knee injury

[Guest guest]

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]

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.