On Your Knees

Yoga can either strengthen your knees or blow them out. It all depends on your alignment.

By Julie Gudmestad

Before students attempt Full Lotus, I recommend they increase their hip flexibility so the knees come near the floor when they sit cross-legged. To help improve external rotation, try this variation of Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose). Sitting tall with your back to a wall, place the soles of the feet together and draw the heels in toward the hips. Either allow gravity to pull the knees down or very gently press the hands on the thighs, lengthening the thigh bones out of the hip sockets and down toward the floor. Sit in this position for two or three minutes, so the muscles and connective tissue around the hip joint can soften and release.

Hip joint flexibility can also be helped by lying on your back and crossing the right ankle over the left knee. Hold your hands behind the left knee and gently pull the legs toward the chest. You should feel a stretch in the back of the right hip, not at the knee. Because the muscles and fascia (connective tissue) of the hip joints are so strong, it may take months of work to improve hip flexibility enough to do Padmasana without knee strain.

If your hip flexibility is adequate and you still experience knee pain in sitting poses, it may be due to previous knee injuries or strains. If that is the case, it can help to create a long thin roll with a washcloth or small towel. Holding each end of the roll, pull it deep into the back of your partially bent knee; hold the roll in place as you continue to bend the knee fully. Then try Virasana, Padmasana, or some other bent-leg sitting pose. The roll helps to keep the bones in their natural alignment, without twisting or side bending, and keeps a little space open inside the joint, avoiding compression.

All these cautions may sound alarming, but you really only need to keep a few simple principles in mind: Always check your alignment, and if you ever feel strain in your knees, back out of the pose and experiment until you feel the stretch in your hips or groins instead. Practiced with care, asanas can contribute to the long-term health of your knees by strengthening your quadriceps, opening your stiff hips, and teaching your body improved alignment and movement patterns that transfer into your everyday activities.

Julie Gudmestad is a licensed physical therapist and certified Iyengar Yoga teacher. She runs a physical therapy practice and yoga studio in Portland, Oregon, where she combines Western medical knowledge with the healing powers of yoga.

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