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Hip_It.md

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Synthercise Unplugged - Hip It

Overview

Doing a lot of repetitive, linear strength training can leave us with rigid muscle motion, especially in the lower half of the body, which then restricts one's ability to duck and weave around the basketball court.

This set of yoga-based posture and stretch exercises bend and extend the muscles around the hips and lower back. It's mostly lifted from the instructor [needs credit] who does the Sunday 8am Power Yoga at the Commie Pool.

This is an initial draft and i'll extend or correct it with any good tips gleaned from other instructors

Breathing tips

Neck and Shoulders

  • See the standing part of Tech Neck for neck and shoulder warmup exercises, which are optional for this sequence, but good to do.

Main sequence

"Vinyasa flow" is a basic yoga combo move to build variations on

Set 1

  • "Mountain pose": Just stand there, arms at sides, feet hip-width apart. Draw lower back and belly muscles in towards your navel, aka "engage your core". Test hip-width apart by jumping a little in the air, see where feet naturally land. There's a string pulling up the crown of your head; your jawline pulls back and angles slightly upwards. Breathe

  • Extended mountain - swing arms upwards, palms together. Swing down into:

  • "Forward fold", arms hang towards the floor, knees slightly bent is ok.

  • "Flat back extend", hands on shins and back straight, horizontal, stretching forward.

  • Forward fold again, then step one leg back into a lunge (step quite far back). Keep chest raised.

  • Step the other leg back into "downward dog" (body is in a v-shape, hips upwards, ribs pulled downwards, shoulderblades down and back.

  • Raise one leg, pointing it upwards as far as you can, then probably further than that (three-legged dog)

  • Bend the knee on the extended leg, and tilt it outwards at the hip (about 30 degrees). Rotate the knee from the hip outwards to inwards three times, then inwards to outwards, then return to centre.

  • Press hips and shoulders forwards, your chest is out in front of your hands and back is arched, making a sort of aerial bow shape

  • Press backwards and lower the leg, into downward dog (hips upwards, belly sucked in, shoulders down and back, ribs pulling upwards towards shoulders

  • Shift weight forward so you're in a plank (arms straight, hands under shoulders, toes tucked, core engaged). The correctness of your plank position shows you where your feet should be placed for the lunge then downward dog, shouldn't need to move once connected to the floor

  • Slowly fold in elbows and head towards the floor (like a tricep pushup in reverse - "chataranga")

  • Untuck toes, straighten arms, hips still pressed down into "up dog" (definitely a back bend). Beginner option here is "cobra" - instead of straightening arms, bend so elbows are 90 degrees, push upper chest upwards. Look upwards

  • From here, reverse the flow: tuck toes, back to downward dog, foot between hands "with control" back to lunge, forward fold, flat back extend, forward fold, up to extended mountain, repeat other side

Set 2

Same as Set 1 except instead of moving from three-legged dog into downward dog, do this:

  • Pull knee on upwards-pointing leg in towards chest
  • Turn that knee outwards via the hip, sole of foot facing opposite direction, and slowly lower hips towards ground. As a basis your heel ends up sort of tucked in towards the groin at this stage, the eventual aim for more hip stretch is to get the heel higher up, towards the ribcage
  • Sink lower half of the body forward, fold over the bent knee, stretch arms forward to where they are comfortable ("pigeon pose")
  • Option here that not everyone likes is to lean backwards, grasp the top of your ankle, sort of floor-based bow pose, it can go further but i neither enjoy nor advise it
  • Back into downward dog and reverse the flow

Set 3

Classical standing stances, Set 1 up to moving from three-legged dog to downward dog except:

  • Pull knee in towards chest, "with control" bring foot between hands, back to lunge, chest upwards, look upwards
  • From lunge, lift into Warrior 1 (front knee above ankle, back leg straight or knee slightly bent. Arms lifted upwards, hips facing forwards, palms facing one another
  • Turn upper torso 90* and stretch arms out at shoulder height. Hips should now face the same way as your chest, e.g. both are sideways on (Warrior 2). Look towards the hand on the bent leg side
  • Turn the palm on the bent leg side upwards and fold at the elbow over your head. Press the opposite arm forward at the same sort of angle. Lean backward, look upward, breathe
  • Return to centre, face forwards, lean forwards, back to lunge

... Need to check the detail here but there's an incredible hip-opening, leg-powering section after this which involves three different variants of standing splits, greatly recommend but don't want to get the flow wrong!