Mysteriously sore/popping knees and popped hip

Sounds like you should be careful when going into Triangle. Listen to your body and back off when necessary. A lot of beginners, first few months, are often surprised by one pain there or some different feelings here. The reason being that we are loosening up areas that have not been used in some time and thus open to experience new sensations in these areas. These are just subtle ways of your body responding to the exercise. If you are experiencing pain in one area of your body, take it easy on that area for a while, where a brace, get a massage or other holistic treatment or physical therapy.

In my opinion your knee just need some TLC. If you can, try to sit in rock pose/Japanese style, with your sit bone on the floor like the beginning of Supta Vajrasana, while watching TV or lounging around. Also you should soak it in Epsom salt and apply some tiger balm to the area and take an anti-inflammatory like Advil liquid gel.

Best wishes on a speedy recovery, over a year ago I was in so much pain from my sciatica that I couldn’t stand long enough to take a shower. Through this yoga I am now healthy enough to surf and skateboard and no longer experiencing any pain in my lower back.

Jeff

Hi Dia

I have been unable to get to a computer these last few days!!! So please let me know what poses or movements hurt your knees. You mention triangle pose but please also let me know if it hurts elsewhere. Jeff mentioned sitting in a certain way but you may find this painful too. I just want to be sure that we can cover all bases.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Dia,
From an arm chair assessment I agree that it seems like there is some inflammation in the knees. Sometimes when we go into class we caught up with deeper and farther and don’t rely upon strength enough in the pose. For example, if we bend the knees in awkward and load the knee joints (weight bear in the joints instead of feeling the work in the muscles) we can create a tendonitis. Also, if the hips are really tight and don’t want to go somewhere like in triangle they will make the knees do some things they aren’t ready for.

Here are some potential culprits, I recommend the following until your knees ease up a bit…
Awkward
1st part-
Sitting down too deep. I am not a fan of thighs parallel to the floor and butt in line with the knees from the side view. I find that students tend to load the hip and knee joint instead of working the butt and quad burn. I keep my students fairly high up in this pose, nowhere near thighs parallel, where their quads and butt feel the work.

Putting too much pressure/weight in the front of the ankles, the ball of the foot and knees. Remember that the body weight is in the heels.

3rd part
Stay up higher for a while don’t lower down until the bottom is to the heels. Again, maybe lower down a few inches and feel the burn in the quads and butt. You may be lowering down without sufficient enough strength built up in the quads and butt to not load the knee joints.
And, please, do not respond to the correction to bounce up and down like you’re riding a motorcycle, if they do that sort of thing at your studio.

Eagle-
Same attention to the body weight back in the heel and not forward into the front of the ankle or ball of foot. Stick your bottom out and then lower down, body weight into heel about 60%. I’d also back off wrapping the foot right now, it can put pressure on the patella tendon when there is inflammation and weakness in the quads.

Standing Bow-
Are you kicking your foot back or up? Kick up. Are you pulling on your ankle as you kick up? Don’t. Let the kick (not from the quad, but kick with the butt muscles) pull your arm back.

Triangle-
Again, don’t sit down as deep. I know they will cue you to sit down until the thigh is parallel to the floor. Just for a while stay a bit higher above parallel, it will be hard, your muscles will burn like crazy. This will do two things give your hip some space and not pressure it into anything it’s not ready to do and it will build your muscle strength.

Tree Pose-
Don’t force your bent knee down or back. Do not do toe stand for a while.

Floor Bow-
Again, make sure you kick UP and not back. I have some students who try to engage their quads to kick up and it aggravates their knees.

Fixed Firm-
Please, do not try to sit your bottom down or back deeply into this pose. Bend the knees, set up the alignment and then put your body weight in your hands lower back slowly to keep your bottom up off the floor. If you feel any pain or pressure come higher up or out of the pose completely. If your hips are tight, which I suspect they are (from the pop in triangle) this pose if worked too long or deeply will cause knee problems. With all due respect to previous posts, this posture can be one of the most beneficial postures for the knees and can also be the most damaging to the knees.

I wanted to give you some tools to work in class. It’s a bit difficult not seeing you practice to see where the work is needed. So, if some of my corrections are over the top, understand, I am just giving you the usual culprits. For most students working with injuries, I tell them to stay above and away from the pain. Since you don’t have pain in a pose, let’s focus on strength for a few weeks and see how that works. Usually developing strength helps us to avoid “loading the joint” and use our muscles to their fullest. Do keep up with the anti-inflammatories, I recommend Traumeel oral or cream or both. And the Epsom Salt soaks are a great idea as well.

Look forward to hearing if this helps at all.
Best of Luck,
Ame

Hi Dia,
So glad to hear you are doing so well. I was wondering about you recently and hoping that my post had helped. I am THRILLED to hear you are doing so well and were able to take such good care of your knees.

I recently have had to focus more on strength in my own yoga practice as well. It is really a good lesson to learn that yoga isn’t just about flexibility, it’s one I have to be contiually reminded of. Let me know if I can help with your hip at all. I remember about 3 years into my practice that my hips became very sore for about 6 months…I was having trouble finding a comfortable position to sleep in and they ached a good part of the day. For me, I had to back off, and I think it was that my hips were opening and that they weren’t strong enough in the new layer of flexibility. Once I gained that strength the ache and soreness went away. I hope that is what you are going through as well :).

Thanks for the update. I am so glad that I could help and more importantly that you feel better.
Have a great day.
Warmly,
Ame