I’ve been teaching yoga for about three years, and recently changed my warrior 1 b/c of a re-certification class. I now press the pinkie side of my back foot into the floor. The good news is I feel a deeper stretch in my hip and IT band. The bad news it, I also feel it on the medial side of that knee. Should I revert to my old ways? thanks to all.
Wyndy
If it wasn’t broke don’t fix it. I would go back to the old way. I practiced yoga for 3 years with no pain in my shoulders until well meaning teachers told me that I needed to change my shoulders in down dog. After that, I had shoulder pain for two years. I started practicing at home and stopped listening to people and healed myself and I am fine.
It may be that anatomically, that pinkie toe thing doesn’t work for you.
Dear Wyndy,
Please stop causing pain to your inner knee. You should never feel an asana in joints, and especially not in your knees. You are risking injury. Mukunda Stiles has written the following:
<< I?m cautious about any reactions that are experienced only in the knees, and one place I never want a student to feel an asana is the inner knee. Asana should affect muscles primarily, and tendons secondarily, but never should strain ligaments. The inner knee is nothing but ligaments and cartilage ? there is no contractile or elastic tissue. Therefore, caution is warranted when the pose is felt in the inner knee. When a student experiences the effects of a pose at the knee, I adapt it so the effect is felt through a greater area ? ideally throughout the leg ? minimizing strain to the knee?s delicate connective tissue.>>
?Know your knees?, by Tom Stiles, in Yoga therapy for knees and shoulders, by Yoga International (undated reprint)
Please consult with your teacher and avoid aligning yourself with harm. Align yourself with ahimsa (non-harming), instead.
Namast
Hello Wyndy,
First, there is no pressing of toes in standing poses. Rather it is pressing of toe mounds. The knuckles of the metatarsals should not be wrinkled nor should the toes become white as a result of pressure in the toes.
Second, in Vira I it is the heel of the back foot which is rooted. This presumes the student has the proper orientation of the back leg from the hip joint to the ankle AND that in that orientation in their body the back heel contacts the floor. If the heel is raised (obviously) then the rooting of it is disregarded until the student builds the proper actions, openings, and alignments.
So these first two things may make your question moot. If the question still holds then I, as a techer would want to determine from whence the knee pain comes. If I am certain it is from “action a” then I’d work specifically with that student to modify the pose accordingly.
Hope this helps.
gordon
Wyndy - I’m seeing some posts in regards to using your toes. To clarify, your new training didn’t teach to put pressure on the toes, but on the outer side of the foot placed in the back, correct? The pinkie toe side of the foot, but not actually the toe?
As in Willem’s post, the pain should be felt on a wider area over the knee, if the pain is on small area in a “spot” I would not recommend changing to the new posture, the “ideal” postures of how they should look like come from pictures such as Iyengar’s practice pictures anyway, we are not made on a manufacturing line and as in many other postures the shape of femur, the shape of acetabulum, the angle that end of femur goes to acetabulum is different, not sure how many years of practice you have but if the posture is not limited by the shape of bones then it is by the connective tissue which can’t stretch enough. If you take the lateral side of the foot down in Vira 1 the medial ends of femur and tibia will come closer pressing meniscus and stretching ligaments on the lateral side, it might be meniscus pain? Do you feel pain when the painful knee is in half lotus? Also to be considered is trigger points that might bring the pain to the knee trough “wrap ups” in facia.
Dear Wyndy,
As in Willem’s wise post: there should be [U]no[/U] pain to the knee (inner-medial, or anywhere)…
Please stop causing pain to your inner knee. You should never feel an asana in joints, and especially not in your knees. You are risking injury.
Pain is a method for the body to communicate that something is wrong. Listen to that message…
Knee injuries are not fun and I would do anything to prevent one.
You mentioned that you have been teaching yoga for 3 years, yes?
How long have you been practicing asanas before teaching?
Dear drimm, ?
…“As in Willem’s post, the pain should be felt on a wider area over the knee…”
? Perhaps you meant to articulate that the [I]feeling of the effect of the asana [/I]
should be felt throughout the entire leg (as indicated by Mukanda’s quote)…
<<“When a student experiences the effects of a pose at the knee, I adapt it so the effect is felt through a greater area ? ideally throughout the leg ? minimizing strain to the knee?s delicate connective tissue.”>>
?Know your knees?, by Tom Stiles, in Yoga therapy for knees and shoulders, by Yoga International (undated reprint)
As a friendly 'ol yogini teaching since 1977…be careful giving out
advice “that pain should be felt” anywhere during asana practice.
“That’s just my two cents or a million dollars…”
Best with Blessings,
Nancy
well aka360yogini, I did ment that the effect should be felt on a wider area over the knee to the leg, correct that pain word should be never used though when talking about how the vinyasa or state of asana should feel.
since I see you correcting posts why don’t you do suggest a solution rather than correct others? after all you have exprience since the seventies?
Yes, my post was aimed at providing solution…
that was and is my intention.
drimm, your comment:
since I see you correcting posts why don’t you do suggest a solution rather than correct others?
Perhaps if you re-read it…you’ll discern paraphrasing (quoting)
from a few others that I concurred with (which is an easy way
generally in forums to respond.) By-the-way, those responses were excellent.
We all have our own style and methodology which is obvious
in reading through various posts in these yoga forums–which has a light,
friendly atmosphere offering help and advice.
So to clarify for Wyndy:
Should I revert to my old ways?
Solution: Yes. If you were doing Vira 1 fine for 3 years without stress/pain to your knee…keep it that way.
Have you read [I]Cool Yoga Tricks [/I]by Miriam Austin? She talks about her similar experience
in the beginning chapter: She was so badly injured by corrections and “new advice” from teachers that she was
incapacitated for months. She says she learned the hard way…you don’t have to. Listen to your intuition…
if you had doubt and expressed it here…something is off.
Hope this helps…May all be splendid for you.
Namaste.
Best with Blessings,
Nancy