It is especially important to stabilize your knees when you are coming into a posture from the floor upward. This will prevent injury and also allow the powerful quadriceps to take the brunt of the work from the knees. As you do so, be sure your knee is aligned between your big toe and the next. Remember, your muscles should be doing the work, not your joints.
You always want to build every posture from the ground up, first squaring your weight evenly on your foot, then aligning the ankle, knee and hip so all are moving in the same direction. Don’t let your knee sway around; don’t ever lock the knee up. Even when a posture calls for a “straight” leg, such as Triangle or Crescent, there can be a fair amount of slack in the knee. The knee should never bend so deeply as to extend over the top of your foot, past your toes. This is hyper-extension and over time, it can be detrimental to your joints.
If you are unable to put weight on your knee for any reason, consider moving to a chair and modifying your postures from there. If your knees are simply sore or weak (as opposed to serious injuries or chronic conditions), you might benefit from strengthening the quadriceps (thigh muscles).
If you have knee problems, please avoid Lotus, Half-Lotus, Pigeon poses, Virasana (Hero), or anything else that requires deep knee-bending or balancing on the knee (including tabletop postures). In fact, knees can be so tricky, I advise you to see an orthopedist before you continue yoga if you have even the slightest problem with one or both of your joints.
Great post! I have found that bow and dancer's hurts my knees (sometimes camel as well) and this is a new pain since I began practicing yoga.
ReplyDeleteAn instructor informed me that instead of using my upper thigh muscles to extend in the postures I was straining all the weight in my knees.
I've been attempting to extend through my legs and it has been helping, but I have some work to go before I can do the postures safely. I've been doing modifications instead. :)