Yoga Poses for Inner Hips & Thighs
Give your inner hips and thighs some much-needed attention with these yoga poses.
You probably already know about hip-opening poses like pigeon pose, and the many benefits that go along with them. While those poses make you feel great, they actually only focus on opening up the outer hips, but usually ignore the inner hips and inner thighs. If you only work to open up the muscles in your outer hips but not the inners, over time you can actually end up with imbalances, which can easily lead to injury.
The yoga poses below focus on opening up your inner hips and thighs. Try incorporating them into your daily hip-opening sequence to maintain balance and flexibility in your hips and thighs.
Bound Angle Pose
You’ll often hear this pose called either Butterfly or Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana). This is a great pose to start with when you’re working to open your inner hips. If you’re really tight or need extra support, you could put yoga blocks or a folded blanket under your knees. (Or, even under your head for a restorative pose.) As you begin to open more, you can use your elbows to gently press your knees toward the ground, like you see me doing in this photo. Remember that it’s always better to have a nice, comfortable stretch than to push too hard. You’ll gain flexibility faster that way.
Reclined Bound Angle Pose
Reclined Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana) is one of my very favorite poses to relax down into. Like with the seated Bound Angle Pose, you can always place blocks or a folded blanket under your knees to help support them. That extra support can actually help you build flexibility faster!
I actually like to meditate in this pose, too, from time to time. By placing a hand on my sternum and a hand on my belly, I can feel my chest and belly rise and fall with my breath. That physical sensation makes it easier to bring my attention to my breath, helping me drop my thoughts.
Goddess Pose
I love Goddess Pose not only because it makes me feel strong and amazing, but it also helps open the inner hips and strengthens the thighs, too. It’s also a great way to start to warm up your inner thighs and hips a little more to open into deeper stretches. Make sure to keep your knees stacked above your ankles to protect them!
Garland Pose
Garland pose is deeper and more intense than Goddess Pose. When you’re just starting out with Garland Pose, I recommend sitting on a yoga block. The block will help support you as you begin to teach your body how to open your inner hips and thighs. Once you’ve been practicing for a while, you can choose to use your elbows to help press your knees and inner thighs open slightly to intensify the pose.
Half Frog Pose
Half Frog Pose is a nice way to let gravity help you open your inner hips. I’d recommend starting to open your inner hip and thigh muscles with a pose like Bound Angle or Reclined Bound Angle before coming into Half Frog. Once your body has loosened up a bit, you can come into Half Frog on one side, bringing your knee straight out at hip level and keeping a 90 degree angle in your knee. The other leg simply relaxes below you. Be sure to breathe, and hold the pose for the same length on both sides, from a minute to several minutes.
Full Frog Pose
This is not, I repeat, NOT a pose for beginners! But, if you’ve been working on opening your inner hips for a while, you can give full Frog Pose a try. It’s important to keep your knees at 90 degree angles, and you’ll want to keep your feet flexed, too. This pose is just as much mental as it is physical. It’s very intense! The key is to work with your mind to get your body to relax, not resist the pose.
Only start to work on Frog when your body is ready and open. Until then, Half Frog is a much better pose to practice.
All images courtesy of Beth Brombosz.
