Tight hips? Try the tortoise pose! Here's how this unique stretch transformed my mobility

A woman doing the tortoise yoga pose.

I’m a serial sitter — like millions of other Americans, my day job involves sitting behind a desk and typing for a living, and my hips suffer because of this. One pose that came up as a relief for tight hip flexors in my last yoga class was the tortoise pose, so I tried adding this pose to my cooldown routine after my morning run for a couple of weeks — read on to find out what happened to my hip flexibility and mobility.

The tortoise pose, or kurmasana pose, gets its name from its resemblance to a tortoise emerging from its shell. It’s a pretty advanced pose, and is not recommended for women who are pregnant, or anyone suffering from sciatica, or a previous spine or hip injury.