I have been an avid yoga practitioner since 1995, when I was studying for the Caifornia Bar Exam.  I took some time off when I gave birth to my twin sons, but can’t imagine a world without yoga.  I used to attend flow classes at Yogaworks in Santa Monica, California, and took their teacher training program years ago when Maty Ezraty was at the helm.  Slowly I discovered Iyengar yoga, thanks to my good friend, Jamy.  She dragged me along to workshops taught by her teacher, Kofi Busia, and I haven’t been back to flow since.

One of the reasons why flow classes no longer hold any appeal to me is because of the number of injuries, small but naggging nevertheless, that I experienced, witnessed, and later treated from flow classes.  I am not casting aspersions on any teachers of flow classes, I am merely acknowledging the fact that at some point, a yogi’s safety is the yogi’s own responsibility.  I am acknowledging the fact that in a class of eighty yogis, someone’s shoulders are bound to dip forward in chatturanga or someone’s wrists are going to roll outward in urdhva danyurasana (downward facing dog), without the teacher being able to correct their alignment.  And sooner or later, that repeated misalignment is going to show up in an injury.

Recently, I have been treating a spate of patients in my clinic who have various lower back and hip problems: a torn labrum, a stenosis of the lumbar vertebrae, sacral pain.  Even though, in most of their cases, the injuries did not stem from a misaligned yoga practice, some did.  And I have been offering all of them, along with needles and massage, the following prescription: it is a series of simple and seemingly non-yogic exercises designed to bring one’s consciousness into the muscles of the legs and hips.  It is a series of exercises that, done correctly and consistently, may be useful in avoiding orthopedic surgery.  It is a series of exercises that, done correctly and consistently, may be useful in keeping one’s own hip joints healthy and intact–for many years to come.  As Kofi Busia always points out, chances are that someone will eventually end up having to use a walker to cross the living room floor; wouldn’t it be nice if that someone weren’t you?

Do you stand like this? Don't!

Hip Strengthening Exercises

It is important to perform these exercises with both legs, but if this recommendation seems overwhelming, then start with the hip or leg that is painful.  As that leg becomes stronger and the exercises become more familiar, work up to doing them on both sides; and of course, work up to more and more repetitions.

These exercises require no fancy equipment: unless you count a stair or a phone book as fancy.  However, if you are in possession of a yoga block, then by all means, use a yoga block.

Always do Steps One and Two.  If you feel that you are getting stronger, work in Step Three and/or Four and to challenge your balance and strengthen your hip, experiment with Step Five.  Enjoy!

Step One: remove your shoes and socks.

Step Two (basic exercise):  Stand barefoot on a stair, a phone book, a dictionary, two bricks, or a yoga block ON ONE FOOT.  Stand near enough to the edge so that the other foot can hang in the air, at the same time making sure that the entire sole of the standing foot is planted on the raised platform (e.g. stair, book, block).  Relax the standing leg hip so that it juts out to the side (see the pictures above).  This is what NOT to do as you perform these exercises.  Now, bring the hip joint back into place, keeping the standing leg completely straight.  You will notice that in order to do this, you must activate the muscles along the inner and outer edges of your leg: your inner thigh should be working, your quadriceps should be contracted, you might catch a glimpse of a nice line along the outside of your calf, the arch of your foot will be lifted and active.  Look down at the standing leg: if anything looks slack or is falling in, work the muscles in your leg to wake them up and straighten them out.  Hold the hip in place until you feel your muscles begin to fatigue and burn.

For the beginning exerciser, stop here:  Hold this a little longer than you think you can before you step off and change to the other side.

For the person who has not yet exhausted their (I use this as a singular pronoun in lieu of the dreaded s/he, so do not think me devoid of grammatical sensibility) stamina, proceed to Step Three…

Step Three (more advanced):  If you have built up to at least two minutes (time yourself!) standing, then move onto the next exercise, AND DO NOT STEP OFF YOUR STEP YET.  So, you will still be standing on the first side when you…

…begin to swing the raised/hanging leg back and forth, as if you were going for a walk (but of course you are still standing in place).  Swing your arms as well.  The exercise comes from the fact that now all of those muscles that you are using to stabilize your hip have to contend with movement—which they are fighting against.  In other words, your standing leg is still active and straight, while the other leg and arms swing to and fro.

Work up to at least two minutes per leg.

Step Four (a variation of Step Three):  Standing on the same leg that you started with and that has been experiencing fatigue from Steps Two and Three, now swing the free leg across your body (as if you were going to place it down behind you and dance the Charleston), letting your arms follow the cross-wise direction.  Keep the standing hip firm and the leg straight.  Continue until you feel the standing leg fatigue.

Step Five:  Bring your arms and legs to a standstill.  Slowly and carefully, tilting at the hips, keeping the standing leg straight, bend over and reach your arms out as if to pick something up off the floor.  The free leg will act as a lever and float up behind you.  Using your leg muscles to bring you back up, return to standing.  Do this 5-10 times.

Your hip muscles and possibly various leg muscles will be sore and jelly-like by now, so step off the step/block/phone book/bricks and do the same exercises on the other side.  At this point, you may be cursing my name, but remember that by doing these exercises, you may save yourself a hip replacement surgery and will most likely decrease whatever pain you are experiencing because you are strengthening your stabilizer muscles.  THIS IS A GOOD THING!  Try it often and with the corners of your mouth raised upwards towards the sky.  Your hips, legs