in October 2003, i injured my left knee during an Ashtanga training
program. the injury is on the inside of my knee. i think i overstretched
the medial ligament. i am a teacher with a full schedule of classes and
have a very dedicated personal practice so I’m not able to fully rest the
knee and quite honestly, it feels best we i remain active. i have not
sought professional medical diagnosis, i.e. an m.d., but have worked with my
massage therapist and chiropractor. it has improved a lot but i still am
not able to come into a good full lotus or to bind in Ardha baddha
paschimottanasana, or come in some other poses as well. prior to my injury,
i could comfortably perform bound full lotus. i do “explore” where my knee
is in the healing process by slowly and carefully approaching some of the
positions that don’t feel good, backing off as needed. i am also bow
legged. i don’t have any problems with my right knee. i have been
practicing the poses you recommend to correct the bow legs. my question is,
should i continue to give this injury time to heal and practice as i can or
should i seek a medical opinion? how much time should i give the injury to
heal completely or is that possible? i do feel as if the knee slips
sometimes. what does this mean? what kind of time frame is necessary to
correct bow legs? i hope I’ve given you enough info and i look forward to
learning from you in august.
I would recommend learning about your knee anatomy more and consider
what practices will be stressing the medial knee. The medial collateral
ligament if that is what it is on the inner surface of the knee does not
like to do internal hip rotation poses such as hero sitting between the feet
but in many cases will also not respond well to external hip rotation poses
such as Padmasana. An injury of this sort should have healed within 6 - 8
weeks, thus you are well overdue for healing. To have been pushing yourself
with a busy schedule is not advisable. The injury is now a more chronic
inflammation of the connective tissues. When you go for a medical opinion
you must be prepared for their possible recommendations which will be
steroid shots or surgery. If you wish to consider that then see one. Doing
yoga in a rajasic manner will always slow down healing time. Remember yoga
is to promote sattvic mind and body. Unfortunately many teaching styles
that are popular today are not taught in the Classical Yoga sattvic manner,
but contemporary rajasic manner of do as much as you can and then some more.
This manner of doing yoga is more the problem than the practices themselves.
A sensible practice will be build upon classical guidelines that have been
proven safe for millions of yoginis. Patanjali describes a specific series
of contemplations for how to do yogasanas to achieve sattvic mind. They are
described in my book on the Yoga Sutras II, 46-48.
To know for certain I would like to have an assessment of your external hip
and internal hip rotation range of motion. This can be done in an
individual session or quickly even during a workshop I can assess this using
a goniometer tool from physical therapy. If you have 60 degrees of external
rotation you are fine pursuing the poses you wish to regain. If not then I
would suggest you not pursue them.
Changing the shape of legs requires diligent practice and
perseverance. Depending upon the angle of your bowed legs I can say about
6-18 months of strong practice working to strengthen the adductors and
stretching the abductors to achieve a change in the legs. You can reference
in my book poses that do this for the muscles and also see chart on page 266
that will make suggestions for changing postural anomalies like bowed legs.
Thank you for all the good advice. I don’t feel I’ve been pushing
myself but perhaps i have. I need the income my teaching provides and
demonstrating poses is part of that teaching. I’m sure that inflammation of
the connective tissue has happened and i am diligently trying to be patient
in my practice. I was trained in integral yoga at Satchidananda ashram so i
feel my training was not of the “do more” variety that you mention that it
was sattvic in nature. One of my greatest challenges is that ever present
ego that wants to do every pose. I’m very familiar with the sutras and
strive to follow them. It is quite possible I’ve fallen short and can only
continue to enhance my awareness both inner and outer and follow the
teachings of my guru. Once again, many thanks for the guidance and
support. What is your opinion of cortisone shots and their effectiveness?
I certainly understand the need for income but I do not
understand demonstrating poses when they cause you pain. I don’t know what
you were taught in your teacher training but I never want my teachers doing
demonstrations when they can help it. Especially if they are in pain.
Always use a model especially when the class is large. Without a model you
cannot listen to your own body and are much more prone to injury or at the
least not listen to your body’s advice about when to stop. You are likely
to show a healthy body poses done full out when it is inappropriate for your
healing to do so. Hence it is normal for you to aggravate the condition.
One will always have an ego that is not the problem. The
problem is to listen to the inner teacher in spite of the other voices that
speak to you. Following the Yoga Sutras guidance is most beneficial. For
this I recommend reading from it regularly. AS far as cortisone they are
often quite affective, but they are also problematic. I cannot inform you
as to the percentage of successful treatment with it. A physician could, so
seek professional medical advice on that or look at Alternatives to Surgery
by Sandra McLanahan, MD and her surgeon brother. This is an excellent
reference book to keep handy for all considerations. She is the Yogaville
ashram holistic physician.