TheHotYogaDoctor

Any suggestions from anyone on how to open my hips more for standing tree and toe pose?? My knee will not stay without holding it for standing tree and the toe stand is a mess with my knee slipping off my leg, the sweat doesn’t help!!! help!!!

Hello

There are some fantastic poses that you can do that will help you open your hips. Have you heard of yin yoga where you hold poses for a long time? It may be worth you doing some research. Half pigeon pose will be very useful and quite a number of other poses like square, frog, badokonasana (bound angle pose) for starters.

In the meantime, please make sure you keep one hand under your lifted foot (from behind of course) and use an arm that bends (elbow directly behind you) and exert that gentle firm upward force on your foot at the same time as pressing your knee down and in a backward direction and tuck your tailbone under. Make sure you keep your heel from going any further across your standing leg than your femur. Plus for the moment do 2 sets of that and don’t go into toe stand.

Namaste
Gabrielle

I tend to have tight “everything” and tree pose is one of the most difficult poses for me to realize even close to fully.

Gabrielle I have really been trying to balance these main focal points during the pose:
1) Gentle upward force on the foot with hand
2) Arm with elbow bent behind
3) Pressing the knee down and in a backward direction
4) Tucking the tailbone under
5) Hips level
6) Shoulders level

All the while trying to relax, breathe and maintain a straight spine.  These 6 elements constantly seem to be at war with each other.  During a session I’ll feel my knee lowering down but perhaps at the expense of level shoulders.  Another time I’ll focus on keeping my shoulders level and elbow bent behind me putting a huge strain on my bent knee.

I feel like my quadriceps and calves are disproportionately large at this point and some element of the above must be compromised.  Is there a modification I can make or should I just keep struggling through it?

Hi Andrew

This one definitely fell through the cracks and was posted when we were in transit! Sorry.

Where is your lifted foot in relation to your femur?

How are you feeling when you let gravity take your knee down or when you push it down? This can cause an imbalance in the way your hips and or pelvis respond.

I imagine that your elsewhere mentioned issue of tailbone tucking may in fact be causing a little upheaval here.

Have you any thoughts in the too long time (oops) between posting and reading this response?

Nnamaste
Gabrielle