What Happens In Pigeon Pose With The Hips Squared?

Transcript of: What happens in pigeon pose with the hips squared?

Kristen asked a very good question this month about the pigeon pose and what happens when the hips are squared.

The Question:

She asks: Why does having the shin more parallel to the top of the mat intensify the stretch in the piriformis as opposed to less intensity when the shin is more at an angle?

The Answer:

It’s a very good question. Piriformis, remember, is just one of the deep six lateral hip rotators, or sometimes deep six external hip rotators. There’s an interesting thing that happens with them. The answer to her question, specifically about the shin and its placement, has to do with one of those interesting things.

Hip joint position changes muscle mechanics

Remember, we’re externally rotating the hip when we do pigeon on the floor with the hips squared. Normally, you would expect internal rotation to stretch the external hip rotators. But because we flex the hip joint—I’m gonna show this to you. Because we flex the hip joint, it rearranges how those tissues are. So, first notice, here’s external hip rotation. So there’s external rotation, those muscles shortening, and internal rotation, those muscles getting longer.

Now, let me put it into a flexed position. You see how this, this bungee cord sort of wraps around. Now, don’t take it too literally. But it does still show how movement, the rotation of the femur, technically, changes. It shows how it gets longer or shorter, and how those tissues would get longer or shorter. Now, even if I just flex the hip joint partway, if I now externally rotate, look at the femur. It’s externally rotating. That’s lengthening the deep six lateral rotators. Whereas, internal rotation shortens.

Stretching glutes vs lateral rotators in pigeon

So here’s the real answer to what happens when we do pigeon pose with the hips squared, the big answer, and the one that you’re looking for. Because you open the knee up and you put the shin parallel to the top or the front of the mat, you’re creating leverage for rotational force into the hip joint. When you fold the knee completely, you bring it in at an angle. You’re reducing the rotational force and sort of increasing the—I guess you could say—the adduction force that’s going on. It’s not that your femur is not rotated anymore. It’s just not as much force in that rotational type of direction. Okay. That’s the simple answer.

There’s another way to think about pigeon pose with the hips squared, if you want to. When the knee is bent more, and you have that angle, it’s a little bit more of a glute max and larger gluteal muscle stretch. As the knee goes out, and you try to square the hips, especially, you are gonna get into those deep six lateral rotators.

Alright, if you have a question you wanna ask me, go to yoganatomy.com/my question.