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| I started Bikram about 2 months ago and go about 3 times a week. I love it. I feel great. However, recently I've been experiencing some pain in my left knee. It started a few weeks ago when I was doing seperate leg stretching. I felt as if some sort of ligament was being pulled, not a good stretch. My teacher told me to play around with the position of my feet which I've been trying to do. Since then it's begun to bother me during the balacing series. I've read about not hyper-extending the knee so I've been trying to avoid that. I strained my left hamstring about the time I began yoga and although I feel no pain in it, I wonder if the muscle is weak and causing pressure on my knee during the balancing series.
Does anyone have any insight? I love Bikram and don't want to stop!
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| You'll find all kinds of aches and pains as you roll through Bikram Kate. The more you pratcie, the harder you try. After a year, I'm STILL fraking sore after class. Just do what you can and check your limits. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State | I developed a persistent ache in my right knee after two years of daily Bikram
practice. Actually, it started after about one year, but I ignored it. I've since
changed to another style of practice and the knee problem has cleared up (within
about a month of backing off of Bikram). The poses most irritating to the knee
were exactly the ones you mention: the three balancing poses and separate leg
stretching. In each of these, I'm able to take the poses to full expression,
meaning forehead to knee with hands outstretched, standing bow as a locked
standing split, standing separate leg stretching with my back perpendicular to the
floor, etc. For me, I think that the problem was two-fold. First, my flexibility
makes it easy to fall into the joints on these poses, putting a lot of the load on the
ligaments rather than the muscles. Second, I have a life-long pronation of the right
foot, which I correct in my postures, putting additional tension on the outside of
right knee.
My suggestion to you is to try some of these poses at home, taking time to see
how they are affected by foot position, how keeping a small bend in the knee affects
them (e.g., don't let the knee fall back unsupported as you stretch), and how varying the
tension in the quads and glutes works. Do this outside of class, so that you have time
to explore several different ways of standing. |
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| I don't know how much you have read of the old posts, but there has been a lot of discussion and great tips which should give you more info. Are you doing toe stand? That can be really tough on your knees if your hips are tight, beyond the muscle strength issue. Also, how far down are you going in Awkward and are you keeping your alignmnent all the way ? Again, can be a problem if your muscles are not strong enough. |
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| Thanks everybody for your input. I will have to slow down my practice and try adjusting myself in the poses.
I am indeed doing toe stand and going all the way down in awkward pose. I didn't realize the stress this could have on my knees so perhaps I will back off for a few classes.
Regarding strength, I sometimes run and often use elliptical machines. Do you advise that I begin some weight training to further strengthen my legs?
Thanks.
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| Where exactly is the knee pain? Front, back, medial or lateral? What activities cause the pain? i.e. going down stairs, sitting for extended periods of time, after running? |
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| Bikram can build strength, but you need to give it time and take it slow. 2 months is not long at all. Take a couple of hours and read through the old posts. Lots of great info. I've been doing bikram for 6 months - 4 times a week - and have been building strength and flexibility gradually, but I also had some basic hatha yoga before and some dance, so I'm very careful to stay within my limits. I also have a good teacher I'm beginning to realize, which unfortunately is not always the case. Several things to think about. Standing poses with locked knees - are you engaging your quads; keeping weight on whole foot so inner thigh muscles are engaged? Doing that correctly will build the strength and keep pressure off of the knee. Don't go kick the foot out unless you really feel strong. Toe stand i still don't do and won't until I feel my tree is balanced and my hips are very open. YogaDancer has a great post on it somewhere in the forum here. If your hips are tight the pressure goes right to the knee. If you don't know if your hips are tight then you really need to do some reading. Some bikram teachers push too hard and you need to take responsibility for your own body. |
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| Thanks everyone for you input.
The pain is hard to describe. It's sort of like a slight soreness/tightness in both my knees. They don't really hurt but I'm aware of them when I'm walking, something I've never experienced before (it could also be that I'm worrying about them). The left knee, which was the first one to start bothering me, occasionally has a slight pain below the cap on the left side.
Last night I went to yoga and eased off on the poses that bothered my knee and my practice was essentially pain-free. I also realized that I am shifting my standing leg in Eagle to the side which is probably putting some strain on my knees.
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| It's hard to "diagnose" and offer weight training advice based on the info given here. Generally, though, women have a tendency to overdevelop the outsides of the quads and are weak in the vastus medialis. This can cause knee pain. Tips: Keep your toes spread and make sure your standing equally on your foot during standing poses. Do some strenthening work for the VM. Small, controlled movements work best to keep the quad from helping too much. Try one-legged leg presses using very small movements, keeping the knee slightly bent. |
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| Try this next time you practice. Relax your standing knee in the standing series (don't lock your knee) and focus on pushing into the floor with the muscles of your leg rather then pushing your knee backwards. I would start bending your standing knee a little to start the muscle engagement. Avoid the third part of the awkward and do the first part instead, no more toe stand for several months and DO NOT DO THE FIXED FIRM for awhile perhaps and extra set of the half tortise. Do be repespectly to the teacher and let them know before class starts that you are having knee issues and need to adjust accordingly. Even ask them for their feedback. If the give you a hard time, go to another teacher who is more open. |
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knee pain
