Knee awareness

Hyperextension
In case you’ve ever wondered why I’ve said to be careful not to over extend at the back of the knee I thought it would be interesting to understand what hyperextension of the knee is. In the lesson we found out if anyone in the class had this tendency and if so what to do about it. The week before we had drawn our awareness to our feet and so it seemed appropriate to think about protecting our knees next.

I had a wonderful trip to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to see the classical ballet La Bayadère. It was very beautiful, both the dancing and the costumes. I found myself studying their posture. Some dancers do have a tendency to over extend at the back of the knee. Many dancers are prone to this and it may be because they are naturally flexible. It can be genetic or it may caused be bad practice.

Anatomy
The knee should be in alignment with the thigh bone and the shin bone. These bones are held together by ligaments and tendons attached to the quadriceps muscle and hamstrings in the thigh and the calf muscle in the lower leg. If these are stretched then this leads to hyperextension and the knee will not be in alignment. Unfortunately ligaments can not be shortened so one has to just have an awareness or the problem will be exacerbated.

Strengthen the thighs
In the following exercise you will be aware if you do have a tendency to over extend and begin to train the quadriceps to achieve alignment.
Exercise to train the quads:
Sit in Dandasana (the staff pose) on a block with your legs extended out in front of you and your feet in a neutral position
Lengthen through your spine to sit upright
Press your thigh bones to the floor
If your heals lift away from the floor then you are hyper extending
Keep your heals down
You will learn to contract your quadriceps without any hyperextension if you keep your heals down while pressing your thigh bones to the floor.
Notice the action of the upper shin bones when your heals come off the ground they drop toward the floor but they won’t when the heal is down and the thighs are working.
And keep breathing!

It can be strong but just a little practice even a couple of times a week will help. Then take this awareness into your standing poses.