Practice Point #56 - Hyper- extension

I received a question from Anna from France. Their question is...

I have hyper-extending elbows and knees which means it's very hard for me to get enough grip and presence on my upper arms and thighs to work and stretch them. I wondered if you had any useful tips on how to work those two areas? I find it particularly difficult to lift my thighs properly in standing poses.

You are not alone, this very common for students, particularly women.

First I would like to talk about your use of the word ‘stretch’.

With hyper-extension, you need to focus less on stretching and more on containing.

Imagining the muscles gripping and being contained can be helpful, rather than thinking about stretching.

A really easy way to bring more mindfulness to this gripping action is to actually grip something.

For example, in tadasana, you can grip a block between and just above the knees to help grip the vastus medialis oblique muscle which if engaged will stop you from pushing the knee back and hyper-extending.

In standing postures, we sometimes put a brick behind the calf just below the knee, to dam the knee and stop it from pushing back.

This can be a little tricky to get in place but again helps to learn to switch on the VMO muscle in your standing postures.

In downward-facing dog, you can squeeze a block between the elbows, helping to contain the joints and get that squeezing and gripping action of the muscles.

I hope this gives you some clues to move forward.

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