Hi,
I would like to be able to sit in the full lotus position. I can more or less get to the half lotus (hurts some though).
Would anyone advice me with some good stretches that I should do, to be able to perform this position?
Thanks!
Regards,
Thomas 
Hi,
This is for doing meditation.
Thanks!
Regards,
Thomas
Hello Thomas and welcome to the forum,
I just want to be clear, you want to be able to do Padmasana so that you can sit in this asana during your meditation practice? I hope that you are not waiting to meditate until you have achieved this posture. Please discontinue any posture in which you may be forcing yourself into and/or causing yourself any pain, especially around the knees. You haven’t mentioned where you experiencing pain or restricted ROM, so I am unable to give you specific recommendations. Here is some general advice, Janu Padasthilasana is a great posture to work from for Padmasana. For the sake of your wonderful knees, do not attempt Padmasana until you can sit comfortably and properly in Janu Padasthilasana. Knee injuries–due to forcing lotus and other postures–are something we are seeing quite a bit of right now in Yoga therapy. Please be gentle with all your parts (that includes your mind and its ambitions;)).
Kind wishes,
Heh. This post brings back memories.
Posted something like that, and got an answer from InnerAthlete.
Hi Nichole,
Thanks for your reply. I’m kind of new at this, so I don’t know the Indian terms.
Actually it’s for doing zazen, that is zen meditation.
Now I do it cross-legged or sometimes half-lotus if I feel flexible enough. It hurts a bit around the knees and ancles, but sometimes it works fine.
It’s especially in the morning, before my body is warmed up that it’s most challenging.
Do you have any flexibility exercises that you would recommend (hip, ancle and knee stretching?)?
Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!
Regards,
Thomas
Hi Thomas.
Strange as it seems, the ability of performing padmasana (lotus) is not in the knees and ankles, but in the hips.
I was trying the same thing you do, and I hurt my knees, with a daily 10-20 minutes of sitting in an uncomfortable, forced pose.
I recommned other postures to open the hips firts. (bound angle, for example)
Until than, use vajrasana or sukhasana for meditation. (it is not the pose, but the mind, anyway)
Hi Hubert,
Thanks! Do you have a link or something similar to where I can find some exercises to do?
Thanks and have a great weekend!
Regards,
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
Please also note that the full lotus is not a prerequisite for meditation to happen to you, remember meditation is not something you do, but something happening to you. So, you can be standing on your head and if it is the right moment and time, meditation will happen. What I am trying to say is, avoid postures that will keep you body-conscious, in other words it hurst so much that you concentrate more on the pain and hurt than on the meditation. Rather sit comforably in posture where you can focus everything in you on your meditation practice.
Perhaps others are more entitled to help, as I am still unable to perform lotus correctly. But I did open my hips a bit, using Warrior 1-2, Baddha Konasana, Gomukhasana, Agnisthambasana, aso. It will take some time, though, so do not expect wonders.
Thomas,
You are welcome, and no worries about not having the Sanskrit dialed. I work with only a certain number of postures, so I am always needing to learn more myself. There are a number of good websites that have glossaries with pictures, and the names in Sanskrit and English, though I don’t recommend learning to do any asana by reading simply descriptions found on these sites. Find a good teacher who sees you and can guide you into the pose properly. You’ll know when you can smile in the posture.
Hubert is gave you some good advice about the hips needing to have proper internal and external rotation to both keep them (and your knees) safe and comfortable in Lotus. Work with Hubert’s list and others that you find in your search that ask you to try them too. Please be gentle with your body and come out of any asana that hurts you. You may have heard people speak of a “good pain” while doing Yoga. I rather dislike this term, but I get it. Our language and general thinking often limits these sensations (physical, spiritual, emotional, mental) to words such as pain, discomfort, hurting and the like. We need to expand our ability to judge these sensations for what they truly are and to be able to evaluate them in the moment. We can do this by also coming back to the body and being curious about ourselves.
Kind wishes,
It seems very clear that Thomas, the OP, wants some exercises. And we continue to give him answers to questions yet to be asked.
That may be because this is a yoga board and not a stretching board or a fitness board or a strength training board.
A student of meditation that has convinced themselves that lotus is essential for their path is better advised to examine their motive for meditation. When meditation is done for pretense, when meditation is done to be a part of a group, when meditation is done for its hipness (no pun intended) then its efficacy is significantly diminished and one could argue that the evolution of the practitioner is stymied by the intention.
Anatomically, the body must have opening in the hips in order for a safe lotus position to be achived. Can an unsafe lotus position be achieved. Absolutely. And it’s done in that way many times over. It is quite ironic becasue in that way it is violent doing rather than meditative “allowing” and as such it becomes the anithesis of evolution, growth, transformation.
While I do not consider stilling the mind as meditation I do consider it a requsite for meditation. This stilling can be done in many positions. Padmasana can become a pretense. You do not need an alter, a locked room, a burning candle, a dimly lit cave, a stick of burning Nag Champa, and Krishna Das in the background in order to meditate. Likewise you do not need padmasana.
However, opening the hips can be done with yoga asana (over time and with mindfullness, skill and instruction) but it is not prescribed like an asprin. If it is exercises one wants then use google. If it is Yoga then seek a yoga teacher.
Hi everybody,
Thanks for all your really useful and helpful replies. I will look some more into it all.
I should mention that I’ve practiced meditation for many years, but started on zazen a little over a year ago, and would like to expand my capabilites regarding the physical aspect of the meditation, that is be able to sit in lotus. This will probably not happen over night, but with some of the great input I’ve received here it should be doable within the near future.
Thanks!
Regards,
Thomas
Hello Thomas,
If you were asking for exercises and not asana to help you into Lotus then here is another for you: Mukunda’s Pavanmuktasana (Joint-Freeing Series)
Chapter 15 pg. 121 in Structural Yoga Therapy: Adapting to the Individual. The exercises in #5 are for internal and external hip rotation.
Kind wishes,
This has always been been an “aspirational” (if that’s a word??-- to aspsire) pose for me. I have read much about the benefits of the pose, especially in meditation where I need all the help I can get!
I am concerned about putting pressure on my knees, however, and if I have enough hip flexibility to pull it off. Short periods in the pose are OK but longer periods can cause strain to my knees.
How can I build myself to this challenge?
Just to clarify, I’m not Thomas. . .
But thanks Thomas and everyone who replied to him. There is a lot of good information here
Tight hips+strong ego=hurt knees.
Bad ego => hurt knees.
Good ego should be like healthy knees: strong, yet flexible.
Have the strenght, do not attach to it. Have the flexibility (the power of letting go), do not attach to it. Do not let things go just because you can.
Use them, make them better, make them work, make them healthy, beatiuful, and only let them go when they are as perfect as they can be.
This is the mindset of the gardener, the mindset of the builder, the mindset of the ever beginner, the original cause and purpose. It works through every one of us. It is not a competition, but an exhibition of beauty, reason and power. It is not fight for survival, but the play of brothers and sisters. It is not suffering even if many times seems so, but wonderful learning and growing.
[quote=Hubert;12094]Tight hips+strong ego=hurt knees.
Bad ego => hurt knees.
Good ego should be like healthy knees: strong, yet flexible.
Have the strenght, do not attach to it. Have the flexibility (the power of letting go), do not attach to it. Do not let things go just because you can.
Use them, make them better, make them work, make them healthy, beatiuful, and only let them go when they are as perfect as they can be.
This is the mindset of the gardener, the mindset of the builder, the mindset of the ever beginner, the original cause and purpose. It works through every one of us. It is not a competition, but an exhibition of beauty, reason and power. It is not fight for survival, but the play of brothers and sisters. It is not suffering even if many times seems so, but wonderful learning and growing.[/quote]
To my mind a little fanciful.
Regrettably, painful knees are frequently afflicting those of more advanced years than yourself, Hubert, and I certainly could not go so far as to say that those I know to be suffering from pain in their knees are also afflicted with a ‘bad ego’!
In my case then just half a bad ego. One must be grateful for small mercies.
I was relating to the only example I know, myself.
Surely, such simple statement can’t be generalized. But it seems, it is a common mistake, so I granted myself this little escapade. I used it as a base for a little essay on flexibility and letting go. I am sure, at your age, you are very “flexible” regardless the physical conditition of your knee.
Let’s just say that I am flexible enough not to insist on achieving the Lotus position at the cost of the flexibility of my knees.
I live on a steep hill, and, however much I would enjoy getting into it more often - let alone stay there - the Lotus position would not get me up it or down it but my knees will, be it walking or driving.
I’m wondering if someone could help me with a similar issue. I tend to use Half-Lotus for meditation, because of my bad ankles (too many years of gymnastics). It’s not a problem for short periods (15-20 minutes) but when i do longer meditations (30-45 minutes) then my ankles start to hurt. (No knee issues in this pose, luckily, just when I’m walking and it’s damp out, darn early-onset arthritis.)
I don’t tend to force things, but i’m a bit sad that the pain starts to impinge on my meditation near the end as I try to move into longer meditations, and i end up wondering when the chime will sound…
I’ve been doing yoga off and on for 8 years (mostly on), and i can get into Full Lotus for short periods (5 long breaths is my usual; since I tend to do ashtanga I don’t hold poses as long) with little effort and no pain. My ankles are really quite flexible… perhaps too flexible? (I’ve been diagnosed in the past with hypermobility in my back.) It’s the duration that is a problem.
My hips aren’t too terribly tight - of course, they could always be more open - but my knees are only 2 in. off the floor in Cobbler’s Pose. Pidgeon’s are still hard, though hip issues run in my family, so I don’t want to push them too hard or do them too often.
Perhaps a strange and long-winded request - my apologies - but I wanted to give all relevant info. Any advice for poses to help strengthen ankles?