Knee Hyper-extension

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,<br><br>I have only joined this club

in the last day but it seems a very good source of

helpful advice for Ashtanga practice - hopefully you can

all offer some to me.<br><br>I am naturally very

flexible and while five years of Ashtanga practice

(primary series) has increased what was already there, the

strength needed to balance this out has been slower to

come and is still not what it needs to be. My problem

is that I have had a lifelong habit of

hyper-extending into the back of my knees and have

unintentionally taken this to an extreme doing prasarita

padottanasana, parsvatanasana, seated postures (esp. janu

sirasana a) etc. to the point where I have begun to feel

pain in the inside tendon behind my left knee. Even

before the pain started a couple of times I felt this

tendon was very loose and even slipping a little. I have

tried to rectify this problem by not allowing myself to

fully extend my leg, keeping it slightly bent all the

time. I put a rolled up towel behind the knee on all

the seated postures and am trying to work more into

the quadricep but can't seem to do this with a bent

knee. I don't feel like I'm really getting anywhere

with this and am feeling frustrated. <br><br>Any

advice?

[Guest guest]

Hi,<br><br>Like you my knees (elbows, ankles..)

hyper-extend. For this reason I was actually told by a

physiotherapist that yoga was not good for me as it makes me even

more flexible and is not good for my knees. This

physiotherapist, however, suggested that if I wanted to keep on

practicing yoga, I should try to not fully extend my knees

and bend them a little as you are trying to

now.<br><br>Well, I consulted an osteopath and was told yoga was

perfect for me. But, I should pay close attention on not

progressing too fast, and keeping my knee-caps pulled up in

every asana.<br>That prevents you from over-extending

and protects your knees. Then you don't have to bent

your knees anymore.<br><br>Good luck with your

practice.

[Guest guest]

Dear coc_hab, <br><br>Thanks for your reply. I

think you're right with your advice and it's just a

matter of me developing the right awareness to be able

to pull my kneecaps up more. Time will

tell!<br><br>Thanks again.