THE BEST STRETCH

Figure 4 is considered “one of the best” stretches you can do for whole-body flexibility. This stretch extends the most powerful muscle groups of the hip, low back, and glutes. These large muscle groups get tight from sitting for long periods, lifting heavy weights, and runners as they extend their legs to propel them forward. The hips are responsible for bearing our body weight, stabilizing the spine/core, and moving the hip up and down such as climbing stairs. Therefore the tighter the hips, the less mobility of your body, poor posture, and misalignment of the spine resulting in a tight psoas (connected to diaphragm) which compromises breathing.

POOR POSTURE+POOR BREATHING=DEPRESSION, FATIGUE, STRESS, HEADACHES.

THE FEELS of the STRETCH

Figure 4 will stretch the outside of the hip and down into the glutes (butt). As you stretch through the glute muscle group (gluteus medius, maximus and,minimus) hip movement is improved, hip mobility is loosened and there will be a stabilization of the hip joint. Tight hips also lead to tight hamstrings which in turn pull on the back of the knee and what started as a tight hip is now tightness in the hamstring and knee and shooting up into the low back region. Hip stretches affect the whole body’s mechanical process and should be done daily to counteract the bad body mechanics we have developed.

THE 4 METHODS OF FIGURE 4

Figure 4 can be done seated in a chair, seated on the floor, reclined on the floor or as pigeon pose. In seated or reclined one-foot crosses over to the opposite knee, the bent knee pushes away from the body and you hold pose while breathing for at least 1 minute. If performing reclined on your back pull the leg with your foot on the floor, towards you feeling the stretch through the entire glute muscle. BREATH!!!! Holding your breath will not allow the muscle to relax into the stretch. Another version is pigeon post done on your belly in which one knee slides up under your belly while the opposite leg stretches out behind you. Press down into your bend knee under your belly, keeping the hip of the bent knee off of the floor. I lifted my abdomen to help you see better in the pictures below.

I FEEL IT IN MY HIPS☹

My yoga teacher frequently referred to the hips as the “body’s emotional junk drawer” I have to admit I thought that was one of the “weirdness” aspects of yoga and yet today I understand from a scientific health aspect better. Somatics is defined as any practice that uses the mind-body connection to help you survey your internal self and listen to the signals your body sends about areas of pain, discomfort, and imbalance. Emotions are the electrochemical signal that will carry our emotional messages throughout our bodies. These emotions are expressed, experienced, or stored. These emotions are carried to our brains to be a positive or negative effect on our bodies.

CONNECTIONS

In last week’s blog, we talked about adrenal glands/adrenal fatigue. These glands are located on the top of the kidneys responsible for “fight or flight” stress. Now to put this all together, if your hips are tight, then your psoas is tight. The psoas muscle begins at the diaphragm located in front of the kidneys and runs down to the top of the thigh. It is easy now to see a picture of the stress being “held in” causing tightness, shallow breathing, gut aches, fatigue, and even rage over the littlest event. We need to let go----stretch out----and breathe deep. Allowing ourselves a moment or 10 moments of stillness throughout a single day😊

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