Eagle Pose

[meghancatania]

#2645

I practice Bikram Yoga when I am home for college and this summer I got about 80 classes in. I had left knee surgery summer 2012 (meniscus and ACL reconstruction) I play soccer in college. When I was in Eagle Pose I sat lower and arched my upper body back.. When I went to sit lower and slide my ankle down more (I have the wrap) I heard a pop/uncomfortable pull on the inner part of my left knee. This was right knee over left and the pop happened in the left knee. I see an orthopedic on Tuesday but was wondering do you think I could have sprained my MCL in Eagle Pose ? It is just uncomfortable to walk, I can fully extend and it is only a tad but swollen. These are the only things that are giving me hope.. But is just curious if I really could have done something serious in eagle?

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#11059

Hi Meghan

How upsetting! You’ve done a lot of yoga at home. Good for you!

I am not sure of the technique you are using to get into Eagle pose. Can you perhaps tell me:

When you sit, do you sit down low with the body leaning forward in a crouch-like position? Do you then try to lift the leg very high up over the lower leg? And then after you have the wrap do you then sit the body back upright? (This would be following the scripted dialog. If you’re doing something a little different in certain parts try to spell that out for me please. The level of specificity will really help.)

Do let me know. I have a hunch about what may have caused the problem but want to confirm what you normally do rather than make assumptions. In that way I can work out what’s going on with your knee.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

[meghancatania]

#11063

When I get into eagle, it’s hard for me to lift my right knee up high over the left so my hips end up coming up and I will more so force the right knee over and then lower the hips back down. I do end up coming out of the alignment causing me once I force the right leg over to then sit the hips back down, bum to the back of the room and chest up to create the arc in the back. As I keep thinking about what happened, there was a lot of pressure on the outside of my left knee so when I went to get out of it the inner part poped. I also really use the right ankle to grab the back of the left calf… That’s how I get my right leg around because I cannot sit low, stay there and lift the right leg back… I have to sit the hips back up and try to hardest to lift the right leg up.. If that makes sense. Also I kind of shift my body to the left (if I am looking at the mirror) and then bring my arms/wrists back to the middle to line up with the center of my body.
Thanks and Namaste… Hope that made sense!
Meghan

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#11071

Hello Meghan

Yes, I do believe that makes sense. Classic issue for sure.

OK, so here’s what you have to try please:

>> When you bend the legs to sit down, keep the feet evenly weighted and simply sit the hips down, but keep the chest up very high, arch the spine and feel that the centre of gravity goes directly down from your shoulders through your hips to the ankles in a straight plumb line. If you’re doing this correctly you’ll probably feel that you are sitting quite high in the room, compared to everyone else.

>> Feel solid in that position and when you weight your shoulders, hips and feet, you will feel solid and grounded.

>> When you lift your leg up, just lift it and cross it over the other. You should NOT AT ALL have to come up out of your squat. If you do, you probably sat too low. Your MAJOR job here is to maintain your hips parallel to the mirror (no matter what). If you do that and you make that your prime objective, you will stay safer. Not only that, you will let your hip position determine how much you get your legs wrapped. If your hips lift and your body twists off to one side, it means you were trying to get too much of a wrap.

>>When you have your wrap (with or without hooking your foot) then you start to sit the hips down. Keep the chin up and the chest up and slide that butt downward.

>> This way of going into Eagle pose actually makes it safer and easier, but without taking the challenge out of the pose. You’ll see that you have more control and you feel safer.

The safer you feel, the easier it is to breathe, the easier it is to balance, the deeper you can go into the pose.

Come back and tell me how you go!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

The Hot Yoga MasterClass manual as photos of every pose technique step. I hope the written information above is all that you need. Let me know if you need further instruction. It is such a shame you hurt yourself with the script recital instructions. I hope with the better technique that you will feel that you are more stable and your leg starts to heal. It may take some time, so don’t push it. If all you can do is cross your legs for a while, then so be it. Just keep those hips square and the chest up and plumb line strong!

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