Yoga Heals Knees - How?
I was a runner with bad knees until I started practicing yoga. I was told that knee trouble was part of the territory and those runners without it were just lucky. Then I discovered the wisdom of yoga. Now I run, surf, hike and bike and my knees feel great. You see, knees 'go bad' when we force them to move in unatural imbalanced ways. We may not even know we are doing this until the awareness of a good yoga practice shows us. Then that same practice teaches us how to correct our old habits and move in balance. Everyone can have freedom from pain and limitation simply by understanding how the knee joint works and training the body to honor its design.
The knee is a hinge joint. It is meant to move the lower leg forward and back. Lift one foot and swing the lower leg forward and back. This is what the knee is designed to do. It is not designed to rotate or move side to side. It is the hip that is designed to rotate the leg. Lift and straighten one leg and turn the toes out then in. That is your hip joint making that motion. But if our hips are too tight, because we sit all day and never stretch, the knee will be forced to rotate unnaturally. We may not feel it in our day to day but over time, it will wear out the knee joint. If the hips are open and handling the leg's rotation, the knee is kept safe. Now let's look below the knee at the ankles and feet.
The ankles and feet are designed to make the subtle side to side movements that keep us balanced and help us change direction quickly. Think of the quick lateral movements of basketball players. The feet and ankles get weak because we wear shoes all the time and walk on artificially smooth surfaces. Weak feet and ankles cause the knee to compensate, moving against its natural design. Over time the knee weakens and degenerates. By keeping the feet and ankels strong and flexible, the knee is left to its natural function.
One more thing. Most of us, especially athletes, have tight butt muscles, strong outer thighs and relatively weak inner thighs. This imbalance externally rotates the thighbones turning the feet out like penguin feet. Watch yourself walk, watch other people walk. Most of us have one or both feet turned out because of our tight outer hips and weak inner thighs. When we walk like this, the knee is not lined up with the direction of movement and the joint gets twisted and over time wears out. In a balanced body, the knees line up with the center line of the feet and the outer edges of the feet make parallel lines as we walk or run. Yoga teaches us to move with this alignment.
Yoga will heal your knees. Can you see that? Yoga balances the body strengthening what is weak and stretching what is tight. Yoga opens your hips, wakes up your feet, strengthens your ankles, builds balanced muscular strength and retrains your body to move in proper alignment. And, its lots of fun. Many athletes have healed their knees with a regular yoga practice. You can too. If you're too shy to come to class, buy a DVD an practice at home. If you have a chronic injury, it might be a good idea to seek private yoga instruction from a teacher skilled in Yoga Therpeutics.
Jennifer Lynn, Maui Hawaii
Yoga Classes, Yoga Teacher Trainings, Yoga Alliance School
www.YogawithJenniferLynn.com
Copyright 2007 © Yoga with Jennifer Lynn
