Physiotherapists and chiropracticioners assert that the number of people who end up in their treatment rooms with injuries from practicing yoga is increasing. It is a great responsibility to guide other people’s body and mind on the yoga mat. Interest in anatomy and biomechanics is a great advantage. Both for the yoga student and the teacher.
When a teacher gives too few cues, the following things often go wrong in the alignment – twisted joints in Warrior poses; Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog) with the weight not evenly distributed between the back and the front but carried mainly by the hands thus putting the back and shoulders under an unnecessary tension; slack Tadasanas (Mountain Pose) without arched and active feet, engaged quadriceps and active abdominal muscles to straighten the back and somewhat flatten the natural curves of the spine; backbends pushed mainly from the lower back (ouch!); rotations from the lower back (ouch, ouch!) and finally the Pidgeon Pose – Eka Padda Rajakapotasana with a lot of unnecessary and harmful pressure in the last vertebrae L5 which is the biggest unfused vertebra right above the sacrum’s S1 (ouch, ouch, ouch!).
Yoga poses are sometimes held for a long time, especially in Yin yoga. With correct alignment and ujjayi breath this is not a problem. But there are things to consider. Two very common poses need special attention to sustain the health of the joints. Warrior I (Virabhadrasana) and II (Virabhadrasana II) poses are tricky for knees and hips for the reason that it is very easy to open the back foot 90⁰ to the side whilst the kneecap is turned 60⁰ or even less because there is not enough flexibility in the hips to make the external rotation of the hips to match the foot. And this is what many people do – feet are pointing in one direction and the knee and hip-bone in the other.
What is the problem? Let’s use ballet to illustrate this. To stand in some ballet poses (positions 1-5) you need an external rotation both in the legs and hips to turn your feet pointing to the side while standing. Some people just don’t have this flexibility due to various reasons – can be due to the angle how the femur (thigh) bone sits in the acetabulum and/or some other anatomical constraints of the pelvis. Whatever, unless the kneecap is not pointing in the same direction as your toes, this means that there is an unhealthy twist in your knee. If you were to keep doing this pose extensively and pursue a career as a ballet dancer you would end up with several knee operations.
You can test your external rotation yourself – stand upright and point your toes so that they are turned to the side as much as you can. Now take a look at your knees – are the kneecaps pointing in the same direction? If yes, you are blessed with extremely good external rotation of the hip area. If not, you have created an unhealthy twist in your legs which, if forced on the joints regularly, can make your knees sensitive. When you stand in the Warrior poses and hold this twist for a long time, your joints will grumble and their discomfort gets bigger over time.
You can check the alignment of the toes and kneecap while you stand, ensure that they point in the same direction and if they don’t, adjust the pose so they do. In the beginning of the class, when the muscles are not yet warmed up, your range may be different so unless you are extremely well aware of your limitations, check the alignment even as the class proceeds. But there is one more thing to be aware of – different teachers give different cues – you may be required to turn your back foot anything between 60-90 degrees to the side. But the direction of the knee is never mentioned.
In Warrior I pose the rotation of the hip to the side is somewhat blocked because your torso is turned to face the front, not sideways. This immediately reduces the range of the external rotation of the hip to the side. What I am actually saying now goes against what many yoga teachers do which is they instruct to go from Warrior I directly to Warrior II and vice versa. Anatomically speaking this is not a very good idea.
For Warrior II and for the proper hip opening in this pose you need a wider space between the front and the back leg than is healthy for Warrior I. I t will sacrifice the toe-kneecap alignment and create a twist in the joints (kneecap-toes of the back foot pointing in different directions). What’s more – in Warrior I the back foot should not be pointing 90⁰ to the side because your knee cannot follow this angle when your torso is facing the front not turned to the side like in Warrior II.
Warrior I pose is also tricky because of the rotation required from the spine. As explained in the previous blog, the lumbar spine does not have much flexibility in rotations, only about 5⁰. So when you turn your torso to face the front, rotate from thoracic and cervical spine rather than push from the lumbar spine.
Stressing one’s joints over the healthy limit is sometimes hard to detect because discomfort may only emerge a few days later. By that time, we have forgotten what we did on the yoga mat and suspect something else as the root cause.
Another pose which can be challenging to many yoga students is the Pidgeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana). It is often practiced in the second half of the class. Runners use this pose, too, because it stretches the IT (iliotibial) band.
The Pidgeon pose has different variations for the torso – it is either upright, in a slight backbend or in forward bend. Usually one leg stretched back, the other leg is bend forward into an L-shape. Many people are not flexible enough to keep the sit bone on the side of the L-shaped leg on the mat while back leg is extended backwards on the mat and hips squared. This pose creates a slight rotation in the pelvis anyway although the practitioner should strive to have hips same level and same direction.
Often the forward bend is forced and the weight carried by the side where the leg is bent forward. When hips are not squared and level and a forward bend is required, this puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on the lower back, especially the L5 area. Reclined/supine version of the Pidgeon Pose is much better for the health of less bendy yoga students. When you lie with your back on the mat, you only use the weight and strength of your legs (and gravity) but the weight of your torso is eliminated and will not push your legs and hips to stressful angles.
There are many things to consider during the yoga practice. Next time I’ll write about backbends and/or challenges with Yin yoga. Stay tuned!