for the last several months. Until I found this video I haven’t found any relief, so thank you. My question is how often should I be doing this practice? As you can imagine I am concerned about over doing it and having a set back. Can this be done everyday or 3-4 times a week optimal. I am 62 and an avid hiker, and haven’t been able to hike at all for the last 4 months. I will also try the pre hike video. Thank you