Ask a Yoga Teacher: Ankle to Knee pose/Agnistambhasana
aka Double Pigeon or Firelog pose
Hip openers are a category of yoga poses that are equally loved and hated by yoga students. I have found that the poses you hate the most are the ones your body needs the most (as long as you don’t hate them because they cause you injury). A pose that I have struggled with over the years is Ankle to Knee pose, or Agnistambhasana. It’s an intense hip opener but when you learn how to do it properly, and possibly with support, it can move from a hated pose to one of your favorites (true story).
As with all of my “Ask a Yoga Teacher” posts, I will guide you through the pose then offer multiple modifications. I want you to practice this pose in a way that feels good and gives you all of the benefits without struggle or strain.
If you have a pose or category of poses that you struggle with, leave a comment and I will go over that pose in detail than you didn’t know you needed. You’re welcome.
Here we go.
Why you need this pose
When we talk about the “Hips” in yoga, it refers to a large area that includes the hip flexors (psoas, tensor fascia lata, rectus femoris), the hip extensors (gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus) and the rotators (prior muscles plus piriformis, obturators, and gemelli). Basically muscles in and around the hip joint.
Whether you are active or sedentary, these muscles can become tight, either from overuse or underuse. Stretching them not only feels good (hopefully during, but especially after), but also supports your mobility through life.
In this PubMed article from 2023, they came to this conclusion about static stretching (SS) in general, based on a meta-analysis of 41 studies:
The main findings indicated that chronic SS exercises have the potential to improve muscle strength and power. Such improvements appear to benefit sedentary more than recreationally active participants. Likewise, chronic SS exercises result in a marked enhancement in flexibility with larger effects of passive, as compared with active, SS. The results of the meta-regression analysis for muscle strength indicated larger benefits of chronic SS exercises in samples with higher proportions of female, older participants, and a higher number of repetitions per stretching exercise and session. For muscle power, results suggested larger gains for older participants. Regarding flexibility, findings indicated larger benefits following a higher number of repetitions per exercise and a longer time under stretching per session as well as a longer total time under stretching.
Stretching improves both mobility and strength, especially in women and “older” people. I can only assume that age range to be over 50 or 60, as it didn’t state it specifically in the meta-analysis. The bottom line is you will benefit from stretching to support both mobility and strength as you age.
Why you need hip mobility
Hip mobility, referring to the hip joint and all the muscles that make it move, is essential as you age. It affects your ability to reach your feet to put on socks and tie your shoes. It affects how you feel as you sit down and/or stand up, including getting in and out of a car. Or on and off a toilet.
When your hips are stiff and less mobile, this can lead to lower back pain. If you can’t move your hips well, it’s often the lower back that takes the brunt of the movement, usually to your detriment. Especially when it comes to forward bending. While this also involves the hamstrings, losing hip flexion causes you to rely on lower back (lumbar) flexion instead, and the lumbar spine wasn’t meant to move to that degree.
Lower back pain is a huge reason why people in the West practice yoga, and why “hip openers” are such a common request. There are many wonderful hip opening poses, like Pigeon/Kapotasana, Half Seated Spinal Twist/Ardha Matsyendrasana, and Cow Face Pose/Gomukhasana to name a few. Ankle to Knee pose stretches both the hip extensors and deep rotators, making it an effective pose to promote general range of motion in the hip.
The basics
In this pose, the shins are stacked one on top of the other. If your hips are tight, when you attempt to do that, you may instead feel it in your knees. If that is the case, don’t force it, and instead practice one or more of the variations and modifications in the next section.
Start seated. Fold your left leg in front of you so that your shin is parallel to the front of your mat. Try to line up your left knee in front of your left shoulder and your left ankle in front of your right shoulder. Next, stack your right shin directly over your left shin so that it’s also parallel to the front of your mat. Line up your ankles and knees (hence the name) so that your knees are about shoulder-distance apart. It is a narrow cross-legged position with your ankles and knees stacked over each other.
Flex your ankles. This creates stability in the ankles so that they don’t create slack in the hips. You want to stretch the hips, not the ankles, so stabilizing the ankles puts all the stretch in the hips where you want it. Plus, you’ll feel the stretch more.
You can keep your spine vertical, that might be plenty of stretch, or you can tip the pelvis forward, keeping your spine straight. You can stay with a straight spine, or lengthen forward even more and let the torso give in to gravity. Place your hands wherever feels most supportive. Stay and breathe 5-10 breaths, trying to relax more with each exhale. Then repeat with the left leg on top.
Modifications and variations
One of the things that I love about practicing yoga is that there are numerous ways to practice, and that each pose has multiple modifications to make it more accessible to all bodies. The challenge is finding what feels best in your body.
Milder modification
If there is no way you can get your shins to stack without struggle or strain, place your right shin in front of the left shin. Your knees should still be shoulder-distance apart, your shins parallel to the front of your mat, and your ankles flexed.
Using blocks
Blocks are your friends. When you feel supported in a stretch, you can relax more and actually get more out of the stretch. When you place a block under the knee or thigh of the top leg, your hip flexors relax and you can tip the pelvis more comfortably and easily. You can use a rolled up a blanket or towel as a softer support. When the hip flexors “grab” it’s harder to move the pelvis. When they relax, you relax.
You can also place blocks/blankets under both knees or thighs if you modify with one shin in front of the other. Some students find it helpful to sit on a block so that the hips are higher than the ankles. This creates a feeling of more space for the pelvis to tip.
Gravity free
If your knees just don’t like this pose, practice on your back. This takes gravity and your body weight out of the equation allowing you to modify the amount of stretch using your arms.
Place your left foot on the floor and cross the right ankle over your left knee, keeping your right ankle flexed. Bring your left knee toward your left shoulder. Reach your right arm through the triangle and interlace your fingers behind your left thigh. As the arms gently pull your left knee toward your left shoulder, use your right elbow to gently press your right knee away from your chest. Reach your tailbone toward the floor to counterbalance and deepen the stretch in your right hip.
If you struggle to grab behind the thigh, you can feed a strap behind the thigh and hold onto the strap. Alternatively, you might find enough stretch with the left foot on a block or two while your right ankle is crossed over your left knee. Keep reaching your tailbone toward the floor.
In a chair
Place your left foot on the floor directly under your left knee and cross your right ankle over your left knee, ankle flexed. Stay seated with a vertical pelvis and spine, or tip forward with a flat back. You can hold the back of your chair for some stability or rest your hands or elbows on your right shin.
If you can’t place the ankle over the knee, slide your left foot forward on the floor until you can, then bring the foot back toward being under the knee. It might not make it all the way there, and that’s okay. Over time, you may eventually find the ankle under the standing knee.
Thanks for reading the monthly series “Ask a Yoga Teacher!” This series comes out on the first Saturday of each month. If you have yoga related questions, please ask in the comments or message me directly in the chat. As we age, our yoga practice can and should change as we do. Understanding how to practice yoga in the body that you have means that you can continue to benefit from yoga throughout your life. Your questions can be related to poses, meditation, breathwork, or yoga related concepts that you want to understand better. I am always open to requests and suggestions.
