It's All in the Hips

If you regularly experience knee, shoulder, or lower back pain, you may be suffering from the effects of tight hip muscles.

By Alisa Bauman

Stan urban, 48, a competitive cyclist, turned to yoga three years ago when he began to experience lower back pain, a very common ailment among cyclists, who spend the majority of their time hunched forward over the bike. Though Urban thought his problem centered in his lower back, his coach and yoga instructor, Dario Fredrick, had a different theory. Shortened hamstring muscles along the backs of Urban's legs coupled with tight hip flexors along the front of his thighs, as well as tight groin muscles and hip rotators, were preventing him from riding his bike in the proper form.

<a href="http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/904_1.cfm">http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/904_1.cfm</a>;