First Yoga Class!

[Catrin]

My knees and hips don't always like cross legged. At the worst of my hip pain, I couldn't sit cross legged at all.

If yoga messes with your knee then, by all means, don't do it, but I do think a mindful yoga practice can better attune you to the things your body can and can't do, which could be beneficial to you since you've indicated in the past that sometimes you can't tell the difference between soreness and injury.

Right now ANYTHING can mess with my knee until the supporting structure gets stronger. Some days even walking make me aware of the existence of the knee-cap

I can see some definite benefits to Yoga that I didn't notice in the Pilates class. I have developed such an ingrained habit of totally ignoring anything remotely like pain - and there were reasons how that happened - that I quite often am unsure if something is just soreness or injury. Had a broken bone once that I ignored for three weeks - I assumed it was just sprained since I could still use the thing I do like the idea that an intentional and mindful yoga practice can help me become more aware of my body limitations.

Some poses will always be problematic to some people, but it seems to me that focusing on foot loop and inner spiraling the thighs really improves knee safety. This language might be unique to Anusara and/or Iyengar, but I think any style of yoga has the same concepts of alignment? My teacher always makes sure we engage the feet, and sit on whatever we need to to keep the knees below the hips, in sukhasana.

http://www.doyoga.com/update_article...ted_update.pdf
http://www.yogatic.com/yoga/principles-of-alignment/

I know for me that I've had to work a LOT on foot strength and flexibility. It's coming, little by little. It's been so exciting to me to start seeing some movement in my tarsal-metatarsal joints, that had been completely locked.

It's a fine line, too - especially with your history of pushing too far - but for me, yoga brings blood, lymph and healing to injured areas like no other workout does. There's a kind of ouch I can tell is good, but there's definitely an ouch to avoid, too, and you're probably best avoiding anything that hurts.

I will check out the links, thank you! I need to find a different way of approaching these things and am trying to learn from my past mistakes - especially from last fall. I know that I have flexibility issues with both hips and feet - I hadn't thought that this might be able to help both of them!