’ve written before about why we often care so much about keeping our hips “square” (both hip bones pointing forwards, not opening out to the side) in things like front splits and lunges, but that’s easier said than done! Even for students who are totally on board the “I’m Gonna Square My Hips to Get a Better Hip Stretch” Train, it can be challenging to realize are your hips actually square? So today I’ll cover a couple of ways you can train both your visual awareness (can you see if your hips are square?) as well as your physical awareness (can you feel if your hips are square) to be able to identify when your hips are square - and when they’re not and they’re probably avoiding a deeper stretch.

If there’s one correction I have to give just about every leg/hip flexibility class I teach, it’s for some students to lean back a bit more in their front split (or lunge, or pigeon, or any hip flexor stretch for that matter…). Leaning forwards is SUCH a common “cheat” to avoid stretching the hip flexors in the back leg, which for most students, is a critical part of being able to get your splits flat. Let’s take a look at the anatomy of our front split to understand why you probably want to avoid leaning forwards (or in what situations that might be preferred!)