Hip Opening Yoga for Women Over 40 | Yoga to Transform
Sep 18, 2026
Hip opening yoga for women over 40: a beginner's guide to letting go
One of our students came in this week and said her hips had been aching for weeks. She thought it was just her age catching up with her.
We got talking. Turned out she had been sitting at a desk for ten hours a day, carrying a stressful project at work, and had not been on her mat in over a month.
Her hips were not ageing. They were storing.
Why your hips hold more than they should
If you have spent any time around yoga, you have probably heard that the hips hold onto stress and emotion. It sounds like a nice idea until you actually feel it in a class. Then it stops being a nice idea and starts being obvious.
Tight hips after 40 are often less about flexibility and more about the nervous system. Standing and running are two of the oldest survival responses we have, and the hips are one of the first places tension gets stored when your body has been in a stress response for a while. Slow, supported movement through the hips is one of the more direct ways to tell your nervous system it is safe to soften.
What is in this practice
This week's new video on YouTube is a hip opening flow built for exactly that. It moves through half happy baby, fire log pose, pigeon, and a few standing shapes like goddess pose and warrior two, all supported with a strap and blocks.
You do not need to already be flexible or coordinated. Every shape has an easier option, and you are welcome to stay in the gentle version the whole way through. This is not a class you can fail.
The story behind it
We built the class around Kali, the goddess of letting go. You do not need any background in yoga philosophy or Hindu mythology to get the physical benefit of a hip opener, but the story gives language to something a lot of women in their 40s are already living.
There is a version of your life that has served you for years. It got you here. And there might be a part of it, a job, a habit, a way of holding yourself, that is ready to be let go of, so something else has room to arrive. That is the work happening underneath the physical opening in this class.
Getting started
You will need:
- a yoga mat
- a strap (a belt or scarf works fine)
- two blocks or firm cushions, if you have them
Everything else is optional. If this is your first class in years, or your first ever, this is a good place to start.
Watch the full flow on YouTube this week. If you are in Christchurch, our in-studio classes at Yoga to Transform work through the same principles with hands-on support, and Beyond the Diet podcast goes deeper into the stuff underneath the yoga, weight, wellness and womanhood after 40.
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