An Effective Exercise

Yesterday I took a yoga class that specifically targetted the pelvis>hip areas and it was an interesting - inspiring, even - experience. We did the standard poses - triangle, side angle, half moon etc - but our instructor drawn our attention and focus inward, trying to get us to feel the subtle hip movements - e.g. the rotation of the femur bone in the hip socket - through various asanas.

I wasn't quite sure What I was feeling Where but I certainly felt Something, for instance, when I was stacking my hips in half moon. In this pose, there was this sensation (which is hard to explain in words) on the hip/side closer to the floor, and the more I wanted to straighten the pose the more I stronger the sensation. Am wondering whether it was also the iliopsoas muscles (being stretched) that were giving me that...  all this I am hoping to learn in the forthcoming yoga anatomy training session.

Today though, I "invented" an exercise that can help me feel the various movements in the hip area: I lift one leg up onto the back of a chair so it's at 90 degrees with my standing leg. Facing my lifted leg, I can then bend forward, stretching the hamstring; then turning my body slowly to the side to Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (see Action Man below) and gentlely rotate my femur bone in the hip socket (or at least that is what I think I am doing); then I rotate my lifted leg downward so I can proceed to half moon. This pose feels superb especially when the chair is providing  support to my lifted leg! After doing both sides, the pelvic region, including the lower back, really feels it's been exercised. I think I can really work this into my daily routine.