Knee Injury

[Guest guest]

A friend of ours has damaged his right knee

playing football (soccer). He has snapped his anterior

cruciate ligament and damaged the cartilage. Before the

accident, he was practicing Primary Series. Does anybody

have any experience of people returning to Astanga

after this sort of injury? If so, were there any

specific asanas that they found useful? Are there any

postures they now avoid?<br><br>Thanks for your help!

[Guest guest]

Your friend should follow up with a physician

that specializes in sports medicine. it si unclear

whether your friend underwent surgical correct of the

torn ACL. Not all torn ACL need to undergo surgical

repair. Factors such as the degree of tear and fuctional

activity level are taken into consideration.<br>The

purpose of the ACL is to prevent the tibia (Shin bone)

from slipping forward fromthe femur (thigh

bone).<br>Asanas that place undue stress on the joint include end

degree of knee flexion, jumping and balance. Since

ashtanga yoga is dynamic with jumping and proprioception

(joint in space awarness), the ACL is called upon

often.<br>Standard course of physical thearpy that strengthens the

quadriceps ,hamstrings with proprioceptive training would be

beneficial before reengaging in full ashatnaga

practise.<br><br>The above is not meant to be in stead of sound

history and physcial exam of that of a physician.

[Guest guest]

Hi! I urge you to be very careful with your knees and do NOT force

them into any lotus posotion if your hips are very tight. The most

common injury is from this. I would also suggest working on some hip

opening poses besides primary series outside of your practice. Some

good ones are splits and frog pose. I too have tight hips and

sensitive knees so I am on the same journey. Namaste!

ashtangayoga, "catbalco" <catbalco> wrote:

> Hello, I've just started practicing Astanga seriously about 7

> months ago. I'm very athletic (have a lot of strength), and have

> extremely inflexible hips. Despite my attempts to be careful, I've

> found that my hip inflexibility has caused my knees to

> overcompensate in lotus/half-lotus like positions, and therefore

> HURT. I've just taken two weeks off to give them a chance to

> heal, but would like to start practicing again. At a friend's

> suggestion, I'm using a block to support my knees in these

> positions.

>

> Does anyone have any other advice for me about avoiding further

> knee strain? How careful do you think I'll need to be in order to

> keep practicing regularly without doing real damage? Are there

> any other folks with VERY inflexible hips out there? Any advice?

>

> Thanks -

[Guest guest]

Thanks all for your suggestions, advice, and warnings -

 

I've added the frog and that lie on your back/knee/leg pose to my

regular routine, and will be very careful. I'll also go to a doctor to

make sure all is OK. Its scary to hear that regular primary series

practice can itself become scary, but I can imagine how that

would happen. I hope everyone's post-op knees hold up.

 

Though it doesn't seem fair to suggest that tight-hip people have

more fear than anyone else, I've heard that one's hips are where

one holds one's fear. So I guess that hip openers will indeed

offer many fear-variations into my practice: I've already noticed an

irrational fear of bending forward in wide-leg poses and a

nebulous anxiety that splits, in particular, sometimes bring up,

and now: fear of hurting my knees. Better that all that anxiety gets

out there to be dealt with (carefully), I guess?

 

("raltomonte" - are you still able to practice?)

 

Cat

[Guest guest]

Hi...

 

Firts of all, you are normal, your knees! The knee joint is NOT

supposed to rotate, therefor Lotus is a completely not natural

position. Skip it and quit trying to make it happen. Those that

can, well, you were born with looser knee joint, but that is not

normal. Anyway, always listen to your body and modify if necessary.

 

Signed, San - an exercise physiologist turned modern yogi

 

 

ashtangayoga, "catbalco" <catbalco> wrote:

> Hello, I've just started practicing Astanga seriously about 7

> months ago. I'm very athletic (have a lot of strength), and have

> extremely inflexible hips. Despite my attempts to be careful, I've

> found that my hip inflexibility has caused my knees to

> overcompensate in lotus/half-lotus like positions, and therefore

> HURT. I've just taken two weeks off to give them a chance to

> heal, but would like to start practicing again. At a friend's

> suggestion, I'm using a block to support my knees in these

> positions.

>

> Does anyone have any other advice for me about avoiding further

> knee strain? How careful do you think I'll need to be in order to

> keep practicing regularly without doing real damage? Are there

> any other folks with VERY inflexible hips out there? Any advice?

>

> Thanks -

[Guest guest]

Actually, you can work through torn cartilage- you just have to be

careful, methodical, and patient. An orthopedic surgeon is obviously

going to tell you you have to have surgery to correct the problem,

but it won't keep you from reinjuring whatever cartilage is still

there, whether you hurt it doing yoga or stepping off the curb wrong.

About three years ago, I destroyed my left knee- whether or not the

cartilage was torn already or not I am unsure of, but it had hurt

periodically since I started doing ashtanga yoga. I couldn't walk,

put on my pants, get in or out of a car, nothing. I was terrified. I

could have had surgery, but I decided to listen to my teachers

suggestion- I went from doing third series to only doing the standing

asanas; my knee was so unstable it was scary doing even just that

little bit of yoga. Slowly I began to add postures back- it has taken

me almost 3 years to do marichyasana d on the first side, and garbha

pindasana. All of a sudden after 3 years those postures just came

back! You can always chose to get operated on- it's your body, and

your decision, and not everyone will put themselves through what I

did to get their knee better via the practice. You have to give up

any time line to recover, and just let it happen. Good luck.

 

hed

 

 

 

ashtangayoga, raltomonte <no_reply> wrote:

> Listen to your body and not any teachers, students, friends, etc. 2

> years ago my left knee was making a lot of popping noises until

> one day during one of the marichi series it popped out. The right

> one did the same thing last year. Got xrays and MRI's last month

> because I was tired of the pain and they both were locking up.

> Tore the meniscus in both. Doc recommends arthroscopy to cut

> out loose cartlidge. Simple operation but will leave a section of

> the knee uncushioned because cartlidge is taken out. Hello

> arthritis. Teachers sometimes say "work throught it". Right. You

> can't work through torn cartlidge.

>

> Learn from my stupidity. When your knees start poppin', STOP. If

> they ache repeatedly after practice, THEY SHOULDN'T! See a

> doctor and try to avoid arthritis.

>

> I have to admit that Ashtanga, my once treasured practice,

> scares me.

[Guest guest]

actually someone on this board recommended a really great book which

I actually bought. it's called Pain Free : A Revolutionary Method for

Stopping Chronic Pain

by Pete Egoscue.

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553379887/qid=1022261408/sr=8-

1/ref=sr_8_1/103-0273504-2547876

 

he gives you different exercises based on which area of the body is

misaligned, injured or in pain. they are very easy exercises but

supposed to be very effective. some are as simple as laying down on

your back while you are putting your legs up the wall - hold for 20

minutes a day. it's supposed to realign your hips, shoulders, spine,

et al. it might be worth looking into.

 

ashtangayoga, "Scott Rennie" <scott.rennie@v...> wrote:

> I'm with you on the hip inflexibility/knee problems, but I don't

think there

> is a real answer out there. Most of my problems seem to come in Janu

> Shirshasana or thereabouts, and any lotus posture too. Which

postures are

> giving you problems?

>

> Re blocks, at a recent weekend seminar the instructor said sure,

use them if

> you like, but there's nothing you can do with blocks that you can't

do

> without them in a modified posture. His opinion was that it's

better to do

> the modified posture than use blocks.

>

> Re Lotus, I think it is very important to learn the posture

properly as I

> found that what I _thought_ was the correct hip/knee/foot position

wasn't

> really correct after all. I can only advise talking it over with an

> instructor.

>

> I still find my knees hurt almost every day, but it wears off after

a few

> hours or so. There is a difference between a mild strain and a real

injury,

> although the former can lead to the latter if you're not too

careful. I take

> it you have a full-blown injury if it's so bad that you need 2

weeks off.

>

> Cheers,

>

> Scott

>

>

> catbalco [catbalco]

> 16 May 2002 18:45

> ashtangayoga

> ashtanga yoga knee injury

>

>

> Hello, I've just started practicing Astanga seriously about 7

> months ago. I'm very athletic (have a lot of strength), and have

> extremely inflexible hips. Despite my attempts to be careful, I've

> found that my hip inflexibility has caused my knees to

> overcompensate in lotus/half-lotus like positions, and therefore

> HURT. I've just taken two weeks off to give them a chance to

> heal, but would like to start practicing again. At a friend's

> suggestion, I'm using a block to support my knees in these

> positions.

>

> Does anyone have any other advice for me about avoiding further

> knee strain? How careful do you think I'll need to be in order to

> keep practicing regularly without doing real damage? Are there

> any other folks with VERY inflexible hips out there? Any advice?

>

> Thanks -