I KNOW YOU ARE HIP BUT...
I'd like to share some essential info with you about your hips. You weren't born with an instruction manual, and so you may be still learning how your extraordinary architecture is built and how to use it for maximum efficiency.
You might be a Hippie, Hipster, Hip-Hop Lover but you for certain have a couple 'Hip Joints'.
Most often we have heard 'bend from your knees', which is good advice as your knees also are designed to bend and allow your body to move lower in space, however it's easy to bend your knees while bending the low back simultaneously.
Once you un-tuck your pelvis, you then have space for your hips to bend and your spine to stay long.
Get hip with it.
Let me know how putting on your shoes on, reaching in your bag for your phone or picking up your baby is now, as you apply this principle to your alignment and movement.
Taking your hip bending on a walk is the next step...literally.
Join me next week to learn how!
UPCOMING WORKSHOP: EDIT YOUR STRUT
An alignment workshop through the lens of the practice New Yorker's most common activity; Walking
Thursday July 16th
6:30-7:45pm, W 66th st Central Park
SIGN-UP HERE
To learn more about what you will learn, checkout my piece, Why your walk may be the least healthy thing about you, on NYC's most healthy blog Well + Good
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Lets identify what I mean by Hip Joint. Not the cool place you like to hang out at but that perfectly placed hinge below your pelvis designed to help you bend. You might think your hip joint is above your pelvis, but that is actually your waist.
If this describes you; bending from your low back, feeling discomfort at all in your hips, neck or spine, you most likely are not using your hip joints. To change this pattern, make sure you create space in your hip joint by un-tucking your pelvis first.
Your low back is not designed as a hinging joint, thus your hips are where its at when it comes to bending.
Your hips can bend and your knees can either stay straight or bend depending on the comfort and length of your hamstrings, but most important is that your hips crease as your spine enjoys length.