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This is one of several postures during the class where the “forehead must touch the knee”. However, my forehead is nowhere near my knee, and only seems to get further away with time. I suspect this has a lot to do with the fact that my torso is long for my body, so if I don’t bend my knee at all, my forehead will touch on my shin. I also don’t have the most flexible back though I’m improving in the backbends. So the instructors keep saying to bend the knee, which I do, but I can still only get my nose on my knee at best.
The same is true in Rabbit, where I can never touch my head to my knees, and when my hips lift up, there is a good five inches between knees and head. In the seated separate leg stretching, I keep my leg straight and forehead is on the shin, though again I’m trying to move it closer to the knee.
So….is this my destiny? Should I even care? The reason I care in this posture is that I expend so much energy pushing my hands against the floor in an attempt to move my forehead closer to my knee that I’m exhausted by the end, and my shoulders and neck are cramping. That just doesn’t seem right and it makes me dread the posture. My instructors say as long as I’m getting that choked feeling in the throat, that I’m getting the benefit from the posture. But I do get frustrated with the lack of progress. I wonder if over time I’ve been lengthening my torso from the class, making this even harder.
Oh, I also have a bit of scoliosis, with the left hip up slightly. This seems to have improved a little over time. I don’t know that there is much difference in this posture on one side or the other, but possibly its better when I’m facing the left.
I’d appreciate any insights that may help with all these forehead to knee postures.
-Kristin
Hi Kristin
I am sure we can find a way to make some improvements here. 😉
Firstly, I don’t think that any torso lengthening is happening, and if it is then it’s not instrumental in this issue.
I think we need to look at foot stance, hip alignment and where you put your hands exactly. You should NOT be getting any neck strain or pain in your shoulders.
The scoliosis just adds a little spice to the mixture. The direction of the curve may have an impact but i don’t think it’s your main ‘problem’ if I could call it that.
So, would you mind telling me a few things please?
>> How far are you feet apart? Measure from heel to heel.
>> Are you heels aligned? (My guess is yes. But if you are having hip issues you may find that this is difficult and they may not be exactly in line and one could be a bit out to the side. (Any balance issues?)
>> Where exactly do you place your hands on the floor in order to push up?
>> What could you tell me about your hip alignment? You may not be aware of it or you may know it’s perfectly aligned (parallel to ceiling or floor) or that one side or both unable to swing them into the right place.By the way, those with a forward bending challenge as you have can find head to knee poses (as you have mentioned) to be the most difficult. It’s a body geometry thing. Don’t be concerned.
Our aim is to get the struggle and angst out and of course have you enjoying the pose without thinking you’re screwing it up.
Remember if you’re being taught with the script then you’re being given stock standard answers to your problems. It’s pretty clear this is happening here. Your question is ultimately not about the benefits of this pose. So to have ALL your issues dismissed with an off hand comment that your throat is being choked is just proving my point that learning with a script does not serve anybody. It doesn’t honour or help either the students or the teacher.
Let me know your responses and we’ll get there!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Thank you for replying…..after some investigation (and recruiting my husband to help me answer these questions) here is what I’ve come up with:
>> How far are you feet apart? Measure from heel to heel.
Approximately 36″. We are taught in class to have our feet about 6″ from either side of the mat, so that ends up at about 36″. I have played with this distance (shorter, wider) to see if it helps, but haven’t seen much impact.>> Are you heels aligned? (My guess is yes. But if you are having hip issues you may find that this is difficult and they may not be exactly in line and one could be a bit out to the side. (Any balance issues?)
I do make sure my heels are lined up to begin with, then pivot on the heels so that they don’t move. Yes, I do sometimes have balance issues. This happens as my hands get near the floor, and sometimes when coming out of the posture. One instructor advised me to make sure my legs and core were very strong, and this did help a lot with balance coming out of the posture. In my efforts to bend my back as much as possible, I focus my vision on my chest instead of my stomach.
>> Where exactly do you place your hands on the floor in order to push up?
I have them in front of my foot, perhaps 6″ apart. So where they would be if they were in namaskar, but they are separated. I have also played with this, moving them to different places to see if I could get more movement in the spine, but have not improved anything with these changes. I admit my experiments are haphazard at best and welcome any suggestions here.
>> What could you tell me about your hip alignment? You may not be aware of it or you may know it’s perfectly aligned (parallel to ceiling or floor) or that one side or both unable to swing them into the right place.
This is where my husband helped. I’ve always thought I was really pushing my hips around fully, as instructed. He said they weren’t quite all the way around and moved them into place for me. Then I bent over to get my head to knee, and for both sides, the mirror-side hip was higher than the other. With that feedback, I was able to adjust them to level. While this certainly felt different, it didn’t seem to change my head to knee issue.
Even if I don’t resolve the head to knee issue, I at least have some things to work on in terms of hip alignment.
Thank you again for your input.
-Kristin
Hi Kristin
Thanks for all the details.
I am sending you a PM and filling in a few blanks here.
Placement of hands: Just put them where you get the best leverage. I can pretty much guarantee you that is not out in front of your feet. Usually it’s next to or behind your feet. When you push just make sure there is absolutely NO movement of your shoulders towards your ears. This would be totally counterproductive.
Look out for my PM
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Kristin
I forgot something.
Rabbit Pose: It makes NO DIFFERENCE if you have a space between your knees and your head. What matters is that you get the right traction.
Where do you feel the stretch in this pose?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂I’m less frustrated with Rabbit only because I know I’m benefitting from it and its not killing me like the other one. I only mentioned it to let you know that “head to knee” is a problem in all of those postures, not just the one I posted about.
Where do I feel the stretch? If I’m doing it right, I do feel it in my back, particularly lower to mid back. And by “right” I just mean that I often have to remind myself to: keep the feet on the floor, roll the heels back together, roll the shoulders back away from my head, lift up from the hips, etc. There are so many things going on in that pose I just have to go through a checklist to get everything corrected. Once I do, I feel the stretch in the back, compression in the throat, and very little pressure on the head.
good thing it doesn’t matter how big of a gap there is! Sometimes I walk the knees up closer as instructed, but I can’t usually get the knees any closer than maybe another inch at most.
Thank you for insights, I’m going to try the modification to my stance and report back!
-Kristin
Hi Kristin
Fantastic! You definitely DO have that pose handled! Thanks for letting me know. We’re making progress. 😆
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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