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| I hear much criticism about Bikram yoga because people feel that (esp in standing forehead to knee) that they are told to hyper-extend their knees. I never quite understood what this meant. 'def: extension of a limb beyond its normal limit' I mean everyone's knees are different right? In SFHTK when i weight my standing leg, my knee from the side appears to be straight or almost bent backwards. However my friend's knee in the exact same position looks to still be bent. I don't think one is doing right and the other is wrong. Rather it is just different bodies.
I feel like staying in this postion with just all the weight in the standing leg and the knee locked that a 'hyper-extension' type injury could occurr. However, i would argue that as long as you are flexing the quads, rolling your weight towards the front inside of the standing foot, and pulling in your bellybutton that 'hyper-extension' is no longer occurring.
And is your standing knee position something that can change in the degree that it is straight or even bending back as you become stronger in your practice? It seems to me that most people that complain of hyper-extending their knees are doing an incomplete posture.
When i first started i thought i would never be able to lock out my standing knee for 60 seconds. I would just weight my standing leg, bend over too low, and try and support some of my weight in my hands. 6 months later i was doing it 'and could have sworn to you i was doing it correctly. Subsequently, about every 6 months now i discover another aspect of the posture that i had not concentrated on in the past and i feel like a finally get it. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State |
Extension of a joint is to bring it to a straight position, as opposed to flexion,
in which the joint is bent. If you fold your leg so that your heel is on your buttock,
the knee is flexed. If you stand up straight, your knee is extended.
Hyperextension is when a joint is taken beyond straight. Think of a camel's
knee and you have the picture. I think that's what you mean by "bent backwards".
I've NEVER heard a Bikram instructor tell the class to hyperextend the knee, as you say.
Usually, they spend time telling you to engage the quads as a means of "locking the knee".
All that aside, what you don't want to do is to fall into your joints, letting the load push
the knee backward. If your quads aren't engaged, that's what will happen. It's hard on
both the anterior surfaces of the knee joints and the tendons around the knee to let it
hyperextend. Over time, they say that the ligaments around the knee will be stretched
by this action, leading to a somewhat unstable joint (which is much more susceptible to
injury).
If you look through Bikram's book, you will see that a number of the photo models
have their knees in hyperextension in Standing Forehead to Knee and in Standing Bow
Pose. Former Bikram teacher Tony Sanchez teaches that one should hold a "microbend"
(flex) in the knee to prevent hyperextending...it's not a bad thing to try if you have
any tendency in this direction.
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| Here are 2 easy ways to tell if your knee is hyperextended (bowing backwards when straight.)
1. If your weight when standing is in heel or to the rear or the heel, your leg is more then likely hyperextended. Keep the wieght directly BEFORE the heel while standing on one leg. This will allow the the quads to effectively engage naturally and increase your ablility to push down against the ground to straighten the leg correctly.
2. This one requires the help of a friend. Get yourself a string and put it at the side of the hip hanging down the outside of the leg. (you could tuck one end into you shorts). Take a single leg standing pose. From the side, the string should line up hip to heel in a straight line. This plum line will allow you to see if the leg bow backwards. If you leg is hyperextended the leg will not line up correctly to the string. It will bow backwards in a unnatural looking way.
Try it out! See for yourself. |
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| To me this is the biggest issue for the Bikram series. The reply's are right on. tecaterocks: It is true that everyone has a different body and the other side to this is gravities line of action is straight down into the earth no matter what kind of body you have. In yoga we are trying to come into alignment with gravity so it brings order into the body not break it down. A hyper extended knee will break down the knee joint because gravity will be working against you. A hyper extended knee will have terrible balance in the foot no matter what, even if you lean foward, which would be even worse than a "normal" hyperextended knee by putting even more strain in the front and over strech the ligaments in the back of the knee. Some of the confusion is around the word lock. In my opion the "lock the knee" queue cuases the front to over work as the back of the knee to let go which is what hyperexdending is. You want the core of the leg to lead and the extrinsics to follow. Over focus on quads (Extrinsic muscle)will reverse this and can lead to hyper extending the knee. The core of the leg mostly responds to gravity, which is why the alignment is so important. |
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What is hyperextension?
