Ashtanga Yoga and My Knee

This is the sixth week in a row that I have gone to yoga. I can see the benefits.

Fencing has made my hip area very tight. This is especially evident down my left leg, which is the leg I drive off of when doing a lunge. The glutes, hip abductors and quads are tighter and more developed than those on my right.

Last year I experienced some bad pain on the inside of my knee. Shannon, my chiropractor, is very experienced in soft tissue work. She told me that I don't have trouble with my knees but the pain I feel is all the muscles from the tightness on my right side being so tight and pulling up on that area in my knee which also is attached to the muscles in my calves, which too are tight and pulling in the opposite direction.

No wonder it hurt.

She told me to keep my hips and legs well stretched, which I tried to do, but the pain persisted.

I noticed this week that since I started doing the Ashtanga yoga, the pain is gone. Just up and left. I thought back and it has been weeks since I felt it. There are some things you don't miss when they're gone. Pain is one of them.

I started taking yoga just to make my body more flexible but now am experiencing added benefits.

So as much as I silently curse Ella under my breath as I'm doing some of the more awkward poses (or my version of them) I'll keep going. It is helping me so much.