I have an 84 year old women in a weekly yoga class that has had knee replacement surgery in both knees, about seven years ago. She is energetic, fit, strong, flexible and very awarae of her limitations. She has been a great teacher for me ! I would appreciate any suggestions you can offer that would allow me to offer her something new to her practice.
She has 45o bend at the knees, and above average mobility of the hip.
Tranisition from poses offers a challenge for her, specifically moving form the floor to standing and vice versa. We make use of a chair for
Child pose and as a prop for other standing poses.
I think any suggestion your could offer that would take her practice to a new place would be beneficial.
Regards
Susan Whalen
I think this student has done a great job with maintaining her body. Keeping the hip joint flexible is a tremendous factor for stabilizing the knees and the lower back. Iwould suggest that you focus her attention on strengthening her hip flexor muscles. Those are the psoas, rectus femoris and also include the adductors. I would suggest Warrior II, bridge (standard and knees squeeezing together), chair pose (Utkatasana), and dynamic runner or lunge pose (SYT pg. 162) in which you inhale and raise pelvis then exhale and lower the pelvis repeatedly to both tone and release the hip flexors (if necessary weight can be held by a chair to facilitate this without stress on the forward knee). best wishes mukunda