Why Are Your Hips Tight?
Why Are Your Hips Tight?
Most of us hold unconscious tension in our hips. Sometimes it feels achy or heavy, but often we don’t even realize how bound up we are until we need to move or stretch our hips in an unfamiliar way.
One reason we are tight is quite obvious - we sit a lot. When we sit, our hips are stagnant in one position and don’t move through their full range of motion. The less range of motion we tap into - the more used to one or two positions these large joints get. Then, when we ask them to so something out of their ordinary - they get a little crabby.
The other reasons may not be as obvious.
Think about your physical reaction to anger. For most of us, the reaction is a clenched jaw, and tense shoulders. That same clenching happens to your hips when you feel threatened.
Your nervous system is a network of nerves that is responsible for telling the muscles whet to do. Many of the nerves’ endings live in the fascia, and it’s their job to “sense” danger and communicate that information back to the brain. The hips, which are the largest weight bearing joints in the body, are surrounded by lots of fascia and nerve endings.
So, every time your body “perceives” a threat, it’s likely that you clench your hips. When there is a threat, the body’s reactions are to fight, flee, freeze, or fawn. The hips are required for all of these actions.
If you are fighting, it’s likely you are using your hips for kicking.
If you are fleeing, you need your hips to activate to run.
If you are freezing, you are likely curling in the fetal position - bending at the hips.
If you are fawning, you are likely repressing emotions - many of which go to live in the hips.
Unless you have a regular yoga or stretching practice, and your hips get lots of movement through their entire range of motion - you probably never release the full tension of these experiences. So whether it’s one big scary thing (Big T Trauma) or lots of little scary things (little t trauma), or a combination of both, it’s likely that you are storing muscular tension and deep emotions from life’s experiences in your hips.
Because the body keeps the score and holds onto our emotions as well as our tightness, it’s not uncommon for sadness, fear, and other feelings to come up when we stretch the hips in a yoga class. It may be alarming the first time it happens to you (especially if you are usually adept at “hiding” emotions) but we promise, it’s very common and a normal response to the practice. Your teacher isn’t surprised by it and is here to offer reassurance, touch, and a Kleenex if you need one.
The best thing to do is to stay in the pose and use your breath to gently guide the emotions through your body. Sometimes, your body want want to let the tension go yet - after all all of your body’s responses are its way of keeping you safe - even if they don’t serve you long term. This is a very primal instinct to protect you.
I often joke about when the body tries to shift tension rather than release it. It’s like “The Body Keeps the Score” Hoarders Edition. Your hips will be like “welllllll we can let it go but maybe not get rid of it JUST YET - maybe we could just shift this old tension into the shoulders instead - never know when that danger might return and we’ll need it again?” Your body may try to shift the tension instead of releasing it, but over time with a regular practice, you will begin to let it go.
If you are looking for some poses to begin to stretch and release your hips, some of our favorites are:
Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose)
Low Lunge
Kapotasana (Pigeon)