Compacting the Hips: 3 Wednesdays with Nicky (Full Series)

This class is offered hybrid. The instructor will be in person in Gettysburg. Live virtual participation via Zoom is available. The class will be recorded and registrants will have access to the recordings for a 3-week period.

In Iyengar Yoga, “compacting the hips” is a fundamental instruction for creating firmness, stability, and integration in the legs and hips. Specifically, it refers to drawing the head of the femur deeply and securely into the hip socket within any given asana. Once this stable “container” has been established, something more subtle is experienced: an immediate and simultaneous extension of the spine, along with a lifting and expansion of the chest.

In this three-class series, we will explore the effects of “sucking the outer hips in” across a variety of families of asanas. We will investigate which specific muscle groups need to activate and which must remain passive to create the conditions for this action to gain both stability and freedom at the hip joints.

Freedom in a pose cannot arise without structural stability. The action of compaction not only stabilizes the physical body, but also draws consciousness from the periphery toward the core. In this way, the physical practice of asana becomes integrated, refined, and meditative.