Enter Anusara Yoga, 2007: SITO (cute acronym for 'shins in, thighs out'), which, when applied skillfully, brings the leg bones to anatomical neutral, supports the knees, and holds a useful boundary in the lower legs for opening the outer hips. It turns out we can only create as much space in the hips as we can maintain strength in the lower legs. Without the lower leg engagement, 'hip opening' can quickly devolve into 'knee injuring' (side note: SITO is half of what started opening my hips for real, thigh stretches is the other part, but more on that later).
SITO is easily misunderstood, so although I often teach the mechanics of it in class, you'll never hear me say "Shins in, Thighs Out," because it is neither clear nor an effective cue.
Let's break it down and learn to apply it so we can open our hips for real:
Tadasana: Stand with your feet sitbone-width (about a fist distance), and point your kneecaps over your 2nd toe base. To find the first half of SITO ('shins in'), lift and spread your toes, fanning your little toes back towards your outer heels. You should feel an engagement in your outer shins; welcome to your peroneal muscles! Bring one finger tip to your upper outer shins where the strength is, right where the little crease of muscle is on the outer leg. With one finger, squeeze in to give the shins a direction, and then pull your fingertips towards the back plane of your body without moving them. This is the path of the shin engagement (towards the midline, and wrapping to the back body). Now keep your lower legs strong with your knees tracking your second toes, and turn your inner thighs in, press them back, and broaden your hamstrings (this is 'thighs out', which is actually 'thighs turn in, move back, and widen apart,' which as you can see is why 'thighs out' is not an adequate description. But I digress...).
Parsvakonasana (variation): Touch inside your front right leg on fingertips. Sweep your legs towards each other. Set up your back left leg with the foot parallel to the back of your mat, engaged like a Tadasana leg, which is to say, outer lower leg muscles spinning to the back plane, and inner thigh turning in, back, and widening up to the sky. Now in the front leg, keep your kneecap tracking your second toe as you press your inner knee into your arm to tone your inner thigh. Use the tone of your adductor to turn your inner thigh down and to the back plane of your body. This will free your tailbone so you can lift your pelvic floor, and extend the tailbone down, lifting your low belly and right hip point clearly up off your right thigh.
Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (prep): Come into the pose with your right knee forward, and wider than your hip, with your ankle pointed. Now spread your right foot's pinky toe down into the mat until there's an engagement in your outer shin. Try sliding your left hand in, underhand-style, to hold the outer ankle and shin up off the ground as your pinky toe flicks down. With the extra support in your shin, you might feel your outer right hip releases even more deeply, and your right thigh bone descends more heavily. Keep the legs strong and extend long through the pose. Now stay in the pose and add
Twisted Thigh Stretch: Bend your back left knee and grab it with your right hand. As you draw the foot in, your left thigh should lift and broaden towards your foot. Bring your heel and butt to touch, and stretch your tailbone down to push out through your legs as you stretch your spine long.
Trikonasana: Right foot forward, engage your legs fully. Use your forearm butting up against your lower right leg (part of your hand can even be below your shin, instead of next to it) to help squeeze the shin to the midline and spin the muscles down to the ground (back plane). This should help anchor your inner front foot heavy, and set the kneecap over the second toes. Keep that as your tug the inner seams of your thighs back, splashing your upper legs broad into the banks of your shins. Keep it spacious as you stretch your tailbone down, and extend through your crown.
Lizard (w/arms in Gecko Goalpost): Take a wide lunge, with both hands inside your right front leg, on fingertips. Sweep your legs towards the midline, especially right above the ankle, and spin your outer calves towards the back plane. Into that resistance, lift your back left leg inner thigh and fill the bank of your lower left leg. Turn your front leg inner thigh in, down and wide, so your front leg inner thigh descends heavily; you'll feel your right sitbone move back and broaden with this action. Keep your front leg inner thigh spinning down and lift your low belly (especially on the right side) and tack the outer seam of your front leg down, lift your deep belly and push your legs longer. Walk your hands forward and wide, and bend your elbows out to the side like goalposts up on fingertips so your spine descends inside your front leg.
Eka Pada Koundinyasana II: Set up in Lizard as above, then keeping your legs toned and your back leg lifting, bow inside your front leg. Keep your front knee squeezing into your outer arm as you place your hands about mat-width. Walk your front foot out at a diagonal and simultaneously bend your elbows (leg hugging in strongly!). As you bend your elbows slightly wide like chatturanga, turn your front leg inner thigh down, so your right instep faces the floor and try to lift your back leg.
Malasana: Work with your feet touching, knees wider than your torso. Spread your little toes to fortify the outer banks of your lower legs, and then pull your inner heels back, the inner edges of your thighs back, your pubic bone back towards your tailbone to release your hips. Keep that as you walk your hands forward and bow your torso inside your legs
Bakasana/Eka Pada Bakasana II: Get so strong through the outer banks of the lower legs that while you're up in Bakasana you can tug your inner thighs back to lift your pelvis higher. This will free your legs up to move some, and you can extend one leg forward (like Tittibhasana). Play with both sides.
Supta Virasana: Do not grab your calves and yank them out to the sides to sit in between your shins. Instead, press your hands down through the middle of your calves, ironing them flat and snug your tush down inside your toned ankles. Your feet should point straight back, with serious engagement in your outer ankles, right above the base of the shins.
Low Lunge w/twist: Do it! So your spine is open for:
Maksikanagasana I: The prep is a potent hip opener, and an important pre-requisite. While standing, cross your left ankle above your right knee like a figure 4, and bend your standing leg deeply as in Utkatasana. When you look down at your left foot, if you can see the sole of the foot it is a sickled foot (learned this from Zhenja), and you need to fortify the lower leg more, spreading your little toes down towards the earth to lift your ankle until you can only see the foot's instep. When you can keep the banks strong, you can safely open your outer hips: spin your inner thighs in, down, and back behind you, moving your hips back. Keep your standing leg bent deeply as you sweep your waistine back and touch the ground; this is a great place to pause and work the deep hip opening. As it unfurls, walk your fingertips over to the right, and wiggle your left upper arm into the sole of your foot, as close to the armpit as possible (sit deep, legs strong! bend your standing leg, twist more!), then bend your elbows so you can stand on your upper arm and take flight. Here's a picture.
Janu Sirsasana: Open your legs wide, to a 90 degree angle or wider with the thighs, allowing your pelvis to turn towards your bent leg. When you draw the bent leg foot in, the sole of the foot can turn towards the sky like a virasana foot. To keep the banks of the lower leg strong, grab the calf of your bent leg, and spin it up towards the sky, so the muscles squishes up and gets pinned there by your inner thigh. Then, keep that while you manually turn that leg's inner thigh down toward the ground and push it broad. Extend into the pose. It's remarkable how quickly this clears knee funk and simultaneously opens the outer hip.
Krounchasana, Bharadvajasana, Triangmukhapaida Paschimottanasana
Padmasana, Simhasana, Kukkutasana: These will free up when you're able to keep your lower legs strong and root your femurs back and wide. When coming into the pose, try manually spinning your calf up towards the sky and physically turning your inner thigh down, back and wide to support the knee. Keep your pinky toe flicking wide as you fold your second leg in.
Yogi Dandasana: Strong shins, thighs back and wide, go for it!
Maksikanagasana III: go for it!
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