26/01/2025
Yikes! Or, Yes! Should the foot be against the knee in Tree Pose?
When I first started teaching yoga I would always correct students who put their foot against their knee in Tree Pose. However, once I learned more about anatomy and biomechanics, I realized that my cuing was due to more Urban Myth than science.
The knee is stabilized by several ligaments. The collateral ligaments help to prevent valgus and varus movements. These ligaments are quite strong and damage to these fascial tissues almost always occurs during dynamic movements. Sports like tennis, skiing, hockey, football, basketball and even dancing place a lot of stress on these ligaments and they are fine. Static stress, such as we experience when standing in Tree Pose is actually quite tiny in comparison. You can feel this—stand in Tree with your foot against the opposite knee and feel just how much stress you are creating. Then, move the foot higher. You are still pressing against
the leg and the amount of stress at the knee is virtually the same. In either case, this level of stress is far, far below the ligaments' tolerance. (The study below shows that elderly collateral ligaments can withstand 400~600 newtons of force, which is about 90~135 pounds. There is no way that you are pressing that hard against the inner knee. That is almost the full body weight.)
https://www.jospt.org/doi/pdf/10.2519/jospt.2012.3919
I believe that the foot against the knee in Tree Pose may be quite healthy for the knee. Like all tissues, the knee ligaments need some stress to stay strong. If we never stress them, they will atrophy. So, the small stress we create with the foot against the knee in Tree is far from dangerous and may be mildly healthy for the knee. Of course, there are always some students with degeneration or some other problem so that they have to be very careful with their knees, but these people would also have to be careful walking up stairs or dancing! If you students can dance, they can place their foot against the knee.
Instead of frightening the student with an Urban Myth, I now prefer to ask her, “What do you feel when you put your foot there?” If there is no pain while she is in the pose, when she comes out or over the next few days, there is no need for her to change. Indeed, many elderly students with poor balance can’t get the foot any higher. They become too unstable. But, the foot against the knee is comfortable and still challenges their balance.
So, rather than think “Yikes!” when you see this, consider what the student’s experience is — is this position right for her? The answer is probably, “Yes!”
Cheers
Bernie
