walk your knees to your forehead

Hi Paul

Thank goodness you have been listening to your intuition and not moving your knees in closer to your forehead. To do so is to obey a command that could be one of the most risky in the entire script-recited bikram class. So good for you!

I do need to make sure, first off, that you have your chin tucked in to the chest the whole time. If you are feeling unsafe in the pose, one of the normal responses (which is counterproductive and in fact extremely risky) is to unlatch the chin and put the forehead on the floor. Would you kindly tell me if this is happening at all?

If you have had the chin tucked and there is still that space at the knees then what you may have been aware of is the instinctive need to create the proper mechanism in this pose. Perhaps the next few paragraphs will help us both work out what’s going on.

Here’s what you need to look for and find in your body: Long straight arms in traction from the grip to the shoulders. The arms are not locked out, they are long and stretching, the shoulders are down and back away from the ears (positioned away from the floor) with no use of the biceps. There is no muscling into this pose by way of the arms.

You want to feel your lower legs from ankles to knees pushing down into the floor. No activation of the feet or toes. And you want to feel, as a result of those things happening in the arms and legs, that your spine is moving away from the floor – ballooning upward as it were.

The feeling that you should be sensing in your back is one of stretching either over the entire spine more or less evenly. Or you will find it more localised around the lower or lower and mid back areas. At no stage should you find just the upper back feeling the ‘stretch’. If you are, then there is too much weight in the head and upper spine. If that is happening then please come back here and describe more about what you are feeling so I can direct you how to make this pose not just useful, but much more satisfying!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

Hi Paul

There is no problem. You will have a gap there as your body changes, and possibly for ever. That gap may change. But by the sounds of it, it will not close. The principles that underpin the pose must be in operation otherwise you’re not doing the pose.

Some people have that gap and have an absolute impossibility to get their head to their knees even if their life depended on it. They still can have a brilliant pose. Not textbook but definitely ticking all the right boxes.

The problem is when people have that gap and can close it by bending the arms or by shifting or overriding the pose priorities! They end up unintentionally placing weight in the head, or feeling compelled to unhook the chin to stop them rolling dangerously forward, or their feet come up off the ground, or their body tenses up… and other related problems.

You mention power in the arms and hands on the heels. Just making sure your words are reflecting what is happening: Your arms are in traction from shoulders (which are positioned away from the ears) to hands from where the pull emanates. There is no pull in the arm muscles per se, it feels like traction. I believe that’s what you’re saying is happening. If it’s not just let me know 😉

Paul, your priority is always the pose outcome and I believe you may actually be getting that. I am positive we could find small tweaks within the framework for you to get even more out of it. So please don’t consider your practice somehow deficient because your body position doesn’t reflect what the script is telling you because in this case, (and indeed quite a few other poses) and I can guarantee this to you, that those words about having the forehead touch the knees are wrong, at least for you and the majority of students.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

You got it Joe!

If you walk the knees up, you’ll set up a ridiculous number of problems. A cascade of them. If you can do it safely, get into the pose the way I suggest. Set up that lovely stretch through the back (mid-lower or an all over stretch). Once you’ve done that, walk the knees forward. You’ll feel arms bend, shoulders hunch, the stretch through the back change to something that could be affecting the neck (compressing it) and many other things. Perhaps you’ll feel your weight shift forward and your feet feel less weighty, or worse your feet may tense up from their previously relaxed demeanor.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂