TIGHT HIPS

There is an old Sufi story about a philosopher-fool Nasrudin, who was looking for his house keys under a street light. A couple of friends happened by and joined in the search. Finally, in exasperation, one of the friends asked Nasrudin where he thought he had lost the keys. Nasrudin pointed to a spot some distance away where it was extremely dark. But why are we looking here then? he was asked. He replied: because it is so much easier to see under the light.

This story reveals a common human tendency: to look where we want to instead of digging deeper to reveal the root of a problem. This is true of some yoga students who are trying to move deeper into their forward bends.

You attend class regularly, sometimes for years, practice at home, and make progress in most poses—except for forward bending. You seem to have hamstrings of steel! No matter how often or how long you practice, there doesn’t seem to be any change. One daywhile teaching, I realized that I was like Nasrudin. I was looking in the wrong place to find a solution for some students who, no matter how often or how long they practiced, did not experience any change in forward bending poses. I realized that, like the hamstrings, a group of muscles in the hip area—the external rotators—can interfere with the ability to bend forward.

Called the obturator externus and internus, gemellus superior and inferior, pirif~ormis, and quadratus femoris, these muscles are short, broad, and very strong.

While each of these muscles is a separate structure, they function as one, working to externally rotate the femur (thigh), stabilize the pelvis during walking, and help stabilize the pelvis and the femur together when you are standing on one leg. When you bend forward, all of the muscles on the back side of your body must lengthen, including the rotators.  An especially important rotator is the piriformis, which attaches to the sacrum and to the femur; the sciatic nerve passes directly under this muscle. A tight pinformis can do more than just limit your forward bends