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| Background: About 6 months out from surgery, all is fine, can deadlift heavy again and so forth and am training to bring up strength imbalances. I am interested in increasing my flexibilty in the knee joint, it feels tighter than the other despite stretching moves. I've been doing some yoga over the past year, took a community college course and do a Rodney Yee video 2x week on my lunch hour. I can do some poses, others push my edges too much so I work within the pose and use props as needed.
Question: Are there specific asanas that would either be super helpful or harmful? I am simply trying to bring the knee back to its optimal state while the rest of my body really enjoys yoga and wish to avoid known exaccerbations.
Thank you in advance. |
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Expert Yogi
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| Hi Kim - we pretty much recommend yoga for rehab should be done with an experienced teacher. I don't think anyone here will disagree with that. Rodney's form is spectacular but you may not be looking for and emulating the stuff you need to for your knee. If you can find an Iyengar or Anusara teacher, that would be your best bet. Good luck! |
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| Thanks for your reply. Due to Hurricane Katrina, access to funds and teachers is not possible right now so that's why I was asking, maybe others had gone through it/common surgery with the shared experience providing a common ground for discussion. My MD cleared me for any and all activities, my physical therapy rehab took me as far as they could and I've enjoyed the yoga I've done while having great success with my powerlifting. I was hoping to find specific information and meaningful discussion. I'll continue to push and find my edges as well as continue researching this topic. Thank you for your time. |
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| Kimberlie: I had another spiritual sister who was affected by Katrina. We did help her financially.
But, regardless of your situation, this is my suggestion to your original query:
- Decide how much money out of your current expense for Food, Travel, Entertainment, Clothing, Charity, etc. you can cut out and whatever that amount is: Use that amount to take one, two, or as many Yoga Classes as possible.
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| kulkarnn - 2006-01-13 3:06 PM
Kimberli: I had another spiritual sister who was affected by Katrina. We did help her financially.
But, regardless of your situation, this is my suggestion to your original query:
- Decide how much money out of your current expense for Food, Travel, Entertainment, Clothing, Charity, etc. you can cut out and whatever that amount is: Use that amount to take one, two, or as many Yoga Classes as possible.
Thanks, I corrected my name in your post.
I'm amazed that this board has only one answer for me, to pay $ and buy yoga sessions. I've since researched it and found other answers and am quite sad that what appeared to be a promising site has in fact turned out to be much more into marketing and money. To tell people that they should take classes, only, is really putting a barrier up to increasing yoga's prevalance in society, too bad, because its needed.
I'm glad you helped your friend but your response to me was not helpful.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Kimberli - we are not trying to sell yoga but indicating that we would not want you to injure yourself further by attempting what should be handled by a pro. You wouldn't go out and by a physio therapy book or video and just go and do it yourself would you? If you are quite sure you are ready to do any physical exercise without supervision, I suppose you could try a video but honestly, it makes me nervous. Yoga is just so different from typical western exercise, it is difficult to explain. Trust me, we don't make money from this site, we are just members like yourself. I am a teacher as is Neel and we have seen people with problems that we were able to help but who could have hurt themselves without someone watching at least to get them started. I hope you have found a good, safe, alternative and that your knee is 100% soon.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 5098
Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Kimberli,
I think due to your circumstances that the answers given to you were more than you realize. No one is trying to discourage you from yoga, what they are trying to do is make sure that you stay safe, so you won't end up having more surgery.
The Yoga practice should be done when one is fit and Rested. Not the other way around. I'm sure you've read some conflicting information elsewhere, but I am here to tell you that, whenever someone suggests you to do yoga after surgery, when you should be resting, is really looking for your $$. You really should read some of the previous postings about injuries before you decide that this forum is all about making money. I can assure you that is not true. Most of the posters here are in fact certified and experienced Yoga teachers and practictioners, we have nothing to gain or loose by advising you to seek out a yoga instructor. I would advise you to heal your body well, be fully rested before you seek out a yoga practice - period.
Good luck with your endeavors and healing yourself. I especially wish you the best of luck in healing the wounds of Hurrican Katrina.
Cyndi |
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| Kimberlie:
There is one mistake or shortcoming in my above suggestion to you. I apologize for it. But, now I am adding it below:
that is in addition to what I wrote earlier:
Yoga class is must. Such a class may be for pay or it may be for free. If you come to Virginia to my studio, I shall give you free class. |
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Location: London, England | Hi Kimberli
Women are more at risk of ACL injury that men, partially because they often stand with the pelvis tilted too much, which puts strain on the lower back and the knee joints, which are obviously the joints that are adjacent to the hips. One other major reason is that their hamstrings do not seem to react with the same speed as a man's when they land from a jump or perform cutting maneuvres when running-basketball is one of the best ways for a woman to rupture her ACL, apparently.
Try to do lots of standing postures and contract your leg muslces in such a way that you learn to use your hamstrings to both pull yourself into and slow down the movements into and out of the postures. In this way you will learn to use your hamstrings as 'reins' with which to control the forces running through the ACL. Your hamstring can then be considered to be extensions of the anterior cruciate ligamant itself-and they are one powerful set of muscles. Lots of balances on one leg, using the instructions on knee alignment that you will have been given as part of your rehab will also be very good. They should be done as vigorously as your knee will allow-there should be a positive slope to improvement. Try standing on one leg with the raised foot just a couple of inches off the ground.Keep the spine and pelvis in what is called neutral spine, to limit stress on the knee. It may be better to keep the supporting knee slightly bent, again this may limit stress onthe knee.Bend and straighten the knee, exhale on the bend, inhale as you straighten the leg. Progress to doing this with your eyes closed. This means that you will develop the ability to sense what is happening in the knee itself, rather than using your eyes to maintain your balance. Try thirty seconds on each leg, three times
Hope this helps
Nick |
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| Neel Kulkarni - Interesting you persist on spelling my name wrong. I find that very disrespectful.
Edited by Kimberli 2006-01-14 11:45 AM
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| My knee is good guys, I tore it training for the NorCal Strongman event, not yoga, and initially stayed away from activities per my ortho and phys therapist. However, both recently cleared me for anything and everything. I'm sorry if that was unclear.
Thanks Nick - precisely the sort of exchange I was looking for. I'm rebuilding the legs using weight training, specifically imbalances in the hamstring - wow! Interesting that in rehab they focused so much on the quad and very little on the hamstring. I'll add in what you describe, its one of the areas that I've noticed myself veering away from in that during any video, or during my own mix of asanas, I have been avoiding the standing because of the imbalances.  much appreciated. 
Edited by Kimberli 2006-01-14 11:47 AM
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| Kimberli you seem to have quite a snotty attitude. Good luck with that. |
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Location: London, England | Hi Kimberli,
It is interesting about the quadricep being the focus for many types of rehab, isn't it? This seems to be the case in Yoga too-people are often told to tighten the vastus medialis (the muscle just above and medial to the knee cap) to improve knee tracking-nothing wrong with this in itself, but I think yoga practicioners often use this to overstretch the hamstrings, and hyper-extension of the knee joint is the result, with a knock-on effect that results in too much lumbar lordosis(curving of the lower spine, and an anterior tilt of the pelvis, which then puts strain on the knee. A vicious cycle! The balances I described can be done with weights-this mimics real life better than doing weights with both feet on the ground, because we ambulate by running or walking, where one leg provides the force to move. Because of this, injuries often occur at the moment where the most force is directed through the joint.
Take care
Nick |
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Expert Yogi
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Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Kimberli - 2006-01-14 11:39 AM
Neel Kulkarni - Interesting you persist on spelling my name wrong. I find that very disrespectful.
Well, if I got upset over how many times someone spelled my name wrong...like Cyndy, Cindy, Cindi, and Cindie, Cyndie, Oh, I thought you meant Candy, and then the nerve of adding LuWho to the end of it, 
For what it's worth, I always thought it was spelled Kimberly...
My politically correct spelled name is Cindy - short for Cynthia. I changed it to Cyndi because I liked to put a y first like my *real* name, since Cyndi is a nik name,
Edited by Cyndi 2006-01-16 9:47 AM
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Expert Yogi
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| Yeah, if I got all huffy every time I was called Linda, Brenda, even Belinda I wouldn't have many people to talk to any more. 
It is good to be clear on what people are able to do, although I hesitate even more to recommend yoga without a teacher to people to athletic or dance backgrounds. There is a tendency for those people to feel they know enough about their bodies to attempt any physical discipline without instruction when in fact, they often tend to know just enough to be able to push their bodies past their natural limits and injure themselves. You note I am generalizing and saying "tend to" because of course, this is not true in all cases. But in my years of teaching and living with an athlete, it is a tendency that is strong! And of course, yoga is not all about the body.  |
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| Dear Kimberlie:
You named yourself kimberli on the Yoga.com directory. So, what is wrong in someone else spelling that way? BTW: When I write kimberli in my postings, it does NOT mean Kimberlie or Linda or Cindi, or even Yourself. It only means kimberli who posted previously.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | tourist - 2006-01-16 10:07 AM
Yeah, if I got all huffy every time I was called Linda, Brenda, even Belinda I wouldn't have many people to talk to any more.
You wanta hear about misnaming problems, you need to come talk to Bay Guy... |
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ACL surgery/rehab
