Is hip pain altering your disposition? Disrupting your sleep? Or simply slowing you down in your daily routine? Well, an often neglected yet important hip muscle known as the gluteus medius may need some special attention.
The previous blog illustrated the anatomical layout of the gluteus medius muscle and its versatile capabilities of abducting the legs and maintaining a level pelvis  in our normal walking patterns.
Asymmetrical Uttanasana is a tremendous Yoga Tune Up® stretch on the gluteus medius, tensor fascia latae and biceps femoris muscles. With the use of a prop such as a yoga brick, gravity allows some of the tightest areas of the outer hip and buttock region to stretch without restriction!
Check out this amazing exercise for hip pain relief from Yoga Tune Up® ~ and sleep well!
Perhaps since Asymmetrical Uttanasana is such a tremendous Yoga Tune Up® stretch on the gluteus medius, that the pose should be a routine part of any yoga practice. Understanding better how significant this muscle is to the stability of our pelvis and the related walking motion, Im thinking is almost as important as brushing my teeth for good hip hygiene.
This pose is amazing ! Really works great for gluteus medius. I find YTU poses to be so innovative and refreshing. They instantly energise and do their job they are intended to do or targeted to do.
I loved the anatomy review and found the exercise gets into parts of my hips other exercises don’t reach. It will become part of my repertoire. Fabulous – thank you!
One thing I learned quite well from doing this pose is that I need to do it more often! I was amazed at how intense the effect was in my body!! :-0 Definitely need more glute med TLC.
Wow – I just had an Ahha moment reading your PART 2 of this Glorious Gluteus Medius blog. I see the important work and functionality of this muscle in the many sports my kids are involved in. After reading your comments regarding disrupted sleep, I now see how it relates to ME! I often awaken with achy hips and just attribute it to sleep position. Tonight I will be sure to spend some time relieving this pain BEFORE I go to sleep!
[…] Tune Up® Blog « Your Respiratory Diaphragm: Meet in the Middle The Glorious Gluteus Medius, Part 2 […]
I’ve never seen this stretch before. I just tried it and really felt it in my tight hips. I will definitely use this in the future for clients with gluteus medius and lower back tightness. Thanks!
I have been practicing this protocol and have felt fabulous benefits from it!! Thank you Amy for such wonderful information!!
it’s really hard to reach specific tightness tissue inner Gluteus muscle. but It looks so great to reach it deeply. I want to try that.
This asymmetric pose was such a relief for my lower back pain due to the sacral iliac problem I had in my earlier years doing twist incorrectly. After this asymmetrical uttanasana, I rolled using the yoga tune up balls and felt like I had a brand new body. Thanks YTU teachers!
My hip felt very confused initially when I first did this pose, probably because of the exaggerated asymmetric nature of the hip positions. I also felt a lot of tension/stretch along the outer side and back of my leg, just beneath and above my knee. As you mentioned in your previous blog, stretching Gluteus Medius affects both upstream and downstream muscle chains. This pose is beneficial for relieves the tension from the scoliosis of my lower lumbar spine!
I had never considered asymmetrical poses like this before trying Yoga Tune Up and it’s amazing how illuminating they can be. Like a lot of the other responders to this blog – I also felt the lateral aspect of my hip and glute medius in a way I never had before. Thanks for sharing.
AMAZING!!!! This stretch has changed my life. Seriously, the freedom and ease in my hips and lower back after doing Asymmetrical Uttanasana transfers to the rest of being. Thank-you Jill Miller.
Student 0 just got a facebook post for this pose. He’s a runner who’s been on the wood chip trail (lots of lateral rotators that are being used and abused). When I ran, I could feel just how much the gluteus medius is being used to stabilize while running on a good for your knees surface. I’m going to give a dynamic pose as well but will also have him try this static pose.
This is a great way to feel your gluteus medius.As many of people mentioned, it’s easy to miss lateral part of gluteus / hip tentions yet it’s very common area to get tight. Thank you for sharing 🙂
We did this stretch in class today. I found it to be more effective than the ones I had been given in physio for the gluteus medius, and enjoyed how it also accessed the entire side of the body.
I just did Asymmetrical Uttanasana for the first time, ever! It’s such a new concept, yet uncomplicated and effective. I already love it and know it will be so therapeutic for myself and others to really find this low back and gluteus medius muscle stretch! Thanks!
This Yoga Tune Up® stretch is truly excellent with the support of high blocks. These props reduce the apprehension reflex and even for patients with chronic lower back pain or dull hip pain can be carefully thought. The PNF element makes this stretch an extremely therapeutic combination and allows a safer and more gradual deepening of the side angles.
This is a new stretch for me but I already love it. I find that It really helps me find my body’s “blindspots” when it comes to my hip – which has been an off and on source of pain for me these last few years. Thank you for sharing.
This pose allows the opportunity to deeply explore the gluteus medius. I have a friend with incredibly tight hips. I can’t wait to teach her this pose.
Mmmhmmmm my mirror neurons are salivating whenever I see this one! I have never been able to get so deep into the muscles of the Gluteus Medius until this particular Yoga Tune Up Pose. It is so important to recognize that Classical Yoga does not have all the ways of movement in it and that we can, should and need to find other ways to navigate, explore and heal our bodies. There ARE endless poses when the body is the playground.
This is an amazing pose, thanks for sharing this. I suffer from hip pain and this wonderful exercice has helped the muscles that I have been ignoring for a long time, you can feel the stretch right away and how the muscles awake.
As someone who has hip issues, I can say that this stretch fully brought my attention to this tight area. This was the first asymmetrical pose I have ever experienced and after experiencing several more today, I believe these exercises are key to fully understanding and attaining the symmetrical versions.
This is a great pose. I just did it for the first time yesterday in my YTU training (woohoo). It was so informative to exaggerate the stretch in those outer hip and lateral muscles of the back of the thigh. It was nice to have that direct perception thanks to that stretch.
I love this movement in conjunction with static adductor lifts – a nice combination of stretching & strengthening to awaken and attend to gluteus medius!
Lately while practicing traditional Uttanasana I have notices a pretty significant difference in the amount of tightness up the right side of my hamstrings and into the glut medius. I also tend to experience a lot of soreness where the glut medius attaches and inserts (on the illiac crest and greater trochanter). I practiced Asymmetrical Uttanasana several times today and found wonderful relief. I later tried a traditional forward bend and found much more “even” between sides!
I am currently in the Yoga Tune Up® teacher training at Kirpalu and we did this stretch today. I find this pose simple on its face and powerful in the information the body is able to receive about how tight one side of the hip can be without knowing it.The Gluteus Medius has become more accessible for me since doing this simple stretch.
I love attending to the glut medius. It can sometimes be a neglected muscle in my scope of awareness although it does so much for me. As a yoga teacher, I’m enjoying these novel positions to stretch muscles with such a focussed purpose. Before YTU, I’m not sure I’d have the confidence to teach such an asymmetrical posture but it so effectively targets the outer hip in a manner that is hard, or rather, impossible to recreate in a traditional uttanasana.
do you find your clients getting immediate relief or more of a gradual process?