August 16, 2023 • 62 mins
Ever wondered why tension seems to build up in certain areas of your body, like the front of your pelvis and groins? This episode of the Yin Yoga Pod-practice aims to provide answers to this question while helping you find a solution through mindful movement. education and of course, stretching. We unravel the profound connection between your daily habits, lifestyle, and the discomfort you feel in these areas, developing a comprehensive understanding of these correlations.
The goal here isn't just to stretch these sensitive areas, it's to help you understand the gripping and holding patterns in your body, and how to befriend them. We also delve into the emotional states that contribute to tension in the front pelvis and groin providing insights into how you might use these techniques to overcome this pain long term.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Yin Yoga Podcast.
I'm your host, mandy Ryle.
Today's episode is a podpractice which is really going
to focus on a specificanatomical area that would be
the front of the pelvis and thegroins and my goal here was not
just to stretch this area butreally to provide a very
(00:23):
comprehensive experiencing ofwhat is happening here, both
anatomically but also globally,because, as I will explain in
the podcast, I think that thisarea is a little bit like the
canary in the coal mine.
So whenever something is notquite right in the embodied self
(00:48):
, many of us have a tendency toreally grip and hold here, and
for some of us, this grippingand holding is like all day.
Every day can become veryuncomfortable, even painful.
So I wanted to give you somereal actionable strategies for
feeling like you're doingsomething to open up the tissues
, but also some long termsolutions to finding the kind of
(01:12):
comfort here that you're reallylooking for.
For your practice, you willwant to have three blocks a
bolster and a blanket.
As always, I'm very happy tohave you here practicing with me
.
If you haven't already, justmake sure, before your practice
starts, to just hit thatsubscribe button in your podcast
(01:35):
app.
That way, you'll never miss avaluable practice or discussion.
Let's start by setting up yourprops.
We're going to take yourblanket and it's going to go at
(01:57):
the very back of your mat, veryback of your mat.
You've got three blocks today.
Those are all up at the frontof your mat.
Those blocks are at the frontof your mat and for now let's
just have the bolster besideyour mat, okay?
(02:19):
And then, once we've done allour housekeeping, you're going
to come down onto your back.
Come down onto your back withyour head resting on that
blanket.
You are welcome to have yourlegs long or your feet flat,
(02:41):
it's totally up to you.
And since we will be tending tothis front pelvis area, let's
(03:11):
notice this area.
To begin, as you're arrivingalready, bringing the attention
especially to the front of thepelvis.
Notice if there's any movementthere.
(03:32):
Notice any sensations there inthe front of the pelvis.
(03:58):
Do sensations change throughoutthe breath cycle?
If you change your breath, canyou change the experience in the
(04:21):
front of your pelvis?
And then, just for fun, in caseyou haven't already, notice
(04:45):
what's inside of the pelvis.
Notice any sensations present,any movement.
Sometimes, when we notice here,we become aware of the fact that
we're maybe holding or grippinga little bit.
You're under no obligationwhatsoever to release that
(05:07):
gripping or holding unless youwant to.
And then we'll keep the leftheel nice and wide on the mat.
(05:38):
So if the leg is not yetextended, send your left leg all
the way out to the left cornerand bring the sole of the right
foot flat, standing on the soleof that right foot, and walk the
foot all the way to the leftthigh.
(05:58):
So you're still standing on thefoot, but your ankle is against
your left thigh.
And then let this right thighopen up almost like a half
butterfly.
Yes, with control, let it openand then close it again.
Bring the sole of the foot flatagain.
Let's do a few more like thatand try to move with a lot of
(06:24):
awareness.
And it's somehow easier tocultivate awareness when we're
moving slowly and when we'reattempting to move with
smoothness.
(06:45):
And so as you open and closethis right thigh, notice what
comes up now, what experience ispresent now in the front of the
hip, even as you're moving intothe front of the thigh and
sometimes the front of the thighfeels like the inner thigh here
(07:08):
.
Do you notice that, like your,your perception of the front of
the thigh could change based onthe orientation of your thigh.
Okay, and then the next timeyour knee is pointing up, you're
going to stay and you're goingto just heel, toe your foot out
away from your left thigh just alittle bit.
(07:30):
I like to keep my heel closerto my thigh than my toes and
then open up again.
Yeah, so you're going to walkout a little bit and you're
going to open up, and thenyou're going to come back up to
vertical and you'll walk outagain Just a step.
Heel, toe, open up, and you'regoing to keep doing this.
(07:53):
You're going to keep walkingout until your foot is standing
on the long edge of your mat,yeah, yeah.
And if your hips start to tiltsignificantly to the right as
you go wider, I think that'sgood, I think that's a really
functional way to use yourpelvis and your thigh, yeah, and
(08:16):
then, once you get to the edgeof the mat, I'm going to have
you walk back in again, and it'snormal to kind of speed up a
little bit, but make sure you'restill maintaining the
smoothness and the slowness andthe awareness.
Lots of sensation, lots andlots.
(08:42):
And when your foot comes all theway back to the left thigh.
You're going to walk out onemore time.
Walk out one more time, takeyour time.
And maybe this time, if it tookyou four or five steps to get
all the way to the edge, it'sonly going to take you three.
But go slow, right.
(09:03):
So we're not going to speed up,we're going to go the same
speed, but we're going to takebigger steps.
If the hips tilt significantly,let them.
And the next time your foot isall the way out, all the way out
onto the edge and the kneeopens up, you're going to keep
(09:26):
it there just for a beat andbring the knee back up.
Keep the foot on the edge.
Let's do just a couple more ofthese, because this is kind of
the tightest spot, right.
So think of it as like noodling.
You're just kind of noodlingaround seeing what's here and
noticing how the hip becomes thefront of the thigh or the
(09:48):
inside of the thigh.
Yeah, and the next time thatright thigh is open, you'll keep
it.
You'll keep it there.
Yes, you'll plant the sole ofyour left foot flat onto the mat
, standing on it.
Keep that right thigh open Ifyou can, if you can push down
(10:08):
into the left foot, lift andshift your hips to the left.
So push down into that leftfoot, lift and shift your hips
to the left and then roll overonto your right side.
Let that right thigh just drop,yeah, and hug your top knee,
your left knee, into your chest.
Use your hands to organize yourankle across the front of your
(10:29):
right thigh, point the knee up,cross the ankle in front of the
thigh like a figure four.
Knee points up, yeah, and thenopen your heart, reach that left
arm out for your twisted pigeontwisted pigeon.
(10:54):
So this pose we often think ofas being for the outer hip, and
it's not, not for the outer hip,for sure, there's some hip
going on there, right.
But if possible, I'd like foryou to try to divide your
attention between that outer hip, those deep six rotators on the
(11:19):
left hip, and the right sidegroin front of pelvis.
It was your breathing.
You're noticing any movement,any sensation as you're holding
(11:45):
the pose.
You're just observing withcuriosity the natural life cycle
of the pose.
Okay, so I have had over theyears a number of clients who
(12:33):
find me because they have a lotof stiffness, tightness,
discomfort, pain and the frontof the hip and the groin, and so
they think naturally what Ineed to do is find a yoga
teacher and stretch it.
Naturally, stretching it willlengthen these tissues, thereby
(13:00):
eliminating pain stiffness.
I think you know where I'mgoing with this.
That's obviously not going towork.
If it worked, then all thestretching people were doing
would be fine and they wouldn'tneed to find me right.
(13:27):
We're going to take about fourmore breaths Nice slow breaths
and this twisted pigeon with theawareness divided.
Final breath, okay, and thenI'm going to have you roll onto
(14:34):
your right side again with yourknee stacked left knee, stacked
on right knee, so you canuncross there and you'll press
into your hands and come up to aside.
Sit, slide your left heel tothat left front corner of your
(14:57):
mat and turn to face the frontof your mat.
Bring the sole of your rightfoot to your inner left thigh.
If your right knee likes tostay way up, put something under
it now.
Yeah, use one of those blocks.
Put something under it now soit can relax and then lean back
(15:22):
into your hands.
Step those hands back behindyou and just lean back into them
, just a nice casual posture,and similar to what we did
before.
You're going to bring the kneeup.
Bring that right knee up andthen slowly let that knee come
(15:46):
back down into the halfbutterfly.
We'll come back up and backdown.
I think it takes a little bit ofmental contortion in a way to
(16:15):
really wrap your head around thefact that muscles don't stretch
.
They get stretched.
What do muscles do?
They contract.
Muscle fibers do one thing theycontract or they don't.
So here, notice how musclescontract to bring your knee up
(16:49):
and then how you're going tohave to release for the thigh to
open back up again.
But it doesn't happen all atonce.
Right, we'll come back up andthen release.
So while some of the motorunits release, some are still
(17:11):
going to hold on to make sureyou can get that knee back out
smoothly.
And probably not all of themwill release completely because
tension is required.
Good, next time the knee is up,you're going to take a step out,
toe heel open up.
(17:32):
See how you can move smoothlyhere and then step out open, see
how you can move slowly andcarefully and smoothly here.
And with curiosity, toe heel,you should be standing on or
(17:54):
very near the long edge of yourmat and then we're going to walk
back in and the next time yourfoot is against your thigh.
(18:16):
You may do like an awkwardquarter or half step.
For the last one, you're goingto stay with that thigh open and
you're going to find a verticalspine, so, leaning forward, to
come up and take your blocks,one on each side of your left
leg.
So frame your left leg withyour blocks and then take your
(18:37):
bolster on top.
Take your bolster on top soyou've got a little table over
your left leg.
We're not going to use it yet,so maybe push it out of the way
for now and just to get yourarms out of the way, just cross
them over you.
Lean forward, could be an inch,could be two if you're really
flexible, could be more thanthat, and then just let your
(19:00):
upper body swing and rotate tothe left and then come back
through center swing, rotate tothe right.
Let's do that.
Could be smooth, but also alittle bit more random.
You know, just using gravityand the natural inherent tension
(19:24):
of the tissues so you don'tcollapse, right.
You can kind of use thatmomentum to swing around a
little bit and since it doesn'ttake much of your attention to
do that, you can just bring yourattention to the front of your
right side, pelvis and innerthigh.
Okay, let's do one more to eachside, left and right, and the
(20:07):
next time you come throughcenter, go just a little further
to the left, yeah, and thenbring those props to a place
where they can support you in aforward fold here in a half
butterfly.
So if you're a little stifferin the back of your leg, bring
your props pretty close to you,and if you're a little more
(20:30):
flexible, your props can movefurther away.
Yeah, customizable, and ofcourse we usually use this pose
(20:51):
to bias the back of the leftthigh.
But maybe you can divide yourattention between the hamstrings
on the left and this regionthat we're working with today on
the right.
Just watch as you breathe,watch these areas.
So there's something I left outabout these clients who find me
(21:46):
for pain and tension in thefront of the hip and groin, and
that is that these people tendto be my most stressed out
people.
They're the go-getters, they'rethe ones that everybody looks
to to fix everything all thetime.
Somehow they manage it, somehow.
(22:16):
This tension in this area andthose traits seem to be
connected, at least anecdotally.
(23:01):
So here's your opportunity justto observe these two areas and
then you can see the other sideof the pose here at the end of
the life cycle of the pose,beautiful work.
(23:34):
So you'll press the hands downto rise up to vertical,
untwisting because you're alittle twisted out toward the
bolster.
Just let your hands rest, sittall, soft for a moment and then
(23:57):
we'll take the bolster off tothe side of your mat.
We'll put the blocks all theway back up at the front, send
your right leg out long, so twolegs are going to be out, long,
kind of whitish Heels, a littlewhitish.
And then let your head dropforward, your pelvis tilt back
(24:18):
like you're making a cat spineand start to roll back towards
your back.
And if at any point you need topop your elbow down or your
palm onto the mat so you canroll back with awareness, then
put it there and just keepnoticing the front of the right
(24:40):
hip as you come down.
Eventually you'll be all theway on your back again with your
head resting on your blanket,your heels wide.
Maybe you need feet flat,that's okay too, you can do that
.
Take a moment to just compareright and left, and this time
(25:24):
we're going to bring the otherfoot flat to start, so the left
foot will be flat, right legwide.
We're going to walk that leftankle toward the inner right
thigh and you're going to openup Smooth, slow.
Let's do this a few times justso you can feel this nice play
between activity, muscles doingwhat they do and some level of
(25:50):
release.
There has to be some level ofrelease right, or your leg
wouldn't move at all and justenjoy that right.
Knowing that some motor unitsare rare in the go, they'll
contract, pull that leg up.
If it was all the motor units,your leg would shoot up,
probably, pull you over theright a little bit right, too
much power Somehow.
(26:12):
You manage just the rightamount though Every time, and
when you're ready you're goingto start to walk out.
Make it about exploring though.
So you'll be walking the footall the way out to that long
(26:49):
edge and then you'll walk inagain.
Nice guys, good job.
(27:16):
And the next time you walk inwill be the last time you walk
in and we'll just take threebigger steps.
Still very slow, bless you.
Still very slow back out to theleft.
So we'll all be with the footon the long edge and you're
(27:38):
going to hang out there for awhile, just open and close, let
the hips tilt to the left.
Yeah, let them tilt.
And the next time you've gotthat left leg wide, you'll keep
(28:05):
it like that.
Make sure there's nothingobstructing its path to the
floor.
Bring your right foot flat,stand your right foot, push into
the foot, lift, shift hipsstraight, roll to your left side
stacking.
Use your hands to gather upthat right knee, the top knee,
(28:27):
gather it up.
Use your hands to organize yourankle across the front of your
thigh like a figure four andthen open up.
Open up so that right arm isreaching out.
Maybe your hand holds yourankle or your foot if it likes
to slide.
If you can reach it, right hipis dropping backward, not
attempting to stack, not at all.
(28:48):
But if you did attempt to stackyour hip you'd probably feel
your left side groin a littlebit, engage right.
So it's not just about openingand closing the same side hip.
Sometimes it's aboutstabilizing the pelvis for the
other hip to move.
So as you breathe and youobserve the life cycle of this
(29:14):
pose, let's just keep theattention divided between the
back of the right hip, the innerfront left pelvis.
So motor units fire, we call it, or contract when we are ready
(29:56):
to move.
Sometimes they'll even contracta little bit when we're just
thinking about moving Withregard to our super stressed out
people.
(30:17):
You know, if you think about thenature of stress, our ancestors
also got stressed, but itwasn't usually because they had
a nitpicky micromanaging boss,right, they got stressed because
their life was probably inmortal danger.
(30:39):
You know they were going tohave to fight or flee.
If you're going to have tofight or flee, you're really
going to hope that these longmuscles of the legs, which
extend from the pelvis, aregoing to contract.
Right, they're going to tightenup because you're either going
to have to stand your ground oryou're going to have to run like
(31:00):
hell.
So, even though the nature ofstress has evolved, we still
have basically the same hardware.
When we feel stress, we getready to fight or flee, we
(31:26):
contract.
It's time to grip these areasbecause you might need to stand
your ground and fight.
Let's take one more breath herein the twisted pigeon and then
(31:51):
you're going to roll to the leftside.
You're going to stack yourright thigh on top of your left
thigh.
You press into your hands, riseto a side, sit and then slide
your right heel to that rightfront corner and sit facing the
front of the mat.
Yep, we'll bring the foot allthe way, that left foot, all the
way to the inner right thigh.
(32:12):
Yeah, you'll lean back intoyour hands.
Lean back into your hands, andjust the same as before.
Yeah, if you need a block underyour left thigh, take it now.
Okay, all right, you know thedrill.
So we're going to bring thatleft knee up, left knee up solo,
the foot flat, and do it.
Just stay in this region.
(32:33):
Just for a couple of repetitions, you know, just so you can feel
the nature of this gathering upof energy, contracting right to
do something and then opening,which is the opposite of doing
something, yeah, and when you'reready, you can start to walk
(33:01):
out.
Just so you can kind ofexperiment with this and all the
different orientations of thethigh.
Yeah, and then more spicy itgets right.
(33:33):
The further out that leg goes,there's more sensation, more
kind of pulling on the specifictissues of the adductors, those
groin muscles, from a rangethat's less easy, less
comfortable, right, and you feelit, and you also feel that
muscles contract more.
Almost Kind of keep you fromgoing too far.
(33:56):
We're going to walk back in.
So this is important to note.
When things go a little further.
When the stretch becomes deeperwe actually get more muscle
energy activation, not less,okay.
(34:19):
And when your foot is up againstyour right thigh, again you're
going to stay.
You're going to let that thighopen up like a half butterfly.
Good, you'll come up tovertical, sit your blocks on
either side of your leg and yourbolster on top of your blocks
and then make sure it's not tooclose to you because we're not
(34:39):
going to come right into thehalf butterfly.
We're going to do our littleswingy stuff.
So when you're ready, you'regoing to bring your arms just
across your front just to keepthem out of the way.
You'll tilt forward any amount.
You want to feel a littlestretch, but mostly you want to
feel like your hamstrings won'tlet you go much further and then
you'll swing a little side toside.
It's kind of a swing and arotation.
You know your ribs are going tokind of roll, you know.
(35:03):
And we're just doing the front,front side of that.
Yeah, it's such a nice way tosort of gently mobilize those
groins and adductors.
You know, it's not like pullingit so far that it contracts in
(35:26):
response.
It's gentle.
Okay.
One more over to the left.
(35:50):
You come back through centerand just a little further to the
right.
Pull those props to where youneed them for your forward fold
over the right leg.
And do.
(37:03):
Okay.
So we get stressed and the longmuscles of the upper leg and
pelvis contract to help you toprotect yourself.
Usually they're doing exactlywhat they are supposed to do,
(37:27):
except, instead of just doing itsome of the time when you
actually need protection, theydo it all the time, which, one
could argue, is also whatthey're supposed to do, right?
I mean, bodies are all aboutefficiency and homeostasis.
So if you're stressed all thetime, you should probably have
(37:47):
some grippy hip flexors andgrinds.
Right, that makes sense.
Thank you.
(38:31):
One more breath in halfbutterfly, you'll press into
(39:17):
your hands to rise up.
So sit tall for a moment, softspine, and then we're not going
to roll back this time.
Instead, I'm going to have youset your bolster off to the side
, set your blocks at the frontof your mat.
(39:39):
If you tend to have tenderknees when you're on your hands
and knees, make sure you bringyour blanket closer so you can
use it.
We're going to swing that rightleg back so you can come to a
tabletop with your handsactually on your blocks.
(39:59):
So your blocks are going to bethe lower medium setting and
knees maybe just slightly widerthan hips width.
So most of the weight is backinto those knees.
Now bring your attention to theright and left front pelvis and
(40:22):
groin as you tuck your tail.
Draw your tail under, roundyour back, tuck your chin and
then do the opposite.
Let your tail move backward,let your lumbar sink collarbones
(40:46):
lift, widen.
Let's tuck again.
You know, usually we do the catcow and we're really focused on
the spine, maybe the pelvis.
Sometimes Today it's reallyabout the groin.
So really take your time.
(41:09):
Notice the relationship betweenmuscles doing what they're
meant to do, which is contract,and then muscles being stretched
.
Here's the last one.
(41:35):
With a tucked tail You'll findthe anterior tilt, so lumbar
sinking.
Your tail is lifting.
Bring the right side block justa little closer to the left
side block.
Step your right foot forwardinto a lunge Give me a nice
(41:56):
generous lunge, please, nicegenerous lunge.
And then just drive that rightknee forward.
Try to keep the knee mostlypointing forward, but walk your
hands over to the left so yourupper body is in like a C shape,
right knee mostly pointsforward.
And then let's bring the hipsback so your right knee is
(42:17):
straight or straight-ish.
If you want to bring the hipsback a little more, you could
even let the right toes turn upand then we'll drive that right
knee forward again into thelunge.
Feel free to pad the left knee,because this is a lot on there
and then you'll press hips back.
Maybe the toes lift, use thebreath, feel that nice pull and
(42:49):
the groin on the right, thefront of the hip on the left
Nice relationship, one more Nice.
(43:14):
Okay, next time your knee isbending, walk your blocks back
to the middle, using your rightknee to meet your left knee.
Find that tabletop again withknees slightly wider, and tuck
your tail.
Tuck your tail and notice how,even though the front of your
(43:39):
hip is technically kind ofgetting stretched as your hip is
extending, there's a lot oftension in the front of the hip
right.
And then let your tail lift asyou sink your lumbar.
That would technically be ashortening position for hip
flexors.
With a hip that's flexed right,we'll tuck.
(44:00):
So we're not so different fromlike our dogs.
You know, when your dog getskind of scared or worried or
nervous, what's the first thingthey do?
They clamp that tail down, theytuck right.
This is a position of threat.
(44:21):
Maybe you can feel that that'sthe posture your pelvis wants to
take.
So the next time your tail islifting your lumbar sinking.
You stay.
We bring the left side block tothe right side block and we
take a nice generous stepforward with that left foot.
(44:43):
Walk hands this time over tothe right, find that C shape
Good, and then press hips back.
Toes can lift.
If you'd like, walk your blockseven more to the right, angel.
Yeah, really go for it.
And I think medium settingblocks is nice because I like to
(45:06):
have a little bit of height.
Yeah, try that and see what youthink.
Okay, take your time.
This nice tug.
So I really favor this kind ofdynamic experience of these
(45:31):
tissues versus like a big staticstretch which feels very
aggressive, you know, because,remember, these tissues are just
trying to protect you bytightening, by stiffening.
So you go in and you give a bigpull, you're probably just
going to end up with morestiffness.
(45:53):
Okay, next time your knee iscoming forward, you're going to
walk two blocks back to themiddle.
Bring your left knee to meetyour right knee and actually
you're just going to walk bothknees to one side.
It doesn't matter, becauseyou're going to sit down into a
side sit and then bring yourlegs forward.
If sitting up tall for you inyour forward folds is a
(46:21):
challenge.
You might want to have yourblanket under your rear end,
because we're taking thedragonfly.
You're going to bring those twolegs out wide Two legs out wide
, so sitting on a blanket couldhelp, okay?
So your blocks and your bolsterare in front of you.
(46:46):
We're not going to use themright now, just make sure
they're nearby.
And then, once again, let's getthose arms out of the way, just
by crossing them over the frontof you and tilt forward just a
little bit and you'll feel thisreally cool sensation of those
groin muscles both contractingand stretching, and you'll just
(47:12):
gently swing, rotate side toside, keep it mild.
(47:50):
Let's do a few more repetitionswith a lot of curiosity about
front of hip groin curiosity.
And the next time you're swingforward you'll just stay, and we
(48:18):
have so many options with theseprops.
It could just be a table, astonehenge, like what you did
before, if you don't come veryfar forward.
Anyways, you'll just set thebolster on end, so it's tall,
and then you can kind of hug itto your chest and put your chin
on there.
That's one of my favorites.
And then, of course, there's theramp.
(48:40):
Oh, the ramp, with the low endtucked right under your belly
button.
So we feel the tightness herehip flexors, groins, and for
(49:30):
most people the instinct is it'stight, I should stretch.
Unfortunately, this is justanother example of the body not
being very good at telling uswhat it needs, only that it
needs something.
So I am proposing that whenthis tension, tightness,
(50:00):
achiness comes up, instead ofthinking about what we should do
to it, we should consider it asignal, a sign.
My body is stressed, my bodythinks I need to be protected.
(50:27):
How can I provide credibleexperience of safety, not just
(50:48):
for the front and inside of myhip, but also the rest of my
body?
Hold, up.
(52:02):
Let's take one more breath,dragonfly.
You'll press down into thehands to rise up sitting with a
long but soft spine.
Just for a moment, the plaquescan go away.
(52:33):
We're not going to use them.
Your bolster, though, we willuse.
We're actually going to takethat longitudinal down your mat.
The short edge will be up tothe short edge of your mat,
(52:53):
right there between the two legs.
Bring your two feet flat toframe it, to frame that long
bolster.
Let's move that blanket backagain.
When you lay down on your back,your head once again is resting
on something.
That bolster is lengthwise downyour mat.
Your feet are flat, framing thebolster.
(53:16):
Ankle's push up against thebolster a little bit.
Let your right thigh open up.
Lean your hips to the right.
As your right thigh comes up,your left thigh opens, lean your
hips, just rock side to side.
It's not really so much aboutthe thigh, it's more about your
(53:39):
spine rotating.
It's a little massage for theexternal rotators, the deep six
piriformis, for example.
If you feel that tight bump asyou go over, maybe you don't
(54:00):
need to go so far if it's alittle too intense, or you could
just consider it a littlemyofascial release.
One more to the right, one moreto the left.
Once in the center again,you'll take your feet onto that
(54:34):
longitudinal bolster with thesoles together.
Soles of your feet touch Knees,open up.
Your feet are going to slideaway, probably a little bit more
than you usually think aboutdoing.
If it gets too far away, it'sgoing to get really, really
intense.
You don't want to go that far,but having the feet a little
further away is really going todraw this deep stretch that
(54:56):
everybody wants inner thigh,inner groin.
If it's a little too much, wecan always take the blocks, one
under each thigh.
That's an option.
So for us to use this region,which often gets so grippy and
(55:31):
tight and painful and stuff,almost like, almost like the
canary in the coal mine, like,hmm, something's not right,
something's not right, we'regoing to have to develop a
certain level of sensitivity andawareness, and that's why I
(55:53):
really like a practice like this, because it's all about
awareness, you know.
So, even here, divide yourattention between the right and
left side of your pelvis andit's associated, inner and front
thigh.
Just notice, right, you have noagenda in this.
Noticing, you're just here forit.
Okay.
(57:11):
I have to say many of you lookvery, very comfortable here,
like you could stay for anothertwo or three minutes the
duration of our shavasana andsome of you are probably ready
to move to a more traditionalshavasana.
So if you'd like to do that,just turn the bolster so it's
(57:32):
latitudinal and drape your legsover it.
Yeah, or don't use it at all ifyou don't want to.
Yeah, and let that awareness ofthe front and inside the pelvic
(57:52):
area disperse into the rest ofthe body.
So just taking a scan of thebody here and then let that go,
let the breath go, let the bodysink for your shavasana.
(58:16):
Okay, okay.
(59:48):
It's time to deepen the breath,time to restore movement to the
body.
When you're ready, you'll findyour way onto the side of your
(01:00:09):
choice.
You roll into your hands, riseto your seat, press palms
(01:00:50):
together in front of your heart,bow your head in gratitude to
this amazingly intelligent body.
Thank you, everyone.
Welcome to the Yin Yoga Podcast.
I'm your host, mandy Ryle.
Today's episode is a podpractice which is really going
to focus on a specificanatomical area that would be
the front of the pelvis and thegroins and my goal here was not
just to stretch this area butreally to provide a very
(00:23):
comprehensive experiencing ofwhat is happening here, both
anatomically but also globally,because, as I will explain in
the podcast, I think that thisarea is a little bit like the
canary in the coal mine.
So whenever something is notquite right in the embodied self
(00:48):
, many of us have a tendency toreally grip and hold here, and
for some of us, this grippingand holding is like all day.
Every day can become veryuncomfortable, even painful.
So I wanted to give you somereal actionable strategies for
feeling like you're doingsomething to open up the tissues
, but also some long termsolutions to finding the kind of
(01:12):
comfort here that you're reallylooking for.
For your practice, you willwant to have three blocks a
bolster and a blanket.
As always, I'm very happy tohave you here practicing with me
.
If you haven't already, justmake sure, before your practice
starts, to just hit thatsubscribe button in your podcast
(01:35):
app.
That way, you'll never miss avaluable practice or discussion.
Let's start by setting up yourprops.
We're going to take yourblanket and it's going to go at
(01:57):
the very back of your mat, veryback of your mat.
You've got three blocks today.
Those are all up at the frontof your mat.
Those blocks are at the frontof your mat and for now let's
just have the bolster besideyour mat, okay?
(02:19):
And then, once we've done allour housekeeping, you're going
to come down onto your back.
Come down onto your back withyour head resting on that
blanket.
You are welcome to have yourlegs long or your feet flat,
(02:41):
it's totally up to you.
And since we will be tending tothis front pelvis area, let's
(03:11):
notice this area.
To begin, as you're arrivingalready, bringing the attention
especially to the front of thepelvis.
Notice if there's any movementthere.
(03:32):
Notice any sensations there inthe front of the pelvis.
(03:58):
Do sensations change throughoutthe breath cycle?
If you change your breath, canyou change the experience in the
(04:21):
front of your pelvis?
And then, just for fun, in caseyou haven't already, notice
(04:45):
what's inside of the pelvis.
Notice any sensations present,any movement.
Sometimes, when we notice here,we become aware of the fact that
we're maybe holding or grippinga little bit.
You're under no obligationwhatsoever to release that
(05:07):
gripping or holding unless youwant to.
And then we'll keep the leftheel nice and wide on the mat.
(05:38):
So if the leg is not yetextended, send your left leg all
the way out to the left cornerand bring the sole of the right
foot flat, standing on the soleof that right foot, and walk the
foot all the way to the leftthigh.
(05:58):
So you're still standing on thefoot, but your ankle is against
your left thigh.
And then let this right thighopen up almost like a half
butterfly.
Yes, with control, let it openand then close it again.
Bring the sole of the foot flatagain.
Let's do a few more like thatand try to move with a lot of
(06:24):
awareness.
And it's somehow easier tocultivate awareness when we're
moving slowly and when we'reattempting to move with
smoothness.
(06:45):
And so as you open and closethis right thigh, notice what
comes up now, what experience ispresent now in the front of the
hip, even as you're moving intothe front of the thigh and
sometimes the front of the thighfeels like the inner thigh here
(07:08):
.
Do you notice that, like your,your perception of the front of
the thigh could change based onthe orientation of your thigh.
Okay, and then the next timeyour knee is pointing up, you're
going to stay and you're goingto just heel, toe your foot out
away from your left thigh just alittle bit.
(07:30):
I like to keep my heel closerto my thigh than my toes and
then open up again.
Yeah, so you're going to walkout a little bit and you're
going to open up, and thenyou're going to come back up to
vertical and you'll walk outagain Just a step.
Heel, toe, open up, and you'regoing to keep doing this.
(07:53):
You're going to keep walkingout until your foot is standing
on the long edge of your mat,yeah, yeah.
And if your hips start to tiltsignificantly to the right as
you go wider, I think that'sgood, I think that's a really
functional way to use yourpelvis and your thigh, yeah, and
(08:16):
then, once you get to the edgeof the mat, I'm going to have
you walk back in again, and it'snormal to kind of speed up a
little bit, but make sure you'restill maintaining the
smoothness and the slowness andthe awareness.
Lots of sensation, lots andlots.
(08:42):
And when your foot comes all theway back to the left thigh.
You're going to walk out onemore time.
Walk out one more time, takeyour time.
And maybe this time, if it tookyou four or five steps to get
all the way to the edge, it'sonly going to take you three.
But go slow, right.
(09:03):
So we're not going to speed up,we're going to go the same
speed, but we're going to takebigger steps.
If the hips tilt significantly,let them.
And the next time your foot isall the way out, all the way out
onto the edge and the kneeopens up, you're going to keep
(09:26):
it there just for a beat andbring the knee back up.
Keep the foot on the edge.
Let's do just a couple more ofthese, because this is kind of
the tightest spot, right.
So think of it as like noodling.
You're just kind of noodlingaround seeing what's here and
noticing how the hip becomes thefront of the thigh or the
(09:48):
inside of the thigh.
Yeah, and the next time thatright thigh is open, you'll keep
it.
You'll keep it there.
Yes, you'll plant the sole ofyour left foot flat onto the mat
, standing on it.
Keep that right thigh open Ifyou can, if you can push down
(10:08):
into the left foot, lift andshift your hips to the left.
So push down into that leftfoot, lift and shift your hips
to the left and then roll overonto your right side.
Let that right thigh just drop,yeah, and hug your top knee,
your left knee, into your chest.
Use your hands to organize yourankle across the front of your
(10:29):
right thigh, point the knee up,cross the ankle in front of the
thigh like a figure four.
Knee points up, yeah, and thenopen your heart, reach that left
arm out for your twisted pigeontwisted pigeon.
(10:54):
So this pose we often think ofas being for the outer hip, and
it's not, not for the outer hip,for sure, there's some hip
going on there, right.
But if possible, I'd like foryou to try to divide your
attention between that outer hip, those deep six rotators on the
(11:19):
left hip, and the right sidegroin front of pelvis.
It was your breathing.
You're noticing any movement,any sensation as you're holding
(11:45):
the pose.
You're just observing withcuriosity the natural life cycle
of the pose.
Okay, so I have had over theyears a number of clients who
(12:33):
find me because they have a lotof stiffness, tightness,
discomfort, pain and the frontof the hip and the groin, and so
they think naturally what Ineed to do is find a yoga
teacher and stretch it.
Naturally, stretching it willlengthen these tissues, thereby
(13:00):
eliminating pain stiffness.
I think you know where I'mgoing with this.
That's obviously not going towork.
If it worked, then all thestretching people were doing
would be fine and they wouldn'tneed to find me right.
(13:27):
We're going to take about fourmore breaths Nice slow breaths
and this twisted pigeon with theawareness divided.
Final breath, okay, and thenI'm going to have you roll onto
(14:34):
your right side again with yourknee stacked left knee, stacked
on right knee, so you canuncross there and you'll press
into your hands and come up to aside.
Sit, slide your left heel tothat left front corner of your
(14:57):
mat and turn to face the frontof your mat.
Bring the sole of your rightfoot to your inner left thigh.
If your right knee likes tostay way up, put something under
it now.
Yeah, use one of those blocks.
Put something under it now soit can relax and then lean back
(15:22):
into your hands.
Step those hands back behindyou and just lean back into them
, just a nice casual posture,and similar to what we did
before.
You're going to bring the kneeup.
Bring that right knee up andthen slowly let that knee come
(15:46):
back down into the halfbutterfly.
We'll come back up and backdown.
I think it takes a little bit ofmental contortion in a way to
(16:15):
really wrap your head around thefact that muscles don't stretch
.
They get stretched.
What do muscles do?
They contract.
Muscle fibers do one thing theycontract or they don't.
So here, notice how musclescontract to bring your knee up
(16:49):
and then how you're going tohave to release for the thigh to
open back up again.
But it doesn't happen all atonce.
Right, we'll come back up andthen release.
So while some of the motorunits release, some are still
(17:11):
going to hold on to make sureyou can get that knee back out
smoothly.
And probably not all of themwill release completely because
tension is required.
Good, next time the knee is up,you're going to take a step out,
toe heel open up.
(17:32):
See how you can move smoothlyhere and then step out open, see
how you can move slowly andcarefully and smoothly here.
And with curiosity, toe heel,you should be standing on or
(17:54):
very near the long edge of yourmat and then we're going to walk
back in and the next time yourfoot is against your thigh.
(18:16):
You may do like an awkwardquarter or half step.
For the last one, you're goingto stay with that thigh open and
you're going to find a verticalspine, so, leaning forward, to
come up and take your blocks,one on each side of your left
leg.
So frame your left leg withyour blocks and then take your
(18:37):
bolster on top.
Take your bolster on top soyou've got a little table over
your left leg.
We're not going to use it yet,so maybe push it out of the way
for now and just to get yourarms out of the way, just cross
them over you.
Lean forward, could be an inch,could be two if you're really
flexible, could be more thanthat, and then just let your
(19:00):
upper body swing and rotate tothe left and then come back
through center swing, rotate tothe right.
Let's do that.
Could be smooth, but also alittle bit more random.
You know, just using gravityand the natural inherent tension
(19:24):
of the tissues so you don'tcollapse, right.
You can kind of use thatmomentum to swing around a
little bit and since it doesn'ttake much of your attention to
do that, you can just bring yourattention to the front of your
right side, pelvis and innerthigh.
Okay, let's do one more to eachside, left and right, and the
(20:07):
next time you come throughcenter, go just a little further
to the left, yeah, and thenbring those props to a place
where they can support you in aforward fold here in a half
butterfly.
So if you're a little stifferin the back of your leg, bring
your props pretty close to you,and if you're a little more
(20:30):
flexible, your props can movefurther away.
Yeah, customizable, and ofcourse we usually use this pose
(20:51):
to bias the back of the leftthigh.
But maybe you can divide yourattention between the hamstrings
on the left and this regionthat we're working with today on
the right.
Just watch as you breathe,watch these areas.
So there's something I left outabout these clients who find me
(21:46):
for pain and tension in thefront of the hip and groin, and
that is that these people tendto be my most stressed out
people.
They're the go-getters, they'rethe ones that everybody looks
to to fix everything all thetime.
Somehow they manage it, somehow.
(22:16):
This tension in this area andthose traits seem to be
connected, at least anecdotally.
(23:01):
So here's your opportunity justto observe these two areas and
then you can see the other sideof the pose here at the end of
the life cycle of the pose,beautiful work.
(23:34):
So you'll press the hands downto rise up to vertical,
untwisting because you're alittle twisted out toward the
bolster.
Just let your hands rest, sittall, soft for a moment and then
(23:57):
we'll take the bolster off tothe side of your mat.
We'll put the blocks all theway back up at the front, send
your right leg out long, so twolegs are going to be out, long,
kind of whitish Heels, a littlewhitish.
And then let your head dropforward, your pelvis tilt back
(24:18):
like you're making a cat spineand start to roll back towards
your back.
And if at any point you need topop your elbow down or your
palm onto the mat so you canroll back with awareness, then
put it there and just keepnoticing the front of the right
(24:40):
hip as you come down.
Eventually you'll be all theway on your back again with your
head resting on your blanket,your heels wide.
Maybe you need feet flat,that's okay too, you can do that
.
Take a moment to just compareright and left, and this time
(25:24):
we're going to bring the otherfoot flat to start, so the left
foot will be flat, right legwide.
We're going to walk that leftankle toward the inner right
thigh and you're going to openup Smooth, slow.
Let's do this a few times justso you can feel this nice play
between activity, muscles doingwhat they do and some level of
(25:50):
release.
There has to be some level ofrelease right, or your leg
wouldn't move at all and justenjoy that right.
Knowing that some motor unitsare rare in the go, they'll
contract, pull that leg up.
If it was all the motor units,your leg would shoot up,
probably, pull you over theright a little bit right, too
much power Somehow.
(26:12):
You manage just the rightamount though Every time, and
when you're ready you're goingto start to walk out.
Make it about exploring though.
So you'll be walking the footall the way out to that long
(26:49):
edge and then you'll walk inagain.
Nice guys, good job.
(27:16):
And the next time you walk inwill be the last time you walk
in and we'll just take threebigger steps.
Still very slow, bless you.
Still very slow back out to theleft.
So we'll all be with the footon the long edge and you're
(27:38):
going to hang out there for awhile, just open and close, let
the hips tilt to the left.
Yeah, let them tilt.
And the next time you've gotthat left leg wide, you'll keep
(28:05):
it like that.
Make sure there's nothingobstructing its path to the
floor.
Bring your right foot flat,stand your right foot, push into
the foot, lift, shift hipsstraight, roll to your left side
stacking.
Use your hands to gather upthat right knee, the top knee,
(28:27):
gather it up.
Use your hands to organize yourankle across the front of your
thigh like a figure four andthen open up.
Open up so that right arm isreaching out.
Maybe your hand holds yourankle or your foot if it likes
to slide.
If you can reach it, right hipis dropping backward, not
attempting to stack, not at all.
(28:48):
But if you did attempt to stackyour hip you'd probably feel
your left side groin a littlebit, engage right.
So it's not just about openingand closing the same side hip.
Sometimes it's aboutstabilizing the pelvis for the
other hip to move.
So as you breathe and youobserve the life cycle of this
(29:14):
pose, let's just keep theattention divided between the
back of the right hip, the innerfront left pelvis.
So motor units fire, we call it, or contract when we are ready
(29:56):
to move.
Sometimes they'll even contracta little bit when we're just
thinking about moving Withregard to our super stressed out
people.
(30:17):
You know, if you think about thenature of stress, our ancestors
also got stressed, but itwasn't usually because they had
a nitpicky micromanaging boss,right, they got stressed because
their life was probably inmortal danger.
(30:39):
You know they were going tohave to fight or flee.
If you're going to have tofight or flee, you're really
going to hope that these longmuscles of the legs, which
extend from the pelvis, aregoing to contract.
Right, they're going to tightenup because you're either going
to have to stand your ground oryou're going to have to run like
(31:00):
hell.
So, even though the nature ofstress has evolved, we still
have basically the same hardware.
When we feel stress, we getready to fight or flee, we
(31:26):
contract.
It's time to grip these areasbecause you might need to stand
your ground and fight.
Let's take one more breath herein the twisted pigeon and then
(31:51):
you're going to roll to the leftside.
You're going to stack yourright thigh on top of your left
thigh.
You press into your hands, riseto a side, sit and then slide
your right heel to that rightfront corner and sit facing the
front of the mat.
Yep, we'll bring the foot allthe way, that left foot, all the
way to the inner right thigh.
(32:12):
Yeah, you'll lean back intoyour hands.
Lean back into your hands, andjust the same as before.
Yeah, if you need a block underyour left thigh, take it now.
Okay, all right, you know thedrill.
So we're going to bring thatleft knee up, left knee up solo,
the foot flat, and do it.
Just stay in this region.
(32:33):
Just for a couple of repetitions, you know, just so you can feel
the nature of this gathering upof energy, contracting right to
do something and then opening,which is the opposite of doing
something, yeah, and when you'reready, you can start to walk
(33:01):
out.
Just so you can kind ofexperiment with this and all the
different orientations of thethigh.
Yeah, and then more spicy itgets right.
(33:33):
The further out that leg goes,there's more sensation, more
kind of pulling on the specifictissues of the adductors, those
groin muscles, from a rangethat's less easy, less
comfortable, right, and you feelit, and you also feel that
muscles contract more.
Almost Kind of keep you fromgoing too far.
(33:56):
We're going to walk back in.
So this is important to note.
When things go a little further.
When the stretch becomes deeperwe actually get more muscle
energy activation, not less,okay.
(34:19):
And when your foot is up againstyour right thigh, again you're
going to stay.
You're going to let that thighopen up like a half butterfly.
Good, you'll come up tovertical, sit your blocks on
either side of your leg and yourbolster on top of your blocks
and then make sure it's not tooclose to you because we're not
(34:39):
going to come right into thehalf butterfly.
We're going to do our littleswingy stuff.
So when you're ready, you'regoing to bring your arms just
across your front just to keepthem out of the way.
You'll tilt forward any amount.
You want to feel a littlestretch, but mostly you want to
feel like your hamstrings won'tlet you go much further and then
you'll swing a little side toside.
It's kind of a swing and arotation.
You know your ribs are going tokind of roll, you know.
(35:03):
And we're just doing the front,front side of that.
Yeah, it's such a nice way tosort of gently mobilize those
groins and adductors.
You know, it's not like pullingit so far that it contracts in
(35:26):
response.
It's gentle.
Okay.
One more over to the left.
(35:50):
You come back through centerand just a little further to the
right.
Pull those props to where youneed them for your forward fold
over the right leg.
And do.
(37:03):
Okay.
So we get stressed and the longmuscles of the upper leg and
pelvis contract to help you toprotect yourself.
Usually they're doing exactlywhat they are supposed to do,
(37:27):
except, instead of just doing itsome of the time when you
actually need protection, theydo it all the time, which, one
could argue, is also whatthey're supposed to do, right?
I mean, bodies are all aboutefficiency and homeostasis.
So if you're stressed all thetime, you should probably have
(37:47):
some grippy hip flexors andgrinds.
Right, that makes sense.
Thank you.
(38:31):
One more breath in halfbutterfly, you'll press into
(39:17):
your hands to rise up.
So sit tall for a moment, softspine, and then we're not going
to roll back this time.
Instead, I'm going to have youset your bolster off to the side
, set your blocks at the frontof your mat.
(39:39):
If you tend to have tenderknees when you're on your hands
and knees, make sure you bringyour blanket closer so you can
use it.
We're going to swing that rightleg back so you can come to a
tabletop with your handsactually on your blocks.
(39:59):
So your blocks are going to bethe lower medium setting and
knees maybe just slightly widerthan hips width.
So most of the weight is backinto those knees.
Now bring your attention to theright and left front pelvis and
(40:22):
groin as you tuck your tail.
Draw your tail under, roundyour back, tuck your chin and
then do the opposite.
Let your tail move backward,let your lumbar sink collarbones
(40:46):
lift, widen.
Let's tuck again.
You know, usually we do the catcow and we're really focused on
the spine, maybe the pelvis.
Sometimes Today it's reallyabout the groin.
So really take your time.
(41:09):
Notice the relationship betweenmuscles doing what they're
meant to do, which is contract,and then muscles being stretched
.
Here's the last one.
(41:35):
With a tucked tail You'll findthe anterior tilt, so lumbar
sinking.
Your tail is lifting.
Bring the right side block justa little closer to the left
side block.
Step your right foot forwardinto a lunge Give me a nice
(41:56):
generous lunge, please, nicegenerous lunge.
And then just drive that rightknee forward.
Try to keep the knee mostlypointing forward, but walk your
hands over to the left so yourupper body is in like a C shape,
right knee mostly pointsforward.
And then let's bring the hipsback so your right knee is
(42:17):
straight or straight-ish.
If you want to bring the hipsback a little more, you could
even let the right toes turn upand then we'll drive that right
knee forward again into thelunge.
Feel free to pad the left knee,because this is a lot on there
and then you'll press hips back.
Maybe the toes lift, use thebreath, feel that nice pull and
(42:49):
the groin on the right, thefront of the hip on the left
Nice relationship, one more Nice.
(43:14):
Okay, next time your knee isbending, walk your blocks back
to the middle, using your rightknee to meet your left knee.
Find that tabletop again withknees slightly wider, and tuck
your tail.
Tuck your tail and notice how,even though the front of your
(43:39):
hip is technically kind ofgetting stretched as your hip is
extending, there's a lot oftension in the front of the hip
right.
And then let your tail lift asyou sink your lumbar.
That would technically be ashortening position for hip
flexors.
With a hip that's flexed right,we'll tuck.
(44:00):
So we're not so different fromlike our dogs.
You know, when your dog getskind of scared or worried or
nervous, what's the first thingthey do?
They clamp that tail down, theytuck right.
This is a position of threat.
(44:21):
Maybe you can feel that that'sthe posture your pelvis wants to
take.
So the next time your tail islifting your lumbar sinking.
You stay.
We bring the left side block tothe right side block and we
take a nice generous stepforward with that left foot.
(44:43):
Walk hands this time over tothe right, find that C shape
Good, and then press hips back.
Toes can lift.
If you'd like, walk your blockseven more to the right, angel.
Yeah, really go for it.
And I think medium settingblocks is nice because I like to
(45:06):
have a little bit of height.
Yeah, try that and see what youthink.
Okay, take your time.
This nice tug.
So I really favor this kind ofdynamic experience of these
(45:31):
tissues versus like a big staticstretch which feels very
aggressive, you know, because,remember, these tissues are just
trying to protect you bytightening, by stiffening.
So you go in and you give a bigpull, you're probably just
going to end up with morestiffness.
(45:53):
Okay, next time your knee iscoming forward, you're going to
walk two blocks back to themiddle.
Bring your left knee to meetyour right knee and actually
you're just going to walk bothknees to one side.
It doesn't matter, becauseyou're going to sit down into a
side sit and then bring yourlegs forward.
If sitting up tall for you inyour forward folds is a
(46:21):
challenge.
You might want to have yourblanket under your rear end,
because we're taking thedragonfly.
You're going to bring those twolegs out wide Two legs out wide
, so sitting on a blanket couldhelp, okay?
So your blocks and your bolsterare in front of you.
(46:46):
We're not going to use themright now, just make sure
they're nearby.
And then, once again, let's getthose arms out of the way, just
by crossing them over the frontof you and tilt forward just a
little bit and you'll feel thisreally cool sensation of those
groin muscles both contractingand stretching, and you'll just
(47:12):
gently swing, rotate side toside, keep it mild.
(47:50):
Let's do a few more repetitionswith a lot of curiosity about
front of hip groin curiosity.
And the next time you're swingforward you'll just stay, and we
(48:18):
have so many options with theseprops.
It could just be a table, astonehenge, like what you did
before, if you don't come veryfar forward.
Anyways, you'll just set thebolster on end, so it's tall,
and then you can kind of hug itto your chest and put your chin
on there.
That's one of my favorites.
And then, of course, there's theramp.
(48:40):
Oh, the ramp, with the low endtucked right under your belly
button.
So we feel the tightness herehip flexors, groins, and for
(49:30):
most people the instinct is it'stight, I should stretch.
Unfortunately, this is justanother example of the body not
being very good at telling uswhat it needs, only that it
needs something.
So I am proposing that whenthis tension, tightness,
(50:00):
achiness comes up, instead ofthinking about what we should do
to it, we should consider it asignal, a sign.
My body is stressed, my bodythinks I need to be protected.
(50:27):
How can I provide credibleexperience of safety, not just
(50:48):
for the front and inside of myhip, but also the rest of my
body?
Hold, up.
(52:02):
Let's take one more breath,dragonfly.
You'll press down into thehands to rise up sitting with a
long but soft spine.
Just for a moment, the plaquescan go away.
(52:33):
We're not going to use them.
Your bolster, though, we willuse.
We're actually going to takethat longitudinal down your mat.
The short edge will be up tothe short edge of your mat,
(52:53):
right there between the two legs.
Bring your two feet flat toframe it, to frame that long
bolster.
Let's move that blanket backagain.
When you lay down on your back,your head once again is resting
on something.
That bolster is lengthwise downyour mat.
Your feet are flat, framing thebolster.
(53:16):
Ankle's push up against thebolster a little bit.
Let your right thigh open up.
Lean your hips to the right.
As your right thigh comes up,your left thigh opens, lean your
hips, just rock side to side.
It's not really so much aboutthe thigh, it's more about your
(53:39):
spine rotating.
It's a little massage for theexternal rotators, the deep six
piriformis, for example.
If you feel that tight bump asyou go over, maybe you don't
(54:00):
need to go so far if it's alittle too intense, or you could
just consider it a littlemyofascial release.
One more to the right, one moreto the left.
Once in the center again,you'll take your feet onto that
(54:34):
longitudinal bolster with thesoles together.
Soles of your feet touch Knees,open up.
Your feet are going to slideaway, probably a little bit more
than you usually think aboutdoing.
If it gets too far away, it'sgoing to get really, really
intense.
You don't want to go that far,but having the feet a little
further away is really going todraw this deep stretch that
(54:56):
everybody wants inner thigh,inner groin.
If it's a little too much, wecan always take the blocks, one
under each thigh.
That's an option.
So for us to use this region,which often gets so grippy and
(55:31):
tight and painful and stuff,almost like, almost like the
canary in the coal mine, like,hmm, something's not right,
something's not right, we'regoing to have to develop a
certain level of sensitivity andawareness, and that's why I
(55:53):
really like a practice like this, because it's all about
awareness, you know.
So, even here, divide yourattention between the right and
left side of your pelvis andit's associated, inner and front
thigh.
Just notice, right, you have noagenda in this.
Noticing, you're just here forit.
Okay.
(57:11):
I have to say many of you lookvery, very comfortable here,
like you could stay for anothertwo or three minutes the
duration of our shavasana andsome of you are probably ready
to move to a more traditionalshavasana.
So if you'd like to do that,just turn the bolster so it's
(57:32):
latitudinal and drape your legsover it.
Yeah, or don't use it at all ifyou don't want to.
Yeah, and let that awareness ofthe front and inside the pelvic
(57:52):
area disperse into the rest ofthe body.
So just taking a scan of thebody here and then let that go,
let the breath go, let the bodysink for your shavasana.
(58:16):
Okay, okay.
(59:48):
It's time to deepen the breath,time to restore movement to the
body.
When you're ready, you'll findyour way onto the side of your
(01:00:09):
choice.
You roll into your hands, riseto your seat, press palms
(01:00:50):
together in front of your heart,bow your head in gratitude to
this amazingly intelligent body.
Thank you, everyone.
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