RelatedPosts
If you’re someone who spends a lot of time sitting — whether at a desk, in a car, or on the couch — chances are your hips feel tight and your back occasionally aches. On November 30, 2023, I undertook to deal with this stiffness once and for all and decided to give a try to the new fresh with over 70 million views on social media under the #frogpose: the frog pose to which it refers.
A version of this pose had been included in my workout with some of my customers, and I was familiar with the difficulty. Still, I agreed to dedicate three minutes every day for a week to this one stretch to experience its impact on my hips, groin, and lower back. Here’s a spoiler: it was hard work — but it was paid back in the end.
What Is the Frog Pose and How Do You Do It?
Mandukasana, also known as the frog pose, is a very deep hip-opening stretch that targets the adductors (inner thigh muscles), groin, and lower back. Here’s a visual guide on how to do it:
Get on all fours, i.e., kneel on the mat, and support yourself with your hands and knees. Slowly push the knees apart and keep the ankles underneath the knees, the inside edges of the feet on the ground. Drive hips down and back towards the feet, and if you can, go down a little further with your chest or forearms. When you do this, you will get the most part of the intensity locally, it’s deep and direct, especially if you don’t do this type of stretching very often.
Day 1: Reality Hits Hard
The first session was a real eye-opener. Those were the most difficult three minutes I had experienced in a long time. My hips were sore, my brain kept asking, “Are we done yet?”, but I tried to keep the pain from suffocating, I inhaled deeply and told myself that growth could not happen within one’s comfort zone.
Midweek: The Mental and Physical Changes Set In
What was surprising is that by day 3, a shift occurred that had not been anticipated. The pose was still a bit hard to do, but my thoughts became more positive. In the end, I was breathing deeper and shutting myself off from the environment, practicing meditation. I haven’t done yoga in a while, but I got a feeling of being in a meditative state. I was like someone who had made an effort in meditation and has just realized my emotional sense without any premonition — it was actually my hip area that I got it from, as yoga educators commonly mention that the hips are the places in the body where stress and emotion are retained.
In terms of my body, I could mark a significant improvement in my hip range of movement. Squats were deeper, and my lower vertebral tension was abating. I started including a gentle back-and-forth motion with the particular position I was holding to make it more dynamic and to relax my muscles.
End of Week: Full Circle Relief
Fast-forward to one week later, and an interesting pattern formed. First and foremost, my hips were so grateful for doing yoga. The discomfort and aching that I usually met during a run or a strength training session had totally subsided. The good news is I felt taller and more confident when I was in a sitting or walking position, a certain sign of my well-stored posture. My dad, my …
Tips for Making the Pose Bearable
Here are some simple ways to tone down the frog pose if you find it to be uncomfortable:
- Put a yoga mat or a towel under your knees for the cushion effect.
- Keep your heels close together for less stretch.
- Use yoga blocks or a bolster to rest your torso and keep the pressure down.
- Do it for 60–90 seconds at the beginning and increase the time gradually.
Bottom Line: Is the Frog Pose Worth It?
Definitely! This stretch can be very helpful especially to those with stiff hips, sore groin, or tight lower back. Despite the fact that the frog pose is not the most popular stretch, it is quite effective when done regularly. Be aware that pain is acceptable, however, sharp pain is not. Be attentive to your body, take a deep breath, and do not hesitate to reduce the pressure if it is uncomfortable.
No doubt, I’m sticking to doing this exercise in the mornings. This is above all the other benefits physically that it brings along with it, there is also that new sense of calm that comes as a surprise to me.
