Tag: hip pain

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MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 12 – Reclining Shoelace

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Step-by-Step:

  1. Lay flat on your back, legs long with head resting heavy on the mat.
  2. Draw your knees in toward your chest, bent, and cross your right leg over left. Reach for your ankles or feet with each hand (right hand grabs left foot, left hand grabs right foot). Gently pull the feet toward your hips as you lower the legs – still stacked in this pretzel-like set up – to the mat.
  3. Holding the left foot with your right hand just outside the right hip, rotate your pelvis toward the left side, coming to rest on the left hip. Your left hand is still gripping the right foot as you twist. Keep your shoulders glued to the mat and turn your head to the right.
  4. Stay here, or deepen the pose by extending the right leg. Kicking your right foot into the left hand and working to straighten out that right knee will bring an intense IT band stretch into this contralateral twist.
  5. Hold for 10 deep breaths, then slowly come back to center and hug your knees into your chest. Plant your feet on the mat, hips width apart. Windshield wiper the knees from side to side.
  6. Repeat steps 1 through 5, this time crossing left leg over right, twisting to the right as you look to the left.

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How It Will Heal You:

Hip Pain – The best way to prevent and treat hip pain is to increase your ROM (range of motion) in all directions. If you play a sport like soccer, which involves a lot of explosive movement and running, you are particularly susceptible to hip pain. As you work into this hip-helping posture, chances are high that you’ll notice that one hip will be tighter than the other. To bring balance to the body, be sure to hold postures for 10 extra deep breaths on the side that’s talking to you. Use your breath to calm your nervous system and let the body open.

Hamstring Pulls – The vast majority of the time, hamstring pulls are a direct result of inflexible hamstrings. This big muscle group requires patience and daily attention to open up and can be really frustrating in their resistance to change. You are not going to go from barely touching your toes to Jordyn Wieber overnight. Commit to working on this posture every day and slowly but surely you’ll get the results you want and your body needs.

Knee Injuries – We all know someone that has torn their meniscus, had a knee replacement, or had some sort of debilitating knee injury. Our knees take a serious beating from all of the physical stuff we do day in and day out—not to mention the high heels some of us ladies rock to look lovely but brutalize our bodies from the tippy toes on up. The best way to prevent pain and avoid trouble is to keep the hips, IT band and hamstrings strong and flexible. Hips, IT band and hamstring mobility keeps the work in your bigger muscle groups (hamstrings and quadriceps) rather than the body’s default of looking to the place of least resistance­–which is almost always the knee joint–for speed, power and agility. If you give the body freedom to move using your large muscle groups and stabilizers it will learn not to rely upon vulnerable and complex joints.

Lower Back Pain – How many of you have experienced lower back pain? I’d venture to say that anyone who sits in a chair all day has suffered through their fair share. This is also a big one for athletes. Why is that? Most often, lower back pain in athletes stems from tight hamstrings. For my fellow anatomy nerds out there, the hamstrings originate on the sitz bone–aka those little nobs deep in the flesh of your booty that us yogis balance on when doing boat core work (my favorite!). , If your hamstrings are tight they will pull down on the pelvis from the insertion point (the sitz bone) tilting it out of proper alignment and forcing your body to compensate using your lower back to remain upright. Another common reason for low back pain is underdeveloped abdominal muscles. I’m not talking just the six-pack abs (rectus abdominis) but also the deeper corset abs (transverse abdominis) that are critical for balance and stability. The simply solution to preventing and treating lower back pain is to stretch out your hammies and workout your core every day.

Foot and Ankle Issues – I can’t tell you have many times I wrenched my ankle playing soccer and field hockey as a kid, or more recently while hiking and running. Ankle sprains, Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis are three very common foot and ankle injuries. These injuries are no fun because let’s face it, when our foundation is out of whack everything else is thrown off and dysfunctional. The answer to avoiding these frustrating beasts of burden is to strengthen the ankle, increase the flexibility of the ankle and toes and work on your balance. Not only does this require concerted effort to increase the openness in these areas but it also means more core work. Core is your key to stability, meaning you’ll be less likely to get thrown off balance and tweak something if your abdominal and back muscles are strong.

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MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 11 – Reclining Thread the Needle

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Step-by-Step:

  1. Lay flat on your back, legs long. Head is heavy, face is relaxed.
  2. Plant your left foot flat on the mat, knee bent. Make sure you can just barely reach your left heel with your left fingertips.
  3. Bend your right leg, placing right ankle on top of left knee. Flex the right foot.
  4. Reach your right hand through your legs and your left hand around the outside of the left leg. Interlace your fingers behind the left thigh and pull the left leg in toward your torso, flexing the left foot strongly as it lifts off the mat. Press your right elbow into your right thigh to open up the hip and take this deeper into the psoas and IT band.
  5. If you want to deepen the stretch, reach your hands to the front of the left shin (left calf and hamstrings muscles squeeze together) and interlace your hands.
  6. Take 10 deep breaths, using your arm strength to pull the left leg closer and press the right leg further out with each inhale and exhale.
  7. Return to laying flat on your back, legs long.
  8. Repeat steps 1 through 7, this time bending the right leg first and taking the left leg across.

How It Will Heal You:

Knee Injuries – We all know someone that has torn their meniscus, had a knee replacement, or had some sort of debilitating knee injury. Our knees take a serious beating from all of the physical stuff we do day in and day out—not to mention the high heels some of us ladies rock to look lovely but brutalize our bodies from the tippy toes on up. The best way to prevent pain and avoid trouble is to keep the hips, IT band and hamstrings strong and flexible. Hips, IT band and hamstring mobility keeps the work in your bigger muscle groups (hamstrings and quadriceps) rather than the body’s default of looking to the place of least resistance–which is almost always the knee joint–for speed, power and agility. If you give the body freedom to move using your large muscle groups and stabilizers it will learn not to rely upon vulnerable and complex joints.

Hip Pain – The best way to prevent and treat hip pain is to increase your ROM (range of motion) in all directions. If you play a sport like soccer, which involves a lot of explosive movement and running, you are particularly susceptible to hip pain. As you work into this hip-helping posture, chances are high that you’ll notice that one hip will be tighter than the other. To bring balance to the body, be sure to hold postures for 10 extra deep breaths on the side that’s talking to you. Use your breath to calm your nervous system and let the body open.

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MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 10 – Seated Spinal Twist

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Step-by-Step:

  1. Start in a seated position, legs long, tall spine.
  2. Bend your left leg, bringing left knee to mat, left heel to outside of right hip.
  3. Bend your right leg up and over the left leg, right ankle hooks outside left knee (sole of right foot presses into the floor).
  4. Bring your right hand behind your back. Press right palm into mat and sit up tall as you inhale. Exhale and twist to the right, hooking left elbow outside right knee.
  5. Use your breath to twist deeper. Sit tall and straighten out the back on the inhales and use the leverage of your left elbow on your right knee to twist deeper into the middle back on the exhales. Relax the abdominal muscles to go even deeper into the twist. (Imagine you’re a washcloth and you’re working to wring out all the water).
  6. Take 10 deep breaths then switch sides Follow steps 1 through 5, twisting to the left.

How It Will Heal You:

Hip Pain – The best way to prevent and treat hip pain is to increase your ROM (range of motion) in all directions. If you play a sport like soccer, which involves a lot of explosive movement and running, you are particularly susceptible to hip pain. As you work into this hip-helping posture, chances are high that you’ll notice that one hip will be tighter than the other. To bring balance to the body, be sure to hold postures for 10 extra deep breaths on the side that’s talking to you. Use your breath to calm your nervous system and let the body open.

Knee Injuries – We all know someone that has torn their meniscus, had a knee replacement, or had some sort of debilitating knee injury. Our knees take a serious beating from all of the physical stuff we do day in and day out—not to mention the high heels some of us ladies rock to look lovely but brutalize our bodies from the tippy toes on up. The best way to prevent pain and avoid trouble is to keep the hips, IT band and hamstrings strong and flexible. Hips, IT band and hamstring mobility keeps the work in your bigger muscle groups (hamstrings and quadriceps) rather than the body’s default of looking to the place of least resistance­–which is almost always the knee joint–for speed, power and agility. If you give the body freedom to move using your large muscle groups and stabilizers it will learn not to rely upon vulnerable and complex joints.

Lower Back Pain – How many of you have experienced lower back pain? I’d venture to say that anyone who sits in a chair all day has suffered through their fair share. This is also a big one for athletes. Why is that? Most often, lower back pain in athletes stems from tight hamstrings. For my fellow anatomy nerds out there, the hamstrings originate on the sitz bone–aka those little nobs deep in the flesh of your booty that us yogis balance on when doing boat core work (my favorite!). , If your hamstrings are tight they will pull down on the pelvis from the insertion point (the sitz bone) tilting it out of proper alignment and forcing your body to compensate using your lower back to remain upright. Another common reason for low back pain is underdeveloped abdominal muscles. I’m not talking just the six-pack abs (rectus abdominis) but also the deeper corset abs (transverse abdominis) that are critical for balance and stability. The simply solution to preventing and treating lower back pain is to stretch out your hammies and workout your core every day.

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MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 9 – Half Pigeon

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Step-by-Step:

  1. From Downward Facing Dog, start by sending your right leg up and back. Shift forward, stacking shoulders over wrists and bring the right knee to the floor behind the right wrist. Work to bring the right foot as close to the left wrist as it will go.
  2. Pressing into the mat, distribute your weight evenly between both hips. On the right side, those with tight hips/IT band will have a tendency to put more weight on their right hip. If this is you, grab a block or blanket and shove it under the right hip for a little support and lift.
  3. Flex the right foot strongly to protect the knee joint.
  4. With balanced weight, slowly walk your hands out. If you can, bring your forearms to the mat or perhaps to two blocks or a pillow.
  5. Keep a nice long spine, reaching out through the crown of your head and breath into the hip for 10 deep breaths.
  6. If you’re on the more flexible side and want to take this deeper you can walk your hands all the way out, bringing forehead to mat.
  7. Slowly walk your hands back, torso upright. Press your hands into the mat, tuck your left toes under and send your right leg up and back into one-legged down dog (your starting position).
  8. Take three big hip circles to gently release the hip.
  9. Repeat steps 1 through 8, this time leading with the left leg.

How It Will Heal You:

Hip Pain – The best way to prevent and treat hip pain is to increase your ROM (range of motion) in all directions. If you play a sport like soccer, which involves a lot of explosive movement and running, you are particularly susceptible to hip pain. As you work into this hip-helping posture, chances are high that you’ll notice that one hip will be tighter than the other. To bring balance to the body, be sure to hold postures for 10 extra deep breaths on the side that’s talking to you. Use your breath to calm your nervous system and let the body open.

Knee Injuries – We all know someone that has torn their meniscus, had a knee replacement, or had some sort of debilitating knee injury. Our knees take a serious beating from all of the physical stuff we do day in and day out—not to mention the high heels some of us ladies rock to look lovely but brutalize our bodies from the tippy toes on up. The best way to prevent pain and avoid trouble is to keep the hips, IT band and hamstrings strong and flexible. Hips, IT band and hamstring mobility keeps the work in your bigger muscle groups (hamstrings and quadriceps) rather than the body’s default of looking to the place of least resistance­–which is almost always the knee joint–for speed, power and agility. If you give the body freedom to move using your large muscle groups and stabilizers it will learn not to rely upon vulnerable and complex joints.

Foot and Ankle Issues – I can’t tell you have many times I wrenched my ankle playing soccer and field hockey as a kid, or more recently while hiking and running. Ankle sprains, Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis are three very common foot and ankle injuries. These injuries are no fun because let’s face it, when our foundation is out of whack everything else is thrown off and dysfunctional. The answer to avoiding these frustrating beasts of burden is to strengthen the ankle, increase the flexibility of the ankle and toes and work on your balance. Not only does this require concerted effort to increase the openness in these areas but it also means more core work. Core is your key to stability, meaning you’ll be less likely to get thrown off balance and tweak something if your abdominal and back muscles are strong.

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MOAR’s Daily Dozen: DAY 5 – Low Lunge with a Twist

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Step-by-Step:

1. Come into downward facing dog.

2. Come into a low lunge, bring your right foot forward just inside your right hand. Knee stacked over ankle. Keep a microbend in the left leg to protect the knee but firm up your quads and hammies, pressing strongly back through the heel.

3. Keep your hands or fingertips to the mat and lift the torso off the thighs, creating a long, flat back. If you are rounding through the spine, bring a block under each hand.

4. Plant the left hand as you lift your right up to the sky, twisting to the right. Gaze up at your right hand.

5. Take 10 deep breaths, lengthening out the crown of the head on the inhale and twisting deeper on the exhale

6. Slowly unwind, coming back to center, right had to mat. Press the floor away, coming back into down dog.

7. Repeat steps 2-6 on the other side.

8. Come back to downward facing dog and pedal your feet from side to side.

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This contralateral twist is so good for your middle back digestive. It will also help eliminate rigidity in the upper back, chest and shoulders–aka more ROM (range of motion)!

How it will heal you:

Hip Pain – The best way to prevent and treat hip pain is to increase your ROM (range of motion) in all directions. If you play a sport like soccer, which involves a lot of explosive movement and running, you are particularly susceptible to hip pain. As you work into this hip-helping posture, chances are high that you’ll notice that one hip will be tighter than the other. To bring balance to the body, be sure to hold postures for 10 extra deep breaths on the side that’s talking to you. Use your breath to calm your nervous system and let the body open.

Knee Injuries – We all know someone that has torn their meniscus, had a knee replacement, or had some sort of debilitating knee injury. Our knees take a serious beating from all of the physical stuff we do day in and day out—not to mention the high heels some of us ladies rock to look lovely but brutalize our bodies from the tippy toes on up. The best way to prevent pain and avoid trouble is to keep the hips, IT band and hamstrings strong and flexible. Hips, IT band and hamstring mobility keeps the work in your bigger muscle groups (hamstrings and quadriceps) rather than the body’s default of looking to the place of least resistance­–which is almost always the knee joint–for speed, power and agility. If you give the body freedom to move using your large muscle groups and stabilizers it will learn not to rely upon vulnerable and complex joints.

Shoulder Pain – Football, lacrosse, and baseball players know shoulder pain. As a yogi, I can also vouch for the frequency of shoulder injuries in yoga–a misaligned jump-back to chaturunga is one of the fastest ways to wreck your rotator cuffs. Shoulders, like hips, are a ball-in-socket joint and thus are designed to have a broad ROM (range of motion). Athletes and office bees alike experience a lot of shoulder pain because not enough attention gets paid to maintaining the flexibility of this critical joint. Increase the openness of your wrists, chest and upper back to prevent and treat discomfort. Additionally, focusing on contralateral movement (i.e. twists) will help to eliminate rigidity from the upper body.

Wrist Problems – Football, lacrosse, baseball, tennis and basketball players are incredibly susceptible to wrist injuries. Amongst others, yogis should be added to that list–just ask two of my fellow yoga teachers who went through training with me and are still modifying their Down Dog months later. In order to avoid wrist issues, it’s critical that you build strong forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders and upper back. Like all other joints, it’s also important to maintain ROM (range of motion) and flexibility in the joint itself as well as the elbows and shoulders so that the body can maintain proper form and alignment when generating power and movement from the upper body and arms.

Foot and Ankle Issues – I can’t tell you have many times I wrenched my ankle playing soccer and field hockey as a kid, or more recently while hiking and running. Ankle sprains, Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis are three very common foot and ankle injuries. These injuries are no fun because let’s face it, when our foundation is out of whack everything else is thrown off and dysfunctional. The answer to avoiding these frustrating beasts of burden is to strengthen the ankle, increase the flexibility of the ankle and toes and work on your balance. Not only does this require concerted effort to increase the openness in these areas but it also means more core work. Core is your key to stability, meaning you’ll be less likely to get thrown off balance and tweak something if your abdominal and back muscles are strong.

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MOAR’s Daily Dozen: 12 Yoga Poses for Post-Athletic Recovery to Do Every Day

Over the next 12 days, I am going to walk you through my Daily Dozen Yoga Poses for Post-Athletic Recovery.  Work on each pose for a few minutes each day and at the end of the 12 days try stringing them together, holding 10 breaths per side (if applicable). The whole sequence should take you between 20-25 minutes. My suggestion? Do it while watching an episode of Modern Family or Arrested Development and make it a happy ritual rather than a chore.

Wide Legged Forward Fold

MOAR’s Daily Dozen:

  1. Hero’s Pose
  2. High Plank w/ Flipped Hands
  3. Dolphin
  4. Wide-Legged Forward Fold
  5. Low Lunge w/ Twist
  6. Half Split
  7. Prone Shoulder Opener
  8. Plow
  9. Half Pigeon
  10.  Seated Spinal Twist
  11. Reclining Figure-4
  12. Reclining Shoelace

These postures were specifically selected to help fortify your body against the top ten sports-related injuries, which are in no particular order…

  1. Achilles tendonitis
  2. Plantar fasciitis
  3. Ankle sprains
  4. Wrist problems
  5. Shoulder pain
  6. Hamstring pulls
  7. Hip pain
  8. Knee injuries
  9. Lower back strain
  10.  Neck strain

If you lead an active lifestyle, chances are you have dealt with at least half of that list. The best way to prevent these common sports-related injuries is to work on increasing your flexibility and ROM (range of motion) on a daily basis. We are constantly stressing our muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons and most of us barely do two minutes of stretching post-physical activity, let alone a solid 20 minutes.

Check back every day for a new posture how-to and learn about the different injuries it will help you prevent and treat. At the end of the 12 days, I encourage you to come back to this post and try the entire sequence in succession. If you can work these stretches into your routine three to five days a week, you’ll be well on your way to a flexible, strong and injury-free body.

As always, I welcome your feedback and would love to hear what you think!