Yeah...I have to be careful since I haven't shown them mayas yet.

<<There is one exercise I do that feels amazing and is a great hip-stretcher...but it's hard to explain on paper. But basically you bend the knees and stick the hip out, sitting deep into it, so you can really feel the stretch along the IT band in the hip.>>

hehe. I do that too! I tell them to really stick out the hip and show me some attitude. It's like vogue, strike a pose! But they get a stretch too. It loosens up there attitude, as well. Get's them giggling and feeling good. :-D

Yeah Beatrice! thank you! slides, circles, eights, lifts, drops, shimmies- that's my hip warm up progression. stretch after you are warmed up!

for stretches, tho, once you get to that point- I like starting on hands & knees, extend one leg back, cross over other leg, lean into the hip to stretch the muscles on the outside of the hip joint. take same leg, open to the side rear & stretch the muscles on the inside of the hip joint.

Standing next to Beatrice nodding !

For a very first lesson I get them to do some gentle side to sides hip slides, front half of a rotation, back half of a rotation then a full rotation. I let them do it their way (cos I'm going to explain it properly in the next half hour), as long as they stay safe :) - and most people seem to have done these in other fitness classes or at least seen footballers/ice skaters/ whoever doing them before. Then from lesson two onwards we can do gentle versions of the moves we have learnt already.

I've always understood warming up to be lubricating the joints (using/rotating them), then raising the heart rate.

STRETCHING IS NOT A WARM UP!!!

That can't be emphasized enough, so: STRETCHING IS NOT A WARMUP!!!

I start them with hips slides (gentle, no stretch) and lead that into loose hip circles. If it's their first day, they needn't get that perfect in the warmup. It's the rotation that's important.

big, juicy hip circles then into shimmies... a nice warm up and gets the muscles moving. i always start with the big hip circles, and beginners can do them. i usually save the stretching for cool down-- but i start my cool down with those big hip circles again. makes a nice "circle" for class, too...