An 11-Pose Routine for Hip Flexibility (That You Can Do in Bed)

Your hips are your body’s midline. Tight, inflexible hips can spur chronic pain elsewhere, restricting your mobility and reducing your joy. Fortunately, you can ease current aches and prevent future ones with this X-pose routine for hip flexibility. 

Hip Mobility and Chronic Pain 

Tight hips can contribute to chronic pain, especially in your lower back and knees.

Lower Back 

According to Dr. Zachary Miller at Kettering Health, modern life, with its demand for long seat times, stresses your iliopsoas, your largest hip flexor muscle [1]. When this muscle becomes tight, it exerts more force across this complicated joint, increasing the risk of arthritis or degeneration. He recommends gentle exercises like yoga and Pilates for maintaining hip mobility and building core strength. 

Knees 

Additionally, according to the folks at Nebraska Medicine, tight hip flexors can contribute to IT band syndrome, patellar-femoral stress syndrome, muscle imbalances and increased knee stress [2]. 

In a perfect world, everyone would have a standing desk and the freedom to avoid long periods of sitting or movements that place undue strain on your hips. However, we currently live on earth, where we must make the best choices for our health that we can with the resources we have available. Fortunately, you can do the following 11-step restorative yoga routine in bed to ease you into sleep while releasing the day’s stress. Aah.

11-Pose Restorative Yoga Routine for Hip Flexibility 

With the exception of windshield wipers, all of these poses are entirely passive, allowing you to sink deep into the hip opening. Hold them anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes or more, mindfully breathing into the areas under pressure and making subtle adjustments to hit that perfect spot. 

1. Windshield Wipers 

It’s always good to inspire a bit of circulation and heat in the tissues you intend to stretch before stretching them. You can perform windshield wipers seated or from a supine position. 

• From seated: Extend your legs in front of you with your feet about hips width apart. Bend your knees, then let your knees fall gently to either side. 
• From supine: Perform the same motion while lying on your back, knees bent, legs falling side to side. Pile pillows on either side of you if you have a tight lower back, too. The extra support removes the pressure. 
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2. Dragon or Lizard 

While this pose can be tough on your knees, doing it in bed makes it much gentler on that delicate joint. Begin the pose on all fours. Step your right leg forward, bringing it just outside your right wrist. Lean forward into a lunge. 

You can remain in this low lunge position with your arms straight. Alternatively, you can bring your elbows to your mattress. 

3. Seated Butterfly 

Begin in a comfortable seat. Bring the soles of your feet together, allowing your knees to fall open to the side like butterfly’s wings. If it feels right in your body, lean slightly forward to increase the opening in your inner thighs, but avoid pressing on your knee joint.

4. Single Leg Hug 

From the seated position you took for a seated butterfly, gently hug one knee into your chest. You might tuck your foot into the opposite elbow and give that leg a gentle rock, opening through the outer hip. 

5. Sleeping Swan 

From a plank position, bring one ankle toward the opposite wrist. Bend the knee out to the side. Extend the other leg long behind you. Lower your chest over the bent, forward leg.

6. Half-Frog 

From a plank position, keep one leg extended straight behind you. Bend the other leg at a 45-degree angle, opening it out to the side. It helps to lie on a couple of pillows if your inner thigh mobility isn’t quite there. 

7. Happy Baby 

The remainder of this flow takes place on your back. Once you get there, extend your legs toward the ceiling, then hold onto the outside of each foot, gently bending your knees and extending the legs slightly to the side, like a happy little baby. Play like an infant, extending one leg and then the other, as you explore your complex hip joint. 

8. Supine Hamstring Stretch 

A yoga strap really helps here, but a sash from a robe or a towel helps, too. Wrap it around your ankle or simply hold your leg in your hands as you elevate one foot, stretching back. Play with the angles here, extending the leg across the body, then out to the side. 

9. Supine Pigeon 

Supine pigeon is one of my favorite poses, and it sets you up nicely for the next one. Lie on your back with your knees bent. Cross one ankle over the opposite knee. If you feel enough of a stretch here, perfect. If not, reach through the legs and pull them back toward your chest, holding on beneath the bottom leg. 

10. IT Band Twist 

I love this IT band stretch as my tight hips very much do affect my knees, especially my pesky right one. From your supine pigeon, return the bottom foot to the floor, but keep the ankle crossed over the knee. Allow that knee to fall in the direction that it is pointing while you keep it crossed, creating a beautiful stretch down the thick band of connective tissue that runs from your hip to your knee. 

11. Supine Butterfly 

Supine butterfly is the perfect alternative to a traditional savasana, and it opens your hips and inner thighs. Lie on your back, place the soles of your feet together, and let your knees fall open to the side. You might place one hand on your heart and one on your navel as you tune into your breath and thank yourself for taking the time for your practice. 

A Routine for Hip Flexibility That You Can Do in Bed 

Tight hips don’t only cause problems when you dust off your old hula hoop. Misery here can spread, causing chronic pain issues elsewhere while degenerating this all-important midline joint. Fortunately, taking a few minutes to perform these stretches in bed may prevent future problems, ease current aches and perhaps even send you off to dreamland feeling more peaceful. 

[1]

Miller, Zachary, DO. “Back Pain? Your Tight Hips May Be to Blame.” Kettering Health Strive. April 1, 2026. Retrieved May 11, 2026, from: https://ketteringhealth.org/back-pain-your-tight-hips-may-be-to-blame/

[2]

“Tight hip flexors may be causing your knee pain.” Nebraska Medicine. June 17, 2025. Retrieved May 11, 2026, from: https://www.nebraskamed.com/health/conditions-and-services/orthopaedics/tight-hip-flexors-may-be-causing-your-knee-pain