Hello ! I’ve been taking beginner ballet classes for almost 2 years now and something I’ve always struggled with are my hips and how tight / painful they can get. I know that every body is different and I’m in no way trying to push my turnout past its limit, but for some reason my hips always feel tight. I try to do a lot of hips warmouts before class (leg circles notably) just so that I’m not moving them when they’re cold but it doesn’t seem to be enough. I can get through barre pretty comfortably until it’s time for developpes, and then it’s a moment of torture for me trying to extend those legs as my hips are on fire / cracking all the way. The discomfort continues for one to 2 days after class, so for example kneeling down to sit on the toilet is often kind of painful…
I used to do only ballet classes in the first year, but this year I have been trying to work on my flexibility and strength in parallel so I cut down to just one ballet class a week and do one stretching class and one pilates reformer class. I’m not doing anything specific for my hips outside of class because I simply don’t know what to do.
So if anyone understands how bodies work and what’s wrong with my hips it would be really helpful. Is it a strength or flexibility issue ? Do you know any exercises I can do on my free time ?
Thank you !