Tight Hips and Shoulders

Stretches for tight hips and shoulders is a common request I hear in my yoga classes. The hips and shoulders are typical areas that get tense because of stress, having to be seated the majority of the day, poor posture, and so on.

But rest assured that with good stretches, you can release a lot of tension. There are a lot of yoga poses and exercises that help a lot and I created this class, specifically targeting the hips and shoulders.

Let’s take a look at today’s class and its benefits.

Child’s Pose Benefits:

If you could only do one pose because you don’t have much time or even space to do yoga, I’d say “do Child’s Pose”. You can do this pose even in bed!

Child’s Pose gentle stretches the whole back, hips and thighs. It’s a very soothing pose and you can prop yourself up with a block under your seat, chest and forehead. 

In the class I’ll guide you through some variations to add a shoulder stretch.

Neck stretches Benefits:

With tight shoulders, it’s quite normal to feel tension in your neck as well. The neck muscles are connected to our shoulders and tension tends to have a ripple effect. By releasing tension in one area, this in turn will have an effect on a (connected) area.

Shoulder Stretches and Shoulder Rolls Benefits:

Learn a few ways to release tension in your shoulders while you’re in a seated position. Whenever you’re at work, you can take a little break and do these simple shoulder stretches from the comfort of your chair.

Now it’s time for the hips.

Low lunge pose benefits:

Stretches the hips and hip flexors

Lizard pose benefits:

This is a deeper and more intense stretch, make sure to enter and to come out of it slowly and mindfully. This is a great hip-opening pose, stretches the hamstrings and lengthens the leg muscles.

Reclined Pigeon Pose Benefits:

Opens the hips and releases tension in the lower body.

You might be familiar with Pigeon Pose, which can be a challenging pose. It’s a pose I sometimes struggle with: it hurts my hips and knees. But Reclined Pigeon Pose is a lovely alternative with the same benefits! And that’s my wish for you, in all my classes, to teach you easy ways to make yoga work for you!

Reclined Butterfly Pose Benefits:

A well-known hip-opening pose that increases mobility in the hips as well as opens and stretches the inner thighs, groins and knees.

Overall benefit of this feel less stiff and more calm and peaceful!