Unable to bring toes and heels together? You could be knock-kneed like me!

Hi Gabrielle et al

would like to share an experience with you.

I started Bikram last November and love it, however I always had trouble bringing my toes and heels together, but kind of forced myself to do it. After a few months I noticed that my right hamstring was hurting and becoming less flexible than my left. I persisted for another month thinking that yoga would fix it however it rapidly became much worse. Any forward bending poses were being restricted and the second last leg stretching exercise (exactly like the picture of you above) became excruciating.

Not knowing what the problem was – I took myself off to the chiro and after a full set of x-rays it came about that I am knock-kneed ie the structure of my legs curves in, therefore when my knees are pressed hard together I still naturally have a space between my feet.

Basically what I was doing by forcing my heels and toes together was rolling my knees back which was compromising my pelvis and hip alignment which then had a negative impact where the hamstring attaches to the hip. So the yoga was making it worse not better!

Now this was not picked up by my teachers, but I probably should have brought it to their attention because I really knew in myself that something was not right about my posture.

After discussing the chiros findings with my regular teachers, I now practise with a small space between my feet and am very aware of keeping my butt tight and pelvis forward. Also we recently had a senior guest teacher at our studio. I spoke to her after class and she said that she had seen me with the space between my feet and knew I was doing it because of my leg structure. She actually thought my normal teacher had asked me to practise that way.

It’ll be a while but I’m confident it will all come good and the experience has not diminished my passion for Bikram. But I would like to say to everyone that you are responsible for your own body and when you feel like something is not right – speak up or get another opinion. And even though it’ll take a while to rectify, this experience had two good outcomes, it has heightened my awareness and trust in my body but it also was a valuable lesson for my teachers, which hopefully they will apply to another person.

Namaste

KP