People who suffer from knee discomfort do not have to give up practicing yoga. In this article we tell you what protective gestures the body performs when the knees are holding more than they can and how to use supports and activate the appropriate body gestures so as not to put them at risk.
Do your knees hurt when practicing yoga? Pain is the warning sign that you have to attend to immediately, but it is important that you do not wait for it to appear to do something.
In the practice of Organic Yoga and Experiential Anatomy we take the sensation of bodily pleasure as an indicator that we are going in the direction that does us good. And not only that, it is also the feeling that will lead to your practice being constant and lasting over time. Today we focus on the care of our knees in Sukh asana and how certain discomforts can indicate that we should adopt certain strategies to protect them.
If you want to start practicing yoga, you may be interested in the online yoga course for beginners of Escuela Cuerpomente.
4 SIGNS THAT INDICATE YOUR KNEES ARE BEING STRAINED
Careful observation during your practice will allow you to detect other sensations that will indicate that something is not going as well as would be desirable. This way you will advance in your self-knowledge and you will be in time to reorganize your asana and movement to avoid damage.
There are four aspects you need to pay attention to to preserve the health of your knees in Sukh asana:
- Tension.
- Instability.
- Limitation of pelvic mobility.
- Numbness of the legs.
What you can always do when detecting these signs is to reorganize your posture looking for the opposite sensation, the supports are great allies. Here are 4 tips to put into practice when you detect them and thus be able to practice yoga without forcing your knees.
With the observations and adjustments that I propose, you may not get to build Sukh asana in the way that is supposed to be correct.
However, every aspect you have contemplated will have led you to know something more about your body, about you, and about your possibilities. It will have led you to greater self-knowledge, the most precious thing that from my point of view yoga can offer us.
1. AVOID TENSION WHEN CROSSING YOUR LEGS
When the whole body is involved in a position or movement there is a feeling of strength or activation in certain areas, but there is no feeling of tension.
In cross-legged postures, tension often appears on the inside of the knees or in the anterior area. This happens because the distribution of tension in the body is not homogeneous.
And sometimes, in certain positions, we will not make it so. They are simply postures that do not fit with our body structure and reorganizing it to achieve this is not a priority for the body. What can I do?
- Try activating your pelvic floor and abdomen. If in doing so the tension in the knees decreases it is a sign that they are holding the load that the pelvic and abdominal areas do not support.
- Remove or put cushions under your buttocks. If by varying the height at which your pelvis is the tension in knees is reduced, this indicates that the thigh area needs to be reorganized so as not to overload your knees.
- If neither option makes much or not enough improvement, put cushions under your knees. With this, you will directly remove demand from your knees: they are no longer the ones who assume the overload, the supports that you have placed under them assume it. Or move your feet away from your body if the tension is in the anterior area.
- In your daily routines include the work of the pelvic, abdominal or leg area depending on what you have detected.
2. SEEK STABILITY IN POSTURE SO AS NOT TO OVERLOAD
Meditation postures aim to provide physical stability. It is this condition that leads us to stability in the observation of mental processes.
If the knees do not have a foothold, the floor or a support, the posture itself does not offer stability. And to achieve it, the body generates tension, holds on to itself and does it as it can. As we mentioned above, if the whole body is not involved in it homogeneously, it is very likely that some area will lose. And knees are good candidates. What can I do?
- Do not force the posture so that the knees reach the floor. Bring the floor to your knees! Remember that the posture is at your service and not vice versa. If your back is curved forward, elevate your pelvis, with a cushion or blanket folded under your buttocks, until you feel your lower back take its natural curve.
- If you have a tendency to hyper lordosis, sit on a lower cushion or on the floor. Next, put supports under your knees. In this resting posture, in addition to achieving the stability that the asana seeks, you favor the redistribution of tensions in the body and thus protect your knees.
3. PAY ATTENTION TO PELVIC MOBILITY
Every time you feel cross-legged, even if you feel stable and don’t feel tension, check your pelvis. If you can move it in swing everything is fine. Notice that it is the pelvis that moves and not your lower back.
If your pelvis is immobilized in the posture, it means that there is tension in the hips, groin or buttocks and, sooner or later, it will also affect your knees. What can I do?
- While you are sitting adjust the height of the pelvis, go removing or putting thickness to the cushion on which you sit, as we explained in the previous section.
- In your daily routines include the rotation of the femurs in the hip joint: with legs extended, move your feet as if they were windshield wipers, letting the movement move to the femur.
4. ACT ON ANY KIND OF TINGLING
Having your legs fall asleep is not normal, not even at first. Numbness of the legs occurs when the nerves are pressed for a long time, preventing oxygen and nutrients from reaching the peripheral nerves.
If tingling appears, it is because excessive pressure has been generated in the English area or in the knees themselves. Naturally, insisting on maintaining that pressure thinking that we will get used to it is not an optimal strategy. Leaving tissues without oxygen and nutrients never is.
It is essential to avoid that excessive pressure and offer the body a friendly posture that allows hydration that gives flexibility and health to the tissues. What can I do?
- To take pressure off the tissues you need to open the angles that produce it. By moving your feet away from the body, your knees and hips will no longer be so demanding and the circulation of body fluids will not be interrupted.
- In your daily routines include dynamic asanas, the movement pumps fluids in the body keeping the tissues well hydrated, nourished and oxygenated.