Are Hip Openers Bad for Your Hips?

Many yoga classes speak about the benefits of hip "opening", and yet surprisingly, the most common injuries in yoga are related to the hips - back pain, QL issues, piriformis syndrome, labrum tears, SI Joint and knee issues. This begs the question - what are we actually doing in hip openers?

It is a little mind boggling, the number of yoga teachers who have tension, tightness, aches or pain, and shrug their shoulders and say "that is just the way it is". Many have become so used to the pain that it is as normal for them as breathing. They are right, to a point. While pain is a normal physiological process, it doesn't have to be a normal way of living their life, or practicing yoga.

• Where the pain is, is not the problem. How to solve the problem that "is."
• How to improve your ability to see what you are actually doing in poses that are deemed to be "hip openers."
• How to improve your ability to see when and where a student is compensating - i.e. they think they are moving with their hip joint and really they are moving with their knee, back, foot, chin (yes chin) to get into a pose.
• Provide some insight on hypermobility and if hypermobility is really hypermobility (or if it is actually hypomobility)
• Show you how to get stronger and more mobile and have a heck of a lot less ache, strain, tension and/or pain.

This Course Also Includes These Bonuses

• Yoga Practice Video: Enjoy a yoga video that Susi will create specifically for this course.
• Recordings of Both Webinar Sessions: Yours to keep. It’s generally acknowledged that many people only retain 10-20 percent of what they learn in a workshop. You will get the recordings of both webinar sessions (both MP3 and MP4), enabling you to go back and listen to the workshop as many times as you like.
• Transcripts of Both Sessions: Ever wanted to refer to a certain part of a course? Even the best note takers miss a point every so often. With the transcripts of the sessions, you can go back and refer to particularly important passages or clarify sections you were in doubt about.

Susi Hately is the owner and principal instructor of Functional Synergy Inc. She started yoga in 1995 after becoming frustrated with her recurring injuries as a teenage athlete. She credits yoga with getting her back running. Having experienced the benefits of yoga, she began showing her kinesiology patients the yoga exercises and breathing techniques that had helped her. She became certified as a yoga instructor and has been teaching since January 1999. In May, 2000 she traveled to India to study with Dr. Karandikar at Kabir Baug, an institute dedicated to teaching Yoga therapy.

Susi believes that many of the problems that we face in our busy lives can be overcome by developing a sense of awareness, and by cultivating a source of relaxation. Yoga enables you to be balanced, connected, and inspired - to feel the flow of body, mind and soul. She uses her training and experience in kinesiology, yoga, iRest (yoga nidra), rehabilitation, ergonomics, and modern mind-body science to develop yoga books, DVDs, CDs, streaming video and audio clips for people who are stressed, injured or sick.