Illopsoas stretches

[seasonoftowers]

As I've mentioned in my journal, I've found that attempting pigeon pose helps with a hell of a lot of highly annoying physical issues I've had the past year. Note that I say attempting, and not succeeding - I can maybe get 8 inches above the floor on my bad side before my hips start turning. I wonder how best to proceed from here - do I keep doing as much of the stretch as I can do correctly, or are there other things I should try first?

Comments

[indywind]

I could see getting a psoas stretch on the opposite side from the one usually considered targeted by pigeon... that is, traditional pigeon hip-rotator stretch on the bent-leg side, psoas stretch on the extended leg side.

If my speculation is the case, the variation lying on the back probably wouldn't give that same benefit, because it removes the hip extension; both sides are in flexion to different degrees, and at different rotations.
But you could look for other shapes that give hip extension.

[seasonoftowers]

Yep, think that's how it works. The rotator part is good too, but for the full one-two effect I need to do it on both sides, even though the pain is one-sided. I'm already down to 0 pain, and the stiffness/limping is also almost entirely gone.

[niqaeli]

Yeah, after they responded, I realised that it had to be the other side than usually is being focused on -- it certainly does put it into extension, so yeah. And, no, the alternatives to pigeon I was think of won't be much use (there's one that's an inversion up against the wall that I like a lot better than the lying on the back variation), as both remove the hip extension.

Other pigeons

[indywind]

niqaeli is the wall variation you mean like this?
https://www.tummee.com/yoga-poses/sleeping-pigeon-pose-wall
Or this?
https://www.tummee.com/yoga-poses/eye-of-needle-pose-variation-at-wall

Or something else? It'd be neat to meet a new variation to add to my toolbox.

Re: Other pigeons

[niqaeli]

The first is the closer of the two! The variation I learned, however, is to have your butt all the way up against the wall. There is of course literally no dignifiied way of getting into position, but ehh who cares! :P It proceeds from there about the same,. The biggest thing I've found, really, in terms of stretching the hip rotators in ANY variation of this stretch, is to keep the knee in the same planes as the ankle as much as possible -- both horizontal AND vertical.