Wednesday yoga with Sister and knees...

My sister hasn't done any yoga since she did her knee in, in I can't remember which posture, 2 years ago... The ended up a year later having ACL knee reconstruction by way of a tendon transplant (from a dead person and everthing!), that was 7 months ago and her progress and healing is going well. For my sister who has always had a battle with her weight, a mixture of working out at the gym and ashtanga was the best combination for her to lose weight, so she's been looking forward to reconvening a yoga practice for some time.

So I decided to give her a lesson! (And to practice my teaching!) Albeit, a bit 'vinyasa kramary' to suit the needs of the knee. She has very good movement in the knee, but some of the postures she found hurt. I brought along a large bolster for the Triang Mukha, as I'd read that this posture (but done with both legs back at the same time) was a great one for ACL recovery. The ones which hurt were the ones which involved twisting the knee as well as flexing it, namely padmasaana.. mind you, even simply crossing the legs in a seated position was making her yelp in pain.

Now, I've read somewhere that padmasana is a posture which should only really be attempted if your hips are open or else it'll be too much of a strain on the knee. In ashtanga padmasana is there in a few different forms, as if there is no problem with the posture even for beginners. Knowing what I know about the knee, my own injuries, taking to other ashtangis about padmasana, I've come to the conclusion (and my own opinion) that padmasana should not be attempted by beginners unless you can demonstrate that your knees can touch the floor in a posture such as baddha konasana, or even just when seated cross leg, your knees aren't pointing towards the ceiling!! But that's my opinion... siddhasana is a much kinder posture to the knees and, in my opinion, looks nicer too :o)

Anyway, twinges aside, and 2 hours 20 mins later, we finished and she loved it! I did the DYP sequence with her which was enough. However, in terms of my own teaching practice, the feedback was that I sounded completely forced! lol! Well, what do you expect, it was either that or sound like my own teacher!!! lol. And tbh when it came down to it, I couldn't even remember how V describes the postures! What a teacher I will make!! ;o)