For all three of these lunges, try to develop the intention of rolling open the forward thigh upwards toward the sky. This will help to prevent your knee from collapsing inwards.
Especially important if you have cranky knees. If you have certain kinds of knee problem, Warrior II can be your best friend or your worst enemy (for me, at least, II seems to be the one where my front knee's most likely to collapse).
It's great for building leg strength, but if my knees are playing up and I don't get the alignment spot on in Warrior II, it's a lot like having a knife unexpectedly shoved under the kneecap (this has been very very motivating when it comes to learning correct alignment).
I've learned to look down before bending the front leg, check which way the kneecap is "facing", and consciously turn it outwards before I bend the leg.
On the plus side, learning correct knee alignment from Warrior II and various other poses has contributed hugely to fixing my knee issues; nowadays if the pain starts recurring, I know I just need to pay more attention to how the bones are lining up in daily life. And do more yoga.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-02-05 10:57 pm (UTC)Yowza *g*. That looks very satisfying.
For all three of these lunges, try to develop the intention of rolling open the forward thigh upwards toward the sky. This will help to prevent your knee from collapsing inwards.
Especially important if you have cranky knees. If you have certain kinds of knee problem, Warrior II can be your best friend or your worst enemy (for me, at least, II seems to be the one where my front knee's most likely to collapse).
It's great for building leg strength, but if my knees are playing up and I don't get the alignment spot on in Warrior II, it's a lot like having a knife unexpectedly shoved under the kneecap (this has been very very motivating when it comes to learning correct alignment).
I've learned to look down before bending the front leg, check which way the kneecap is "facing", and consciously turn it outwards before I bend the leg.
On the plus side, learning correct knee alignment from Warrior II and various other poses has contributed hugely to fixing my knee issues; nowadays if the pain starts recurring, I know I just need to pay more attention to how the bones are lining up in daily life. And do more yoga.