Asana and Alignment Principles: Hips Don't Lie
Your hips are a crucial part of setting up your body's alignment for yoga and everyday life. The pelvis is connected to the legs by ball and socket hip joints. Many of us don't realize we're walking around tilted out of alignment.If you haven't already, start with All About that Base to set a nice firm foundation to set your hips on.[Just so you know, this post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click through and buy something, I will receive a small commission]
Your Pelvis is a Flowerpot Metaphor
Hips don't lie- working on proper hip alignment for yoga poses-- yoga for beginners #asana
In case you don't already know, your pelvis is a flowerpot. Your spine is the stem growing out of the flower pot with your head represented by a beautiful smiling flower at the top. If your flower pot isn't straight, your flower's stem will grow crooked too. And you might lose some soil if you're too far tilted!
This metaphor means you have to start with a nicely aligned, stable pelvis to allow your spine, torso, neck, head, and arms to sit nicely on top and be in alignment too.
Finding Balance
Channel your inner Shakira and rock those hips! Circle them, spiral them, figure-eight them, wiggle around! Warm though your joint and each of your connecting muscles to find what feels good. You may have to go a little bit past comfortable to find the point to reel it back to- where does your body feel perfectly, comfortably right? Usually, you can find that spot through experimenting and feeling it all out.
Check out Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit for great tips on alignment for your entire body->If you're not sure, check out the mirror! Check yourself out from the front to make sure you don't have one side of your pelvis popped up higher than the other.
Then look from the side to check the sway of the flower pot-- this angle is usually trickier. Remember your spine has a natural curve towards your belly button then out toward the tail bone, but you want your pelvis to be straight.
In general, you want these straight, square hips you've discovered in every pose (of course there are exceptions to every rule, for example, hip openers, where the hip joint rotates externally). In poses where your body weight is distributed less symmetrically (like warrior poses) or where your center is shifted (like twists) you still want to keep your hips square. Even in hip openers like pigeon, you don't want to let your weight fall over to the side-- keep it evenly balanced on both hips. It takes some focus, but if you concentrate on those hips for a few practices, I bet it will become natural.
Sacral/Svadhistana Chakra
The hips and pelvis are related to the Sacral Chakra which relates to emotion, sensuality, creativity, pleasure, and enjoyment. It's represented by the color orange.+
Hip Opener Asanas
Marigold Yoga Leggings
There are tons of yoga poses you can do to help open your hips! Stress and emotion are often stored in the hips so opening them helps find flexibility for proper alignment and emotional relief. We all want that! Here are some poses to try.Ardha ananda balasana- half happy babygomukasana- cow face posekapotasana- pigeonagnistambhasana- fire log poseupavistha konasana- wide angle seated forward bendhaddha konasana- reclining bound angle poseSide note: to learn more about Sanskrit for yoga poses, check out 70+ sanskrit words you need to know for your yoga practice
Hips don't lie- working on proper hip alignment for yoga poses-- yoga for beginners #asana