this pose really bothers my left hip when pose is over

Hi there!

I love your site and all the info you offer! You are a real gem to the yoga community and I hope you continue doing your thing for a long time!

I have been practising for a bit more than 1.5 years, and I go reg’ly, 3-4 x week and have done a couple of 30-day challenges. Before I started hot yoga, I was having a real problem with my left hip, in the hip socket itself, a really deep ache, all combined with left-side sciatica. In my first 6 weeks of yoga this problem seemed to get worse and worse, (I would limp out of class) and eventually I sought massage and osteopathy to help alleviate it.

I know yoga did not cause the problem and IS helping it. However I began to suspect Fixed-Firm was really aggravating the problem, even though I feel fine when I’m in the pose itself. The problem lies in the following sit up, with the really deep ache in the left hip socket returning. This ache will continue after class for a couple of days.

I decided to go back to basics with Fix-Firm, and for a couple of months just stayed in the first part, really working on getting my butt down to the ground, which I can do fairly easily. And my left hip pain completely disappeared. Two weeks ago one of my regular teachers encouraged me to continue through the pose into the 2nd and even the 3rd parts of the pose, which I did with no pain at the time and with relative ease. (I’ve never found this pose to be a challenging one for me) However, the left hip pain post-pose is returning. (the sciatica is not reappearing tho, that seems fine.)

I know I have some kind of rotation in one (or both) of my hip bones. My right leg appears shorter than my left, and I am a bit “knocked-kneed”. (the knock-kneed-ness has improved with hot yoga, altho still there!) I also have a bit of a scoliosis.

I’m hoping you can help me with this left hip pain, because none of the teachers at my studio (as wonderful as they are all, I go to a great studio) has been able to give me a suggestion that has helped. They all just keep encouraging me to do fixed-firm and work through the pain. (which would be helpful if the pain was only in the pose (which it isn’t) and not in real life (which it is)!)

A couple more observations which I hope will help you help me:

In standing bow, when standing on the right leg, I can do the pose pretty well, with my left foot right up over the center of my head, my left shoulder behind my right, and my head straight. However when standing on the left leg, my right hip rises, my shoulders and chest form more of a “Z” shape than straight line, and my head tilts, I think to the left. Whenever I try to correct any of these, I immediately fall out, even with just the slightest shift to my head or hip.

In Standing Head to Knee (my most challenging pose by far!) I have way more balance and strength standing on the right leg, and can almost kick my left leg out. When standing on the left leg, I can sometimes only balance for a split second, and can’t kick out on the right at all.

In Balancing Stick, I can do a pretty good job standing on the right leg with my hips even and parallel to the floor. When standing on my left leg, my right hip is cocked right up and again I fall when I try to lower it.

In Half-Locust, when lifting both legs, my legs drift slightly to the left (this is improving muchly) and I haven’t ever been able to keep my left hand palm flat on the mat once my legs lift, it rolls out to the left. My right hand stays put nicely. (I can lift both legs together upto about 45 degrees now, at first couldnt get my feet off the floor!)

I’m sorry for the length of this posting, but from reading others’ posts, it seems to me that you always ask for more info, so hoping I am helping you by giving you all pertinent info right away! Any suggestions you can offer will be much appreciated!

Thanks Gabrielle!
Stacey