Keeping Your Knees Safe
Whether you have knobby knees, bowed legs, or hyperextend knees, chances are you've strained or injured a knee joint at some time or another.That's why Mary Dunn's class today on "Saving and Protecting Knees" was an essential for anyone hoping to prevent injuries.
Lesson number one: knees come in different shapes and sizes, and you have to understand the structure of the knee before you can determine how to care for it. "It's like painting with gree paint on green paper," says Mary. "It's not going to look the same as it would on white or grey paper."
Not everyone has the same skeletal structure at one of the body's most delicate joints. For example, I'm pretty sure my legs fall under a category Mary would call knobby kneed. That means my thigh comes in at an angle,then my shin bones extend out slightly. It's kind of an undesirable hour-glass effect, which, of course, is more dynamic in one leg than the other. I also have a bit of an overextension in my joint. So I lock my knees when I'm standing.
Another lady in the class was the perfect example of "bowlegged." Her knees were further away from her midline, making her legs curve outwardly.
As it turns out, the key to protecting the knees may not lie in the knee itself. (I'm assuming most people know about the whole lining-the-knee-over-the-ankle concept in poses like Warrior I and II.) According to Mary, we can train ourselves to take care of our knees through how we work our feet and hips.
"The feet are only the foundation of everything we do!" Marys says as she instructs the class to evenly distribute the weight on the feet.
It's a lot easier on the knee if we let our hips and ankle joints do some of the work, too, in poses like Utkatasana. To demonstrate this, we practiced Utkatasana with our heels up on a folded blanket so we'd have to use our ankles. She had each of us keep our feet three inches apart so bow-legged folks "can't complain that they can't get their feet together." Then we were instructed to press through the balls of our feet and pull our toes up so we weren't collapsing in at the arches of our feet. So that's how you lift your arches--I never knew!
Even though I haven't had a lot of knee issues yet (knock on wood) it really made me think about what I need to do to ensure that I don't develop knee issues in the future, and also gave me some things to look for as I continue on in my yoga teacher training.
photo by Susan Slattery
Comments
One of the most valuable things I took away from the conference was learning how to raise my arches. I am what I would call an advanced beginner (practicing for about 4 years) and I have only once before been taught to focus on my feet to protect my knees. I suffer from fibromyalgia and have really loose and overextended knees that injure easily. Now, I need to find a "yoga for feet" class to learn more. Maybe YJ will do an article on footwork, raising the arches, etc.
Posted by: Ariadne de Gennaro | April 10, 2006 01:57 PM
Dear Sir
I enjoy articles of the Journal.
Yet I have a question regarding my knees. After sometime sitting in lotus pose is hard for me to come out since one or both my knees may spring out during the pose and when changing the pose that knee jumps back in with a loud noise. I have been practicing yoga for many years and this is a subject from long ago. I want to get rid of it. What am I suppose to do ?
Posted by: Jamshad Ghanbar | April 12, 2006 12:52 AM
I have pain in my left knee. The Surgeon has advised keyhole surgery but I have not gone to surgery. I can walk 30 minutes daily but I feel paid if I walk more than 30 minutes. I cannot sit on floor/mat for most of the yoga poses.
Please suggest me some suitable yoga lessons.
Posted by: Muhammad Shafi | April 12, 2006 04:45 AM
I would like to refer Ariadne de Gennaro to YJ article entitled "From the Ground Up". I am a Yoga Teacher in London,England, and I have found this article of immense help. Most students will not know what you are talking about at first but after a few lessons they begin to understand how you can lift the arches of the feet which is very much an internal process of focussing. At the beginning they actually start to lift the feet off the floor. Just as the Spine is the root of your Tree so the feet are the foundations of your temple.
Posted by: Androulla Krase | April 12, 2006 04:58 AM
Since I started practicing yoga more seriously (both asansas and mindset), I have found that what Erich Schiffman said is true: when you open yourself through yoga, everything you need comes to you when you need it.
I have had knee troubles since I was a child (too many sports on hard surfaces) and lately I've been having serious pain and stiffness in my left knee.
Yesterday, I couldn't complete my practice because I couldn't bend my left knee comfortably.
Now, this article comes out of the conference about keeping your knees safe -- thank you!
Namaste.
Posted by: Cecilia Sepp | April 12, 2006 09:04 AM
I have a problem compressing my knees, so even Child's Pose causes pain that lasts for days. I've been to a doctor but they can't find anything wrong. Any suggestions?
Posted by: Mary DeLuca | April 12, 2006 09:43 AM
i would like information on how yoga can help fybromyalgia
Posted by: madeleine mcbride | April 12, 2006 09:56 AM
i have hyperextended knees!! i want to contact Mary to get more help!! because some of the poses i hold are paiful on my knees since they stretch so far back.
Posted by: Juan | April 12, 2006 11:25 AM
To the man with the popping knee in lotus: Discontinue practicing lotus immediately.
Whenever we have problems with our bodies in asana and begin to look to others for answers there is only one perscription. That is - meditation. If you can't sit on a floor mat for meditation sit on a chair with your feet on blocks ensuring your knees are level with your hips. If you can't meditate on the floor or in a chair try a walking meditation.
The root of these knee problems lies within the hips. Try doing hip opening asanas badha konasana (butterfly) or vrksasana (tree). Mostly these types of knee problems are best resolved in restorative yoga classes. Avoid all advanced asanas when the knees are causing such troubles. Start using props. Sit propped up on a stiff cushion or thick blanket. The body must be nurtured when there is pain or discomfort - in meditation answers will arise as to what is causing these pains and troubles.
Raven Song
Posted by: raven | April 19, 2006 01:58 PM
Mary DeLuca: Mary Dunn had us come to all fours, lean forward balancing on the top of your head, use your hands to place a folded blanket or towel into the back of the knees at the crease, then gently sit onto your heels. Now, most important, lift right knee a little off the floor and use hand to stretch the shin skin from ankle toward knee, replace shin on ground. Repeat other side. This stretching allows the lower leg to adjust to the position, you will even see the first knee you do appear more in front of the yet undone side. This was great for me and even better for a woman next to me in class who said she hadn't been able to kneel for years - now, no compression or pain.
Thankyou Mary Dunn!!!!
Posted by: C Cowan | April 23, 2006 04:51 PM