Your Thursday Yoga Tip

While I was teaching the daughter of my student Lisa yesterday, Lisa suddenly appeared in the doorway. She startled me doing that (I had been a little upside down), but without pause, she related to her daughter in her own excited and helpful way, what the best thing was that she learned from me in yoga class. I was ready for something very deep and compelling, but what she said was this: She learned to lift her kneecaps up. She said that in yoga class she could do anything if she lifted her kneecaps up. I was surprised, but impressed and inspired, since I am a classic knee-locker. A lot of knee-locker's like myself (ahh!, You didn't know there was a club!), don't really know how to lift the kneecaps, instead they just pop them back where they hold. The problem with this is that there is too much pressure on the joint, as well as an absence of energy flow through the knees. Mr Iyengar (in my opinion, the god of yogic alignment) is also a big fan of lifting the kneecaps up, and I go with him on issues like this. Here is a short exercise that you can try to experience your knee lifting capabilities: Stand on your two feet and bend your knees as if you were going to sit back onto a chair. Place your hands on the muscles of your thighs. Slowly start to straighten your legs and as you do, root your feet into the floor, and use your hands to encourage your thigh muscles (quadriceps) to lift up. Try not to push your legs back in space (locking them), but lift them up toward the sky. Squeeze them up like this for 5 breaths, and then release, and just notice how you and your legs feel. Stand in your Tadasana (mountain) pose. Now you can do anything! Sincerely, your living room yoga teacher, Eva www.livingroomyoga.com