Healthy + Happy Hips (video)

A whole lot of hip mobility love... Today I've got a great movement for you that not only makes your hip joints happy and more mobile, but will also wake up a whole bunch of different muscles in your legs.

Your hip joints have the potential for a wide range of motion. And if you hip joints are more mobile, the rest of your legs (and back) will feel the love too.

This exercise is a great opportunity to not only get some delicious mobility into your hip joints but to also observe the relationship of the mobility in your hip joints to mobility down the rest of your legs.

Watch the video to see how it's done, and then try it yourself. You'll notice that placing the block in different spots on your legs requires your legs and muscles to work in a new way. One area with the block might be harder to internally and externally rotate than another area.

You can also observe as you move the block to the different spots that one leg may also move differently than the other. Watch the angle of your feet and how that might change with the block in different spots.

What I love about this exercise is that though you are always internally and externally rotating your legs from your hip joints, depending on where the block is placed, you will have to work a little differently in each variation. Which provides a more diverse experience for your legs and wakes them up in a whole bunch of new ways. So delicious!

HOW TO:

- If you have tighter hamstrings and find it difficult to lift your legs into the air, place a bolster, block or pillow under your pelvis to make it a little easier to lift your legs.

- Take a yoga block and place it between your ankles and a little bit down toward your calves.

- Internally and externally rotate your femur bones (thigh bones). Think less about muscular action and more from the bones and hip joints. Make sure you are Initiating the movement from your hip joints and not your ankles or feet. Your ankles and feet will move because of the movement from the hip joint.

- Do the movement with the block at your ankles 5 or more rotations.

- Take the block between your knees. Repeat the internal and external rotation from your hip joints, 5 or more rotations. Observe how this variation may feel different from when the block was at your ankles. Observe the angle of your lower legs and feet now that the block is at the knees.

- Take the block between the middle of your thighs. Repeat the movement 5 or more rotations. Continue to observe how this variation feels compared to the previous two. Notice how the legs from your knees to your feet may have changed angles here.