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| hello. i'm an absolute newbie - doing yoga for 8 weeks (hatha level and ashtanga level 1). i have a natural flexibility thankfully.. so today i did my first full lotus - the whole hatha class was for this purpose for the 4 that attended it to go into lotus (half / full)... i've always done half because my left knee has started hurting lightly at its back since i started yoga... and today, though i was comfortable going into full.. right now, my left knee does not like me very much. i am happy to never do a full lotus again now that i have done it once and comfortably so... though, it bothers me that my left knee has started to hurt after every yoga class... whether i push myself or not in that class. should i just put some ice on it? acupuncture?? i get reflexology done once a week as it is... the pain sometimes feels my knee is on fire, and slightly up my left thigh at the outer side... what about a chiropractor? do they do knees as well?
help! |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Lisa - the problem naturally flexible people have with yoga is that they go into poses rather "floppily" (if that is a word!  ) and tend to not engage their muscles appropriately to protect their joints. Please understand, I am not blaming you - this is just what often happens. So in forward bends for example, you probably push your kneecaps back into your legs and overstretch the backs of your knees. For me it is the "back" leg in standing poses and my nemesis knee is my left, which is especially a pain since I teach and most often demonstrate on that side.  Start working with tadasana and dandasana and concentrate on engaging your quads (thigh muscles) without pushing your calf muscles back. Dandasana is good because if you push back, the calves push into the floor and your heels come up.
Lotus, half and otherwise, is a whole other story. Most people focus a lot on the knee in this pose but it really has a lot to do with what is happening in your hip. If your hip is not open enough to rotate your upper leg out, then the knee will often go along for the ride but pay the price. There are ways to work in the pose to help, but basically, I look at it this way - if you sit in dandasana and draw your knee up to your chest (and maybe lying down is even better but you won't be able to see what is happening with your leg as easily), your upper and lower legs still look pretty much the way they did when you started. That is, they are nicely lined up, with the knee directly on top and the leg bones in a relatively straight line and the muscles spreading away from the bone more or less evenly. If you keep your leg bent that way and move the knee out to the side as if going into lotus, most people will have some movement of the muscles and the bones start to move out of line with each other. That is when the knee starts to do stuff that it shouldn't do.
There are those here who can explain all this in a more anatomically correct way, but his is how I see it  |
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| hello! why thank you SO MUCH for that explanation... i totally get what you are saying and it makes perfect sense. after reading your post i thought about it for awhile and i realise that yes, i do 'press' the back of my knees to the ground and even in some of the standing postures - what do you call those legs apart postures with one hand to the side of the leg and the in the air and you're looking at it (am so sorry, i love yoga but i can't get the posture names at the moment)... anyway, i note that my leg seems 'inverted' and it just 'feels' wrong and i have often wondered what 'keeping the muscles 'active' means and i think you have put it all in perspective. the instructors are always syaing use your thight muscles, breathe, keep those muscles active.. but i am concentrating on not falling over (which i do) to concentrate. this morning i did my first bikram / hot class and REALLY made a note to not push against the backs of my knee, lessening the push against my knees and guess whatk no pain today!!! thanks for your wonderful advice. 
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| great! Keep working on it. Watch out for Bikram classes as some (not all) suggest that you lock the knee by doing exactly whet I am suggesting you should work on NOT doing. Don't listen to them |
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| hello again... oh well, i have also decided i dont really enjoy bikram... i still like my morning Hatha classes before work and LOVE the astahnga led classes at the weekend... i just wanted to try a few things to see what i liked ( and more importantly, which teachers i responded too )... you can't imagie how much you have helped me! my knees have been on fire before your advice...
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| So even if you're in pain you could still perform yoga and learn to do it in a manner where you can make the pain disappear! Is that it or did I take it the wrong way round? How much practice do you need to be able to do that? |
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Location: London, England | Hi Missloping,
In general, if something is paiful the first time around, dont push until its not painful. With yoga, it is possible for tissues to become stretched, even though they have initially given off pain messages to stop you doing what you are doing-listen to the intial messages, they are there for a reason, and dont let the drive towards greater flexibility ruin your health-which is what I think tourist was saying 
Nick |
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| Hello Lisa,
Lotus is one of those tricky poses misconstrued by the masses (much like virasana). Many people can move into the pose, that is, anatomically place their limbs and torso in the "right" place. But as Tourist alludes to, Lotus can be done in a manner where the action of the pose goes into the knee rather than into opening the hips. This leads to knee damage in connective tissue. Ah but we are all "doing" the pose. It's a trap. Virasana is similar in that many students can sit on their mat between the feet. But again it's decieving. The action in the upper leg bones must be external rotation (and the student should take height to get said action) but again we can think we are "doing" the pose.
It's tough to say what you've strained. It's safe to say you've strained something.
Parts of the hamstrings connect "back there" and around joints there are, of course, tendons and ligaments. Some teachers would give you the instruction of "microbending" the knee. And that's not a bad or innacurate instruction. You may be hyper mobile in the leg joints and the upper leg bones may not be aligning with the lower leg bones in standing poses.
The fact is the three weakest links in the body are the neck, low back, and the knee. And there are several ways to practice knee wellness safely in a variety of poses but it's a complex issue.
Please do not force beyond, go beyond, exert beyond, gut it out, or keep a stiff upper lip through this sort of thing. You are engaging in an awareness practice and you are going to start a deeper dialogue with your body. We are mandated to then try and listen. Discomfort or muscle soreness is one thing, injury is another. As such the behaviors following each must be different as well.
Edited by purnayoga 2006-08-15 3:12 AM
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pain in the back of the knee!
