A little encouragement? Advice?

[Guest guest]

I've recently been having the same problem. After

several years of practice with no problems - and never

any trouble with padmasana, I've developed a nagging

injury in my left knee. To be more specific, this pain

is a little below my knee, on the outside of my leg.

Simply bending my knee doesn't hurt, but rotating into

lotus on that side can be quite painful. Even janu

sirsasana can be troublesome at times.<br><br>After seeking

some professional advice on this problem, it seems

that the problem is that I sprained the lateral

collateral ligament of my left knee. This is the ligament

that connects the femur and the fibula. I've been

having ultrasound done on the outside of my knee, though

I'm not sure how successful this treatment has been

yet.<br><br>With my experience of this injury over the past month

or so, I would definitely think that pushing your

knee to the point of sharp pain will do nothing to

begin the healing process. What the sprain means is

that the elasticity of the ligament has been

compromised, from my understanding. The analogy I was given is

that the ligament becomes like an old pair of shorts

or underwear where the elastic gets sort of baggy

and loose. That a pleasant picture, isn't it? The

good news is that this will heal.<br><br>The advice

that I've been given is to keep practicing, but modify

those poses that are painful. For example, ardha baddha

padmottanasana simply becomes tree pose and in baddha konasana,

I don't pull my legs as closely in towards my body.

I'm told that giving this a few weeks to heal and

being cautious in the meantime is the best path to

healing the injury. Don't push it. I've set myself back

in the healing process my letting my ego get away

with me at moments and thinking that one little

Marichyasana D wouldn't be so horrible. For me, this has been

a valuable lesson in patience and listening to my

body. Take this as something to learn from, not a

reason to become frustrated and want to quit.<br><br>If

the pain is considerable, many people have been

advising me to strap on an ice pack for no more than 20

minutes. And I've found that rubbing a little China Gel on

the painful spots works nicely. Just be careful if

you use this before practicing. The pain might be

lessened, but the injury is still there.<br><br>I'm still

working through this injury too, so if anyone else has

experience with this sort of injury - or if you've had any

experience with having ultrasound done on an injury, more

advice would be wonderful.<br><br>Namaste.<br>Amanda

[Guest guest]

Wow, talk about timely advice! Just this weekend

I injured my knee in just the same spot--right

below the knee-cap on the outside. And in good ol'

Marchyiasana D no less. I had been flying through my practice,

thinking about how great I was feeling, when I pulled into

D really quickly--and paid the price.<br><br>I had

been thinking I would have to stop practicing

altogether, but I will follow the excellent advice given in

this post while I let my knee heal. And I'll take this

as a good lesson in learing to move slowly and

consciously into every asana, both the "easy" ones and the

tough ones!<br><br>Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[Guest guest]

The best thing I've done for my knees is to tell

my ego to shut up and, before going into anything

lotus-y, I take a few breaths while cradling my

knee/calf/ankle as closely into my chest (back straight!) as

possible. This flexes the most stubborn of hips and lets

the hip open just a touch more, often enough to get

into a half lotus comfortably, especially after a

couple of weeks. No kidding, try it.<br>All the

best,<br>edenlotus