Square hips when stretching for the splits?

HannahElizabeth started this discussion · 11/2/2010

I've been reading up about all the split stretching techniques and have noticed that having 'square hips' is mentioned a lot Call me stupid but.... How do you know whether or not your hips are square? I'm just not too sure what it is suppose to look like and how you can tell whether you are doing it properly or not I don't have a mirror in my pole practice unfortunately so I can't check my reflection Does anyone have any photos of un-square hips to compare how to do it properly with square hips?

15 replies

moth · 11/2/2010
I'm rubbish at working out what position my hips are in so it helps me to think of it in leggy terms. You know how the knee and the top of the foot on your front leg are pointing straight upwards? If your hips are square then your back knee and top of your back foot would be flat on the floor. If you're not sure (and you're bendy enough!) you can bend your back leg up while in the splits - if your foot points out at a wonky angle, your hips are squint. Probably clear as mud but I don't have any pictures 🙁
HannahElizabeth · 11/2/2010
Aha thank you, I see what you mean Thanks 🙂
reenie aka Mysfit · 11/2/2010
In short......... Square hips(pelvis) means if you are in the splits......both hips are facing forward. HTH... reenie
dustbunny · 11/3/2010
Moth has it right, but it is worth repeating. Front knee points up, back knee points down. Also try to keep your back straight. 🙂
amy · 11/3/2010
your hips and shoulders should both be facing forward 😀
Sassafrassle · 11/3/2010
Also, if you are right down and square, while you are facing forward, you should be perfectly balanced to take away your hands as support - to raise in triumph or lay down your front leg as you prefer;p If you're not square, this is much harder!! If you think about tucking your back hip under and towards the front, this might help too
Judy Jovanelly · 11/3/2010
sqaure hips : both hips facing front. stand in front of a mirror with your weight evenly on both feet. see how both of your hips are facing front ? that's square hips, and that is what you are shooting for when working your splits. note that even if you have front knee facing up and back knee facing down, your hips can still get out of square (one further back or front than the other ). most people don't have completely square hips in splits. work towards it, but know that your hips will likely open up towards whatever leg is back. a little bit of opening up isn't so bad. also please note that if you try to keep your hips square, it may take you longer to reach the floor in your splits. that's where you'll need to make the decision on whether you want to 'cheat it' a little by opening the hip, or go for the technically pure square hips split. personally, i am too old and rickety for pure splits, and have to engage all SORTS of smoke n mirrors to get something reasonably acceptable 😉
Svarri · 11/3/2010
One of the yoga teachers I go to has a good way of describing how this should feel. You should be like scissors. The front leg hip pulls back and the back leg him pulls forward. It's opposite to what you want to do when stretching splits, but it's the safer way!
Pomegranate · 11/4/2010
Think about a barbie doll when you split her legs. That is squared hips. Another way of seeing if you have your hips truly squared is take two long sticks wider than your shoulders and have a partner line one up behind your hips and one behind your shoulders. A true squared hips will have both sticks parallel to each other and the sticks crosses your legs like a cross. When you cheat, these sticks will show you where your hips and shoulders are turning and they will not line up. Hope that helps.
HannahElizabeth · 11/4/2010
Thanks for all the replies girls also please note that if you try to keep your hips square, it may take you longer to reach the floor in your splits. that's where you'll need to make the decision on whether you want to 'cheat it' a little by opening the hip, or go for the technically pure square hips split. Jay jay I've heard cheating can damage you? Not sure but thats one of the reasons why I didnt want to cheat anyway. I dont mind the challenge of it being harder 🙂
Judy Jovanelly · 11/4/2010
Thanks for all the replies girls also please note that if you try to keep your hips square, it may take you longer to reach the floor in your splits. that's where you'll need to make the decision on whether you want to 'cheat it' a little by opening the hip, or go for the technically pure square hips split. Jay jay I've heard cheating can damage you? Not sure but thats one of the reasons why I didnt want to cheat anyway. I dont mind the challenge of it being harder 🙂 Opening your back hip a little in a split can damage you ? I haven't ever heard that, and honestly don't know how that would be the case. If anybody has heard the same, please let me know !! I am certain that some types of 'cheating' in some cases could certainly be dangerous, but not sure that applies to the splits..... 🤔
brownie · 11/10/2010
stand in front of your bathroom mirror and slide your hands down your body until you can PHYSICALLY FEEL the bumps of your hip bones under your palms- if doesn't matter actually if you have a mirror or not- the important thing is that you are facing something square on- your TV, for example, will work fine, it's just to give you a reference point- so here you are, standing in front of your TV, facing it. if you don't have a TV, put your boyfriend or a friend in front of you and FACE THEM straight on. feel your hips, physically, with your hands. your left hand is feeling your left hip bone and your right hand is feeling your right hip bone. now without moving your feet, rotate your body to the left. feel how your hip bones move PHYSICALLY through space, the right one moving forwards, the left one moving back. rotate to your right. again, feel how your hip bones move PHYSICALLY through space, even though you are not moving your feet at all. now find the center again, the place where you were when you- and both of your hip bones- were facing the TV/friend straight on. it's helpful to think of your hip bones as two headlights. they are beaming like car headlamps straight at your TV. now begin to lower yourself into the splits. the natural tendency will be for your hip headlights to WANT to turn to the right, if your left leg is in front, or to WANT to turn to the left, if your right leg is in front. the reason this tendency occurs is because initially, you will be able to get further into the APPEARANCE of doing the splits, when you let your hips shift, than when you are strict with your hips and make them stay pointing straight forwards. give it a try and you'll see what i mean. the goal is to get all the way down into the splits WITHOUT ALLOWING your hip bones to shift to either the right or the left. unless you've done lots of yoga or have naturally very open hips, most likely this will seem like an impossible feat for quite some time. not to worry. with patience and daily practice, you will arrive at the splits. VERY IMPORTANT while you are practicing extending your legs OUTWARDS into the splits, is to at the same time draw the muscle energy in your legs INWARDS, isometrically together- the sensation is as if you are pulling your front hip (the one that belongs to the leg extending to the front of you) BACKWARDS, while at the same time you are pulling your back hip (the one that belongs to the leg extending to the back of you) FRONTWARDS. this drawing inwards, balancing the extension outwards, will help you to keep your hips facing squarely to the TV (or whatever is your reference point) in front of you. because keeping the hips square doesn't initially allow you to get as far into the splits as you can get when you allow your hips to shift sideways, most people let their hips do whatever is necessary to simply get as low down into the splits as possible (the farther down you get, the better it looks, the better YOU look, the more accomplished you feel, maybe the girl stretching next to you is all the way down and you don't wanna look like the least flexible person in the room, blah blah blah all ego stuff). so in the short-term, it looks better & thus you feel better- BUT if you continually practice the splits by allowing your hips to shift any which way but straight, your hips will TIGHTEN over time, and you might very well find yourself with all sorts of problems in your hip flexors, hamstrings, etc., and you will be confused because all this time you thought you were lengthening your muscles when actually you were gradually tightening them. in short, = opposite of the desired effect. still, we all want to look as good as possible, especially when other people are watching us, so i feel that as long as you ALWAYS keep your hips square in your personal or class stretching practice, it's ok to let your hips shift a little to the side to get into the splits when you are performing 😉) what can i say- when i am performing, i "cheat" by letting my hips shift, but when i am practicing, the goal is to OPEN and LENGTHEN my muscles, and this will only be accomplished by keeping one's hips square.
moonflower · 11/12/2010
No, opening/tilting your hips will NOT damage you at all. It will give you less of a stretch. When I did gymnastics, our coach had us tilt out hips to get a straighter line but practice with a hips squared for better stretch. Square hips can not achieve a single straight line because the hip holds the legs sided by side, the splits will be flat, but the legs will not be a single long line.
moonflower · 11/12/2010
Wanted to add that one way I was taught to make sure your hisp are squared is to do the splits with your back knees bent and put your lower leg up against the wall.
joni1 · 11/12/2010
I also want to add that I asked 2 of the orthopeadic surgeons that I work with if having your hips unsquare and tilted back to make a straighter line will somehow cause any damages in the present or future with any tissues, muscles, ligament or bones. They both stated a "BIG NO." I do see alot of ballet dancer with beautiful straight lines when on their front splits which is not squared. Most to all gymnist I have seen are in perfectly technically squared hips.