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| Can someone give me some insight on compacting the hips. I have been in classes lately where this is the topic. I am in need of this understanding, but am having trouble grasping it.
Compacting hips in standing poses, Supta Padangusthasana etc.......
"To be dull is easy, to be active requires tremendous work." BKS Iyengar |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Oh yes - that interesting instruction! I find it a tough one to teach as the actions are pretty subtle.
Two things to try: the first one is using the arms and shoulders because I find it easier to feel. Stand in tadasana with your hands a foot or so away from your sides, then without making any gross movements of your arms or shoulders, keeping the collarbones and top of the back open, bring the top of the arm bone into the shoulder socket. Keep that action and take the hands up into urdhva hastasana.
Second thing - put a belt snugly around your hips. You need to find where the hip joint goes into the pelvis, so walk around a bit until you find it. We tend to think our legs attach to the body much lower than they actually do. Then stand in tadasana again and see if you can take the leg bones into the hip socket. Again, it is what we used to call an isometric movement, not a gross movement. If you get it right, you can feel the belt getting a little looser.
We have a tendency to relax around the large joints in order to go deeper into poses. In utanasana, for example, we do a good job of keeping the thighs firmly engaged (at least when the teacher is watching!  ) but allow the hip joints to go very slack and the joint becomes too loose over time. I suspect that highly inflexible people are somewhat protected from this. It is the bendy yogis that can run into problems. |
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| I will try this and see what happens, will keep you posted. Thanks for taking the time to answer. |
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| Expert Yogi: Well I tried your first suggestion and I felt much broader in the shoulders and stronger in my legs, but no really feeling the compacting of the hips. Then I played alot with the belt around my hips and felt the difference. Its still a very difficult thing for me to feel. I feel as if I'm gripping my upper buttocks. My teacher is away, so we'll see again next week.
Thanks again.
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| another good trick can be to place a block between your thighs in tadasana.
press your big toe mound and inner heel into the floor, and internally rotate your femurs (thigh bones) inwards.
the brick will give you something to rotate into, giving you more action.
as you practice this inner rotation, visualize the heads of the femur bones inserting into the acetabulum (the bony cavity in which the femur head sits).
it may be helpful to look at an anatomy book...
ask your instructor to further explain this action to you, i'm sure s/he would love to pontificate on the subject and show you additional insight.
the block can also be used in any posture where the legs remain in a tadasana alignment (legs parallel, feet facing forward) that requires inner rotation (uttanasana, urdhva mukha svanasana, etc...)
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learning the mysteries of internal rotation is a lifelong exploration into the subtle sensations of the human body. look for new action every day, and hold a variety of postures for long enough to get a thorough and lasting grasp of any new sensations you have learned. |
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| additionally...
to address the clenching of the buttocks, bring an external rotation into the hamstrings/backs of the thighs from the anal mouth (eww) to the posterior aspect of the outer hip.
it can be effective to use your hands to manually turn the flesh from inner to outer edge, as it can be very tough and non-responsive.
you will find, that the inner rotation across the front of the legs and the outer rotation across the back of the legs creates a unified rotation along the entire circumference of the thigh.
if you picture the thigh as a cylinder, you want the entire contents of that cylinder to be included in the rotation. |
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compacting the hips
