The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › Hot Yoga *faq* › Knee pain
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Hi, this is my first post.
I just started Bikram yoga and have now gone 5 times.
On my first time I pushed a little too far in the Eagle Pose with my right knee over my left leg and now I have had pain in my knee all week whenever I bend it. In fact both of my knees are now quite sore. I could do Fixed Firm Pose to begin with but now because my knees hurt I can’t do it at all.Am I doing something else wrong? Is this normal? Will my knees get better or worse?
I really love Bikram yoga and don’t want to have to stop…
Hi Marianna
Thanks for posting. It would be good to know which knee started hurting when you noticed it occur in Eagle pose. Do your knees hurt all the time now as you say they are now both sore? You said it hurts whenever you bend your knee. Does this mean Hands to Feet, Awkward, Eagle and so on and so forth – every single movement that you bend the knee? Do they hurt when you walk? Not quite enough information to understand your injury. Which side of the knee? Is there a specific part of the knee? Any info you can give may help me, you or anyone else reading this post to understand and perhaps offer some ideas.
In the meantime during Fixed Firm I recommend you simply kneel with heels together until your knees can stand having your feet shift apart (bit by bit).
Before I try to break down what you are asking any further I will wait for your response. It is worth saying however that when we learn any new skill we have to devote our conscious attention to learning that new skill. After a while things become ‘second nature’ – we know what we are supposed to do and then this leaves the way clear to learning finer and finer distinctions of that new skill.
Unfortunately when you start something new like Bikram yoga you have hundreds and hundreds of things to pay attention to in every class. So most people’s first classes can be fraught with difficulties because your mind has no more bandwidth to pay attention to things like personal safety; it could just be too busy thinking of how hot it is, or how you are supposed to put that leg where it is supposed to be, or thinking about what the teacher just said, or noticing how someone else manages to do it (and you can’t) or (insert random thought here!). Meanwhile once you reach your attention limit you run out of head-space and get overwhelmed.
This can be how many students get themselves into trouble. It can be fixed with good instruction (it is not all your fault! 😉 ). And it can also be helped by paying some attention to the basics. But how do you tell the difference? That is the BIG question.
You should by now be understanding the general flow of the class (which pose goes where) and understand the basics. This will in time allow you to start to devote some attention to yourself and where to stop, where to direct your body and not go beyond what is right for you. This is a skill that develops over time. You may be benefiting from greater focus and concentration and any number of wonderful benefits that contribute to your wellbeing but you may have to wait a little longer til you incorporate many of the nuances that can only come with experience.
Take it easy, be curious, enjoy your practice and don’t push yourself (so far that you hurt yourself)!!!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hello
I wanted to throw out my experience w/ knee pain and alignment. As we all know our feet effect our ankle in turn effect our knee which goes to our hip and lower back rest of spine ect….. When I broke my hip I discovered (after a long time walking with pain in my knee LOL) that my where my ‘new’ hip was, was not the same!. The gait I was used to was in turn causing my knee to do a slight twist tot he outside. My standing head to knee and bow and tree and eagle were ALL very effected and did not feel right in the knee OR hip. I was so focused on the healing of my hip and keeping it straight, but once I realized what was happening I shifted my alignment FOCUS. Rather than working from hips down I worked from feet up! Just food for thought. Does that make sense?
PS Now I have NO pain in my kneeThank you both for replying.
Gabrielle – It is my right knee that started hurting first. I noticed a sharp pain the first time I got into Eagle Pose when I tried getting my right foot behind my left calf. I pushed it just that bit too far and ever since then it has been hurting.
Both my knees hurt in the inner side and the right knee hurts at the bottom of the knee as well.
The knees tend to hurt in any posture where I need to bend the knee. Extended it feels ok.
I also feel it when I walk.My right foot also hurts from the big toe up towards the ankle. My guess is to do with the balance postures with my ankles not being strong enough.
Also my inner thigh right at the top hurts which started from getting out of Triangle Pose.
I have still gone to class yesterday and today but took it easy on those postures.
Do you think these areas are hurting because they aren’t used to the exercise and will strengthen in time?
Hi Marianna
I think much of what is going on is about the need for either building strength or length (the issue with your thigh in triangle and your feet in balancing poses).
By the way I didn’t ask you, is there any obvious inflammation around the knee? Have you tried icing your knee or any medication? Has anything else been useful?
I wonder about your knees and whether you have inadvertently stretched ligaments with the unusual movements in Eagle pose. As you imply you may have pushed it ‘beyond your design capabilities’. :cheese:
While you have such pain it is important to be conservative in your knee movements – and that is why I recommended those modifications in my last post. What can you report from those mods?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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