When I've been working all day at my desk, my hips are tight [1]. When I've just finished a run, my hips are tight. When I've been lying on the couch all day, my hips are tight. I think you see where I'm going with this. If I'm trying to stay loose and comfortable – and avoid injury during my workouts — my stiff hips need daily stretching.
I love using YouTube for my yoga flows, and when I finally can't take the wound-up tightness in my hips anymore, I head straight for a few of my favourite channels like Yoga With Adriene and Boho Beautiful. The following gentle, hip-releasing flows are appropriate for all levels of experience (and hip tightness). Whichever video you choose, make sure you take your time and embrace the loosening that comes with each relaxing pose. Yogis will often say that we "store emotions" in our hip area [2], so don't be surprised if you feel a mental and emotional release as well while you're soothing your muscles. Lay out your mat, get comfy, and hit play to release hip tightness, tension, and stress in 25 minutes or less.
Yin Yoga For Flexibility — A Sore Hip & Hamstring Love Song by Boho Beautiful
In yin yoga [3], you soothe your muscles and your mind by holding each pose for an extended period of time. In this video from Boho Beautiful, that's two minutes, which gives you time to fully melt into hip-opening stretches like lizard and pigeon [4]. It's one of my favourite videos from this YouTube yogi.
Yoga For Psoas by Yoga With Adriene
The psoas muscle, which connects your upper thigh bone to your lower back, can get tight and lead to back pain [5], so it's important to keep it loose and healthy. Starting with this Yoga With Adriene video; it's focussed on uncinching that hip flexor with gentle lunges and cat-cow variations.
Flexibility & Hip Mobility by Julia Marie
This quick 10-minute practice focuses on unlocking the stiffness in your hips and promoting flexibility and mobility with relaxing exercises like hip circles and low lunges.
15-Minute Deep Stretch for Hips by Yoga With Kassandra
Any yoga sequence that starts with a wide-legged Child's Pose is a good one in my book, and I love the smooth, natural flow of this practice. You transition through several gentle lunge postures and finish with a quad stretch that feels like heaven.
Easy Hip Opening Stretches by BrettLarkinYoga
This hip-opening practice is slow, gentle, and great for beginners. You start in a reclined figure four posture and maintain that form through many other moves, including a supine spinal twist [6], so you're stretching out your tightest hip muscles the whole time.
Yoga For Tight Hips & Flexibility by Boho Beautiful
This gorgeous yoga practice, filmed at the site of an old temple in Cambodia, takes you through challenging hip postures like low side lunges and ultra-low squats to get the absolute most out of your hip muscles. This practice is more advanced, so feel free to modify to suit your needs.
Yoga For Hips & Lower Back Release by Yoga With Adriene
Sore hips can lead to back pain, so it's no wonder that Adriene Mishler of the popular channel Yoga With Adriene paired the two muscle groups up in this relaxing flow.