Summary Legs Up the Wall: Relaxation and Mobility for Tight Hips (Youtube) www.youtube.com
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Bree Johnson Legs up the wall is such an amazing pose. It's 1 that I actually do every night before I go to bed. But this lesson is gonna show you some different variations where you can get more benefits out of legs up the wall. Now, I'm Bree Johnson of Heart and Bones Yoga and like, subscribe, do all that fun stuff, and let's get into this video. So legs at the wall is wonderful.
Bree Johnson It's nourishing for our nervous system, but what's also wonderful about it is that it's a really good place to multitask. And I like to multitask some hip mobility work while I'm doing legs up the wall. These variations for legs up the wall are going to be amazing. Now, all you'll need is a floor and a wall. And if you don't have a lot of wall space, did you know that you could also close the door to your room and put your legs up the door?
Bree Johnson So that's usually a pretty good option if you feel like all parts of your wall are used. Or your bed, Right? You can lay on your bed and put your legs up the wall there. So let's go into it and my favorite way of getting up to the wall is to go sideways to the wall. So I've scooted sideways to the wall and then from there you kinda do a little wiggle and rotation until you get yourself into position.
Bree Johnson Now 1 of the key things to know about legs up the wall is actually you don't need to get your butt all the way to the wall. In fact, I encourage people to have some space, maybe about half a foot or so away from the wall so that your hamstrings aren't fully extended if they're really tight and hurting you. So it's nice to have a little bit of space because it also allows to have your lower back in a more neutral position. From here, let's start with internally and externally rotating our legs. So that means your legs stay as they are, but you're going to rotate your thighs towards each other and that will bring your toes towards each other.
Bree Johnson Then you're gonna rotate your thighs away from each other, bringing your toes away from each other. And you'll do that a few times, internal and external rotation. And this is going to be really great for your hip joints. Your hip joints love a nice internal and external rotation movement. So do that a few more times.
Bree Johnson Good. Okay. So now the next thing that you can do with your legs up the wall is move your feet a little bit wider apart and your knees can be bent a little bit. They don't have to be fully bent into a 90 degree angle, just a little bit of a bend. And we're gonna do that same internal and external rotation movement, but it changes a little bit when we have our legs up the wall like this and the knees bent.
Bree Johnson Now I like to keep my hands onto the bones of my pelvis because that keeps my pelvis still. Sometimes our pelvis likes to tilt a little bit when we do these movements. So this allows and reminds us to keep the pelvis still and get more movement into our hip joints. You can do this nice and slow and then releasing. Now I'm going through these a little bit faster because I want you to to do this video as a reminder.
Bree Johnson You can do it as a mini class, but you can also do it as a reminder to learn these movements and do them in your everyday life. Okay. So now we're gonna have our legs a little bit wider apart, legs are straight again, and go back into that internal and external rotation. And make sure that your toes are pointing down towards the floor and your heels are up to the ceiling, so ankles flexed. Open your legs a little bit wider and continue the internal and A little wider apart, continuing the internal and external rotation.
Bree Johnson And then a little bit more. So as you can see, we're incrementally going a little bit more wide with the legs, but yet continuing the internal and external rotation. And then of course there's gonna be a moment where you can't really make those legs go any wider, and that's good. In fact, I recommend stopping just before you go to your full width, and then internally and externally rotate. And you can notice it's a different work, different feeling each time.
Bree Johnson And then we can start to bring the legs back up, pausing at each spot for a couple extra rotations. And bit by bit, you're coming up just like that. Great. Okay. Relax your legs.
Bree Johnson Take a moment and notice how your hip joints feel. How did that feel? What we just did was go through a lovely range of motion while we're getting that little internal external work, which I feel like the internal external work is sort of like a scrub brush deep into the hip joints. And then we're gonna finish this off. Nice, short, and sweet.
Bree Johnson You don't have to do much to make a big difference. Now we're gonna finish this off with a little bit of a glute stretch. And now what that means is we're gonna take our right foot, keep your right foot flexed, and you're gonna take the right ankle on top of your left thigh just above the knee. So you're making a number 4 position here. Now let's just double check that our pelvis isn't super flat onto the floor.
Bree Johnson If you feel like your lower back is really pressing down, maybe scoot away from the wall a little bit more so that you have a little bit of space between your low back and the floor. Now some of us might feel amazing just putting the leg in this position. You might start to feel a stretch in that outer right hip. If you're not feeling the stretch, what you can do is start to bend your left knee, and then what that does is bring your legs a little bit closer to you and you'll only need to bend your knee a little bit until you start to feel a stretchy sensation in the outer right hip. So once you've found that little stretch feeling you'll stay there.
Bree Johnson Double check that you're not flattening the lower back too much onto the floor. You would just take a few deep breaths. Feeling your jaw soften and relax. Good. Release and switch.
Bree Johnson So now take your left ankle, cross it over top of your right thigh near your knee. If this gives you enough stretch, you'll stay like this, and you'll notice that each hip is a little bit different. So where you moved on the other side might be different than on this side. And then keep your pelvis in that neutral position. If you need to add a little bit more, all you do is just bend your knee, the right knee, and then breathe and find some softening through your jaw and your hip and your belly as you're here.
Bree Johnson Good. Again, double check that your lower back's not too smooshed to the floor. You wanna have that little bit of a neutral pelvis, and that neutral pelvis means and then you're gonna get them that it means that your your hip is gonna get more of a focused, intentional stretch by keeping your pelvis in a more neutral position. Good. And then release out of that.
Bree Johnson Lovely. Notice how your hips feel, how your lower back may feel. Let's do a few more of those beautiful internal and external rotations. You can even add a little bit of a lovely massage, rub into your thighs. Nice.
Bree Johnson And you can go through that whole sequence again if that felt really good. You can take a little bit more time to stretch and hold that figure 4 position, that glute stretch at the end, or take a little bit more time in any of the degrees of opening that we were doing with the legs against the wall. So this is a little bit of a quick practice and tutorial for you. As always, I'm always reminding us to do these movements more often. The more often you make these little movement breaks into your everyday life, the better you feel.
Bree Johnson So, and it's not that hard, it's not that simply, 5 minutes of happy lying movement, big difference. So, again, I'm Bre Johnson. Thank you for learning, for moving, for breathing with me. And if you have questions, leave them in the comments. I'll talk to them and I'll answer them.
Bree Johnson And if you want, remember to like, subscribe, and have fun. Move more.