Don't practice Frog pose if you have a knee, hip, or back injury like disc herniation. Bhanote says pregnant women can do Frog pose, but they may need to modify their movements with props for safety. To benefit fully from Frog pose, or any other yoga pose, you must practice consistently.
The Frog Pose 🐸 is an amazing hip opener, but it can be quite challenging due to the lack of flexibility in our hips—something many of us struggle with because of a sedentary lifestyle.
Frog Pose is perfectly suited for all levels. Both beginners and advanced practitioners can practice it safely, and with the modifications below, it's also accessible for those with mobility issues.
Use props and make it more restorative. Make a large stack of bolsters and blankets and climb on them in your frog position with pubic bone at edge of stack, grab some blocks and stack them so your head can rest on it. When it comes to how high your stack is, if you're unsure add more!
"With a sedentary lifestyle, your hip muscles might be short from a lack of stretching and weak from lack of use,” he explains. Essentially, sitting keeps these muscles in a shortened position for an extended period of time, which can in turn reduce their range of motion and cause them to tighten.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common condition that can develop after experiencing trauma. It's believed that trauma can be stored in the hips. This refers to holding emotional trauma in the psoas muscle. The body's response to trauma is complex.
Spending a lot of time sitting—whether it's at a desk, in a car or even on the couch—puts your hip flexors in a compressed position, causing them to shorten and tighten up.
When your pelvic floor feels tight, lay down, put your feet together and knees apart. Lay in this position for five minutes, focusing on relaxing your pelvic floor, hips, abdominal wall, and glutes.
Some yoga poses offer specific health benefits — and Frog pose is no exception. This yoga pose targets the hips, groin, and thigh muscles. As part of regular yoga practice, it promotes relaxation, eases back pain, strengthens the pelvic floor, and improves chronic disease management.
What are the contraindications of Frog Pose? Avoid doing the frog pose if you have knee, groin or hip injuries. In case of any discomfort, immediately pause and relax. In the event of discomfort or issues with your ankles or lower, be aware of sensations in the hip region or groin area.
“Frog pose can help with stretching the inner thighs and hips, as well as improving overall flexibility and range of motion — particularly around the hips, as those are major areas at play in the posture,” Bhanote explains. It also stretches the muscles of the back, so it can help relieve lower back tension, too.
Bring your hips in line with your knees and rest either on your elbows or chest flat on the mat, arms extended or under your forehead. You are looking for 'nagging' sensations in the inner thighs. Hold this pose for 1 to 3 minutes and eventually up to 5 minutes.
Common Frog Stretch Mistakes to Avoid
Don't make the common mistake of forcing your body to do more than it's able to do. If you do that, you'll probably find that you can't do frog stretch in any of its versions.
Frog Yoga Pose, or Mandukasana, impacts the chakra system, primarily the Muladhara (Root Chakra) and Svadhisthana (Sacral Chakra).
Frog movements help restore internal rotation to tight hips. The trick to frog pose is to have adequate padding for your knees, so grab a blanket or an extra yoga mat. From an all-fours position, spread your knees as wide as you can, shins and feet in line with your knees.
Your hip flexors may feel tight because they are working overtime to help provide stability – not because they need to be stretched! The same thing goes for your hamstrings and quadriceps. Overuse of these large muscle groups may lead to strain in the muscles themselves, or at their attachments to bone.