Do You Activate Your Legs When You Practice Yoga?
How to get the most out of standing poses
Standing poses are part of many yoga practices, and with good reason. Poses like Warriors 1 and 2, Triangle pose, and Side Angle pose build strength in the legs and core, while creating stability on your feet. However, through teaching yoga for 26 years I have seen many “creative” ways that people practice standing poses. Getting the right muscles to engage not only improves your time on the mat, but improves your time off the mat as well.
Everything you do on the mat you take with you into your life. Recently I have been in the process of moving, and my ability to lift heavy boxes, go up and down the stairs with ease, and stay calm through the whole process I completely attribute to my yoga practice.
With standing poses, your connection to the floor is crucial. It determines your balance and your ability to build strength and stability through the legs and core. When you press the ball of the big toe of the front leg and the outer foot of the back leg into the floor it gets the glutes and quads to turn on. The stronger your glutes and quads are, the better your balance will be.
When your front knee is bent
While every person’s body is different, there are certain alignment cues that are universal when practicing yoga. In standing poses like Warriors 1 and 2 and Extended Side Angle pose, the knee should be directly over the ankle. The center of your kneecap should aim toward your second and third toe.
That being said, the amount of bend in the knee will vary from person to person. While you are moving toward bringing the thigh parallel to the floor, this may or may not be the position that is best for your body. That might be too much flexion/bend for your knee. You might lack the quad strength to support that low a stance. You might have tighter hips or adductors which prevent you from bringing your thigh parallel to the floor.
The good news is that you don’t have to. While you are moving in that direction, whether you get there or not is irrelevant. As long as the knee points straight ahead, how much it bends is up to you.
Imagine pressing your knee into a wall next to your front thigh. This will engage the abductors and keep the knee over the ankle. Press your foot firmly into the floor and spread your toes apart to create a solid foundation through the foot.
When your front leg is straight
In Triangle pose, as well as Half Moon and the Revolved versions of these poses, the front leg is straight. The center of the kneecap is pointed toward the second and third toes of the front foot. There is a tendency for the foot and or leg to turn inward, especially if the glutes are weak. Engaging the glutes (except in the Revolved poses) will keep your foot and knee aimed forward.
It is common to “hang” into the knee joint when the leg is straight. This can cause the ligaments to over stretch behind the knee which destabilizes the joint. Think about lifting the kneecap by engaging the quads. This upward movement creates more stability in the knee joint and will lessen the chance of hanging. If you have hypermobile joints (like I do), it’s even more important to engage the quads, as it’s already easier to fall into overstretched ligaments.
When you are hypermobile, you lose joint stability. In order to prevent injury it’s important to keep what feels like a slight bend in the joints, like in the knee and elbow. What feels like straight is actually beyond straight and can lead to subluxation of the joint in more extreme cases. Allow those joints to be soft, backing off of what feels straight to what is actually straight. Keeping the muscles strong and active around these joints will keep the joint functioning better for years to come.
Like I wrote last week in the post about spirals, press the ball of the big toe into the mat while drawing the outer hip upward and backward. This action will also help balance the knee joint.
The back leg
The back foot should be flat on the floor. If your arch collapses toward the floor, you’ll fall toward the inner leg and feel discomfort in the knee. Lifting the arch of the back foot encourages you to engage the quads, which will support the back knee. Like the front leg, you want the kneecap to aim toward the second and third toes of the back foot. Feel the thigh rotating in the direction of your 5th toe.
Depending on the pose, the back foot is either rotated 45 or 85 degrees open. The more weight you bring into your back leg, the easier it is to maintain the pose. If all of your weight falls into your front leg, your leg will tire quickly. Ideally you want equal weight on both legs in all standing poses where you have two feet on the mat.
In poses like Revolved Triangle and Extended Side Angle pose the tendency is to have all the weight fall toward the front leg. Don’t let that happen! By activating the back leg and pressing that foot firmly into the floor, you build stability, balance, and can hold the pose for longer without struggle or strain.
Practicing yoga when you are over 50
As we age, proper alignment and listening to your body become even more important. It’s easy to practice yoga, or do any physical exercise, and injure yourself from using the wrong muscles. Learning how to do the poses with the body that you have will prevent injury. As we age we are slower to heal, so preventing injury in the first place is a priority.
I teach online yoga classes for active adults over 50 who want to stay active with yoga. Each class is filled with poses to strengthen, improve balance, and increase mobility in a safe, supported way. I give alignment cues so that you know what to do with your body and which muscles to use to get the most out of each pose. Get a 10 Day All Access Free Trial to see if Purple Room Yoga is right for you. Click the button below!
