Interaction with Gotta Joga users is what thrives us to continue and is the best part of our day-to-day work. We are curious to understand why you are doing yoga and how we can help you in becoming more your true self. Whether it is a comment on our blog post, mail to our support mailbox, feedback in the app or review in the AppStore we are reading and replying to those as a priority on a daily basis.

In 2015, we asked you what kind of new classes you would like to have. End of 2016 we launched the 1st ones of those: Journey to the Inner Silence with meditation and pranayama exercises. Now we are advancing towards the asana practices. The first warm-up classes have been launched.

In this blog post, we are presenting the hip openers, yoga sequences that will help you to let go unnecessary things.
Hip openers are for all of us: we all have muscles in the hip area that need awakening. Many of us find hip openers hard and intense, yet our bodies crave them and often feel lighter and more open after. That is no wonder, since the majority of us sit for most of the days, tightening the hip. Opening the hip makes simple movements like picking something up off the floor or more complex movements like getting up into Urdhva Dhanurasana (wheel-pose) easier.

If the hips are tight, we will move from somewhere else more than we should because we can’t move from our hips as much as we should. Unfortunately, the body parts that are all too often over-used and strained when our hips are tight is our spine and our knees. Hence, hip opening yoga ease back and knee pain. Opening the hips also release emotional tension stored in the hips. According to the yoga tradition we tend to store negative emotions like fear in our hips tightening them even more. So, when you practise hip openers you can take care of those emotions and eventually let them go.

In the new Gotta Joga hip opener warm-up class there are 3 asanas: supine butterfly, active child’ pose and pyramid pose flow.
Start with a supine butterfly (featured image) to let the hips and shoulders open slowly. Here you don’t have to do much, since a yoga strap and a bolster carry and hold you. Just breathe and let go.

 

Active child’s pose wakes up also the upper body. A soft opening not only for the hips and the shoulders, but also for the spine prepares your body for deeper hip openers. The hips and the spine are closely connected to each other, so take your time here and feel this connection in your body.

End with a pyramid pose flow! Synchronise your movements with the breath and at the same time open the backs and fronts of your thighs. The muscles in the back and front of your thighs affect the hip mobility, so dive deep into this flow, move slowly, breathe, and let go.

Update your Gotta Joga app now and try out the new hip opener sequence!