Are your Inner Thighs making it hard to Breathe?

Say what?  Yes. It’s true. Your adductors, inner thigh muscles running from your pelvis to the inside of your knee, have a lot to do with your ability to take a truly deep and relaxing breath.  Not only that, they may also be raising your body’s stress levels, which can make you gain weight and feel irritable.

That’s crazy, you say.  It sure sounds kind of out there. But have a look at the anatomical image. See how the muscles running along your inner thigh connect to your large hip flexor, the psoas muscle?  If you keep tracing this line of muscles upward, you will see how the psoas connects, via fascia, to the ‘legs’ of your respiratory diaphragm. 

When your inner thigh muscles are tight, as they usually are, they indirectly pull on the back of your diaphragm, preventing you from being able to take a free and easy breath.  The ability of your diaphragm to expand and relax is directly connected to your body’s Fight or Flight sensors.  If you brain feels like you can’t breathe well, guess what?  Cortisol, the most damaging stress hormone of all, goes on a rampage through your cells.

How can you tell if you have this problem?  A good way to see this dynamic playing out in your body is through Warrior 2.  This challenging pose requires a great deal of openness in your inner thighs.  When they are tight, your entire pelvis will roll forward as you bend your front knee toward 90-degrees, creating a sway back in your lumbar spine and a ‘hole’ where in the back of your diaphragm – precisely where it should be expanding!  It’s as if everything in your belly is being pulled forward the further you bend your front knee. 

Take a look at the pic below.  I am still working on not ‘falling forward’ in this pose, after many years of practice.  Take Heart.  We are all regularly experiencing tightness in our inner thighs through what is called the ‘Startle Reflex’. We must work on releasing them consistently.  It’s not a ‘once and done’ thing.  When you feel fearful or anxious, your body naturally contracts your hip flexors and inner thighs toward your belly – as if to protect your vulnerable abdominal organs.  Babies are born with this reflex.  Your inner thighs don’t know if you have just been listening to the news or are truly being chased by a saber-tooth tiger!

Lengthening from the Inner Thighs back into the Diaphragm by using a Chair to do Warrior 2

In either case, if we want to take good care of our health and well-being, we need to find ways of releasing this natural stress response, because our bodies hold tension long after we have turned off the TV.  One help is to start practicing Warrior II against a wall, where you will be able to check in with your own body.  As you do the Pose, check to see if your back can stay on the wall as you bend your front knee deeper.  Only go as deep as you can while keeping your middle back (respiratory diaphragm) on the wall. Each time you exhale, give the tailbone a tiny little scoop, so that the pubis reaches for the navel on the next inhalation, and the breath is drawn up and backward, eventually filling your whole diaphragm, and not just the front of it (popping the belly – pulling away from the wall).  Then, release the front knee a little bit deeper towards 90-degrees, if you can. For more on variations of Warrior 2 against the wall and on a chair, check out my Video Clinic. Pose Tutorials, like this helpful Vid, are offered regularly as part of our Yoga Club Membership. We also offer them occasionally on our general public Fb Page.

Another wonderful way to work on this problem is through a pose called Seated Wide Forward Bend.  Make sure you really activate both feet and sit a bit forward on your Sitting Bones.  Stretch your legs apart in a wide ‘V’.  Reach out toward a block in front of you, attempting to lengthen the sides of your waist with each inhalation.  Come closer to the floor with your chest on each exhalation.  This pose works more specifically on the inner thighs, and it should help you master Warrior II (and deep breathing) more easily.

Make sure you practice a Counterpose, like Knees to Chest (lying on your back) after working on poses where the legs are moving apart from each other, such as Warrior 2 and Seated Wide Forward Bend.  Finally, keep in mind that your inner thighs are tight, most likely, because your outer thighs are weak.  Including poses in your Practice that strengthen your outer thigh muscles (abductors), like Standing Balances, will help your inner thigh muscles begin to relax and lengthen on their own.

Thanks for tuning in to this Practice Tip.  See you on the Mat!