Modifying your yoga poses in order to protect your knees is simple and easy. From group instruction to personal yoga at home we’ve got some great advice for you. Check out our list of ways to modify yoga for people with knee problems below.

The Basics

Know your limits. If you do group yoga, just let your teacher know you have a knee problem and you may quietly sit out a Warrior II pose or something with a lunge. This is why it is important to meditate before a yoga session, even for three to five minutes, so you can get in tune with your body and let it tell you when your knees just aren’t in the mood for a particular pose.

Alignment

Align yourself into each pose from your feet, working up your body. Spread your toes, ground your feet flat and firm to the floor, and focus on opening up your hips in each pose. Avoid locking your knees. You want to engage your muscles, but keep the knee slightly soft and bent.

Props

If you’re serious about yoga, invest in a good mat. If your gym or class provides mats use a towel or blanket to cushion the knee in poses like the Puppy or Gate. Blocks are also a good prop to keep from hyper-extending in poses, too. You’ll want to support poses like the Half Moon and Triangle pose with a block, and Child’s Pose with both a blanket and a block. To protect your knees from the pressure of being pressed against the floor, our yoga knee pad is the perfect prop!

Yoga Poses For Knee Injury Contraindications

Inform yourself on what poses to stay away from and what poses are great for strengthening knees. The Yoga Journal has a great list for contraindications by ailment. While, The BeachBody Blog can show you 8 Yoga Moves to Strengthen Your Knees.

When we consider the concept of balance, we tend to think of it as a set destination, a singular attainable goal that is fixed in it’s position. We also associate balance with a sense of peace, calm and focus. Balance does in fact invoke a feeling of calm and centers the mind, essentially, bringing together all of the scattered pieces of our thoughts, feelings, emotions and energy.

However, the true nature of balance is not fixed but is a journey; an ebb and flow. It truly can not be something that we continue to strive for in as in a goal, rather embrace the up and down, the left and right, and to also embrace it’s polar opposite; imbalance. When we say things like, “I lost my balance” or “I’m off balance”, we set ourselves up into believing that “balance” is something that we have in our possession. 

The art of balance rests, in it’s opposition, “imbalance”. And what is imbalance? Imbalance is the unfixed side of what we consider balance in general as being fixed in position. The art of balance is a dance. It is an evolution of energy, emotion, thoughts, actions, words, deeds, and so on. It is the cultivation of these things to promote a collectively harmonious rhythm of life, through the means of patience and perseverance! 

The art of balance is to also accept falling. Like wise, there is an art to falling. Falling and balancing are just currents of energy, an up and down, left and right, centered and not centered, and ebb and flow nature. There can be a gracefulness to falling. It is simply a matter of accepting that falling is another counter part of balance itself. That with falling, comes the understanding of how to pull together our energy, stream line it and focus it so as to experience a sense of balance. 

Upon your next yoga class and you find yourself in warrior 3 pose or handstand, consider these aspects, and allow yourself to “feel” all that comes with the ceaseless flowing nature of balance itself. You will begin to feel the sensation of peace, calm and focus, you also feel the erratic, chaotic, and fragmented portions of yourself as well. Allow all of it to become a collective harmonious rhythm in your yoga practice! 

A few years back, I was a horse trainer and I loved to run. That’s all I had to do to keep in shape. Well, the horse training slowly started to be replaced by children and running for myself was getting replaced by running after kids. I needed to do something.

So what did I do? I joined a gym. I made the investment in a personal trainer for a couple of months and worked out on my own a few days a week. I was sore periodically and was feeling ok about working out. I didn’t see the results I was expecting (granted, on my own, it was hard to motivate myself). But something didn’t feel right. It took me a while to figure it out but it felt unnatural to me. I was forcing myself to go to the gym because I thought it was the right thing for my well being at the time.

After about a year and a half, I gave up on the gym and started to do bootcamp with some friends. I started to enjoy exercising again! That was short lived. About 4 months into it, my body decided IT didn’t like bootcamp any longer (years of being thrown around by 1,000 pound animals had taken it’s toll).

One of my dear friends, who had been bugging me for a year prior, convinced me to join her for a yoga class. After my first class I was hooked! The instructor kicked my butt and I loved every minute of it! I couldn’t walk for a couple of days but I went back for more. That one class showed me it was ok to not be flexible, it will come with perseverance and hard work. I have never been one to shy away from a challenge, I think that’s why yoga appealed to me so much. It was challenging mentally and physically, plus, you have the opportunity to learn something new about yourself every time you step on to your mat.

Namaste and Practice in Comfort,

Barbara Merrill

How did you discover yoga?

When I started practicing yoga, I knew that my body was not ‘bendy’.  I would watch the ‘bendy’ people with complete awe and I’ll admit it, jealousy.  I thought that the more I practiced yoga, the more flexible I would become. Well, it is true to a point. What I didn’t take into consideration is that I’m not built to be a ‘bendy’ person.  I would struggle with a common pose, such as pigeon. The pigeon pose would trigger pain in my knees and I never could get a good stretch. It was my nemesis for a long time. I kept trying different positions of the knee, lifting the hip up, out, down, etc., but with no luck. Finally, an intuitive teacher (maybe the tears of frustration running down my face gave me away) showed me a modification, figure 4 on my back. Eureka!! A modification! Wow, what a concept, it hadn’t occurred to me that when the instructor said ‘Listen to your body’, they actually meant you should do what your body NEEDS and not what your brain WANTS to do. This was one turning point in my practice, the acceptance that I cannot change how I am built physically, but how I need to find ways to get the most out of each posture to the best of MY body’s ability.

The hard part is, checking your ego at the door and accepting your limitations. But, don’t confuse acceptance with giving up. I might not be able to do Eka Pada Koundinyanasana right now, but I will always keep trying!

Tell me your ‘Eureka’ moments!

Namaste and Practice in Comfort,

Barbara Merrill