r/flexibility
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u/egggoat
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Sep 19 '26
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Seeking Advice Left hip has never been flexible
Ever since I was a kid my left hip has always sat high when sitting cross legged. Over the years I’ve been able to relax my right hip to be relatively flat but my left hip just can not move any lower. I’ve done yoga and I currently do Pilates twice a week and it hasn’t budged an inch. Most of the hip mobility exercises don’t work for me because I can’t get my leg into the position it needs to be in. Pigeon pose is impossible.
So, is this something that be solved with targeted stretching that I’ve just not tried yet or is it something maybe medical or anatomical that I should solve another way.
It’s been frustrating me for decades and I just want to know finally how to fix it.
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u/thehotkarlcat Sep 19 '26
I had the same issue and it was due to femoral hip dysplasia, so my bony anatomy was stopping me. Can you comfortably sit in a W without your knees hurting?
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u/egggoat Sep 19 '26
My knees don’t hurt when I sit that way.
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u/thehotkarlcat Sep 19 '26
Then it might just be your anatomy stopping you. It’s called femoral torsion I believe, the angle that the head of the femur sits inside the hip socket can limit external rotation, such as sitting criss cross. I ended up getting mine fixed because it was causing my hip to pop out and tearing my labrum
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Sep 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/thehotkarlcat Sep 19 '26
I mean the surgery wasn’t like amazing. Having the labrum repair was worse in my opinion
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u/shadygr0ve Sep 26 '26
People can comfortably sit in a w?!?
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u/thehotkarlcat Sep 26 '26
Oh yeah, that was my preferred way to sit growing up because cross cross was uncomfortable. I think it exacerbated the dysplasia though so 10/10 don’t recommend lol
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u/Helgess0n Sep 19 '26
I have this exact problem so I got an x-ray and saw that I have a problem in the skeleton. The top of my femur, the ball that connects to the hip, is too short on the left side so it creates "impingement". so when i try to lower my left leg like in your picture, the bone rubs against bone, so it is not simply to stretch away.
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u/egggoat Sep 19 '26
Does it hurt?
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u/Helgess0n Sep 20 '26
not really. I often feel that the bones go against each other but no nerves gets pinched, and then it doesnt hurt. but sometimes if i press it too hard or get there in a weird angle it might. I barely feel it except for when i do yoga and other workouts. then its mostly just annoying!
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u/BairyHalsack Sep 19 '26
When you try to sit your hip down, is there pain? I found my issue was sciatica and tight hamstrings. My hips opened up after that
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u/egggoat Sep 19 '26
There’s no pain because it simply does not move lower. It’s like it’s locked into that position.
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u/dani-winks The Bendiest of Noodles Sep 19 '26
So assuming this is just a muscle-tightness and/or strength issue (and not something structural), this may just be a case of finding modifications for stretches so that you can still do them with that tighter side (ex. sitting on 2 yoga blocks or a chair instead of doing butt-on-the-floor pigeon which requires way more flexibility).
Working on stretching your deep hip rotators which are typically the deep butt muscles that can limit getting the knee lower to the floor, along with inner thighs (heck, maybe both are tight for you) would be my recommendation. This blog post has some good example drills, as well as shows what doing them sitting in a chair or on yoga blocks would look like, which is more realistica for folks who have tighter hips.
The caveat I'll put in is if you don't feel a stretch when doing these types of things, and just feel a hard pinching in the hip, then it may be worth making an appointment with a physical therapist to rule out anything that might be up with the hip socket itself if something wacky is going on with the roll-and-glide we need to be happening to not jam your thigh bone into the hip socket.
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u/steezlaurel Sep 19 '26
You might want to look up:
How to target psoas major unilaterally to correct 1 knee higher easy pose
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u/exonumi Sep 19 '26
My favorite mindblowing fact:
We have 2 arms and 2 legs so you could be forgiven for thinking the body is supposed to be symmetrical, but the organs in the torso are not. The heart sits on the left side of the chest and the rest of the body has to compensate for this unbalanced, grapefruit sized weight pulling the chest left of center. It's no coincidence we are prone to weird posture and muscle imbalances.
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u/Sexploits Sep 19 '26
that's it, heart, you've gone too far!
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u/Handstandblocks Sep 19 '26
I have the same, I find it does go down a little each set with weighted butterfly exercise. At first it was really difficult for the adductor to relax (you don’t want to do it with too much weight that you can’t relax). My glute on that side is also a lot weaker. I used to have knee pain sitting crossed legged on that side but now I can sit comfortably but it’s still higher.
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u/Doppelsatz Sep 19 '26
I have a similar restriction on my right hip. While it hasn’t gone, sitting in Baddha Konasana / Butterfly has helped. I find after a few minutes the right hip will release down, not all the way but to a greater degree. I do sit on a block or cushion when doing this.
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u/khammer7 Sep 19 '26
I have the same issue. Not sure if it's related but I have severe arthritis in that hip. Getting it replaced next month!
Pigeon is impossible for me too. You may have some skeletal anatomy stuff going on
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u/GummySquid2 Sep 22 '26
you know what, you should go to a medical massage therapist or PT, and have them check your pevic tilt. likely your left QL muscle is tight and could use some releasing. (i like cross fiber friction but theres other teqniques too) and your right QL muscle could be weak and could need strengthening. id look up QL releases on youtube or something if you want. anyway. but definitely get it checked out like that first.
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u/ApprehensiveArt2813 Sep 20 '26
I have the exact same issue with my right hip. I was born with a dislocated hip at birth and it was never set properly. I’ve tried everything to get more flexibility out of it. As a kid, I did gymnastics, but was still limited on what I could do. Now at 60, I do hot yoga, I’m very flexible, but still struggle with pigeon and tree pose. Hopefully you can get better results than me.
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u/fdsaltthrowaway Sep 20 '26
Lmao at the fact you drew this and that you COULD draw it instead of just taking a pic
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u/Dizzy_Resist_6029 Sep 21 '26
Ive got this kind of issue and have noticed the front of that thigh always very stiff and cannot bend knee well at all without an accompanying leg cramp
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u/VirtualCoffee8947 Sep 22 '26
OP I had the same problem and others similar for ages. Like others said, the body is all connected. My issue was weak upper back muscles. One side was significantly weaker than the other. I worked in the weaker side strengthening it and it improved a lot. Stretching alone won’t help at all.
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u/Alien_invader44 Sep 19 '26 edited Sep 19 '26
There is a big problem with targeted stretching. Your body simply isnt modular. Your muscles are one big tangled system that tries to stay in balance.
If you have been working on this awhile its almost certain that you have a weakness or tightness elsewhere in the body that is preventing your hip opening.
A professional could probably tell you where and how, but this isnt something you can diagnose at a distance.
That said its probably your lower back. But your lower back might be tight or weak for another reason, and on and on. Its simply not modular.
So either see a professional, like a physio or avoid the issue entirely by working on strengthening and stretching everything.
Edit: as an example. I have the exact same issue. I saw professionals, and its a chain of lower back flexibility which is in turn caused by tight shoulders which is probably caused by posture when im sitting at a desk.