Yoga Solution for Knee Problems

Aug. 3, 2009 - PRLog -- About 21 million Americans have osteoarthritis of the knee (a degenerative disease in which the cartilage gradually decays and fails to provide the shock absorbing padding that cushions the bones). Orthopedic surgeons performed more than 1.2 million such surgeries in 1996 alone.

Many older people suffer from this painful arthritic condition, however this knee pain is not only restricted to older people but in fact young people are also getting effected by it; for example dancers, athlete for various reasons.

Reasons for knee injuries/ pain

The most common risk factors for knee pain is old age, obesity, knee injuries. Knee injuries can be because of hyperextension, misalignment of knee, inappropriate way of doing exercise, tight muscles or because of combination of above factors, etc.

Hyperextension at the knee joint occurs when the joints are overly flexible. In this case legs extend too far and move past the point of being straight. Some people may be born with this condition however most people develop it by habitually locking their knee.

Knee injuries can also occur because the way we stand and walk. For example when we stand straight we need to be aware that whether our body weight is distributed properly on both feet or not. It is not very uncommon to observe that one side of heals of people shoes is wearing out more than the other side creating imbalance at the knee joint.

Imbalance at knee joint also occurs because of underdeveloped inner quadriceps and strong outer quadriceps. In this case tendency of strong quadriceps is to pull the kneecap towards the outside of legs, i.e. result in imbalance.

Knee joints in our body can be healthy if the muscles that support them are healthy, i.e. both strong and supple. Tight outer hips and hamstrings put undue pressure on knee joints.

Athletic activity causes these muscles to tighten up and along with the aging process, condition become worse (unless proper stretching are done after each workout when body is warm).


Yoga provides effective solution

Yoga is excellent for increasing strength and flexibility in knees. More and more doctors are recommending yoga to their patients who are rehabilitating after a ligament injury.

The benefit with yoga is that it helps to strengthen both the inner and outer quadriceps, which helps to keep the kneecap in alignment.
It strengthens the quadriceps, the hamstrings, the calves and the ankles- all fairly consistently. Strength in these areas helps to support a weak knee.

Another benefit of yoga is that it increases the blood flow and nourishment that it sends to the
surrounding joints and ligaments. As with most poses in yoga, the action of squeezing a body part, and then releasing it, sends lots of nutrient rich blood to the area that was affected in the posture. Many postures do this for the knees in yoga.

When practiced with care, yoga posture can contribute to the long-term health of your knees.

Note: It is important to practice yoga with caution. Initially some yoga posture for example, padmasana and yoga style such as Ashtanga yoga from Mysore can be avoided. Yoga postures that are done incorrectly can actually injure the knee.

http://www.yoga-london.org.uk/yoga-knee-pain.html

Issued in public interest by Subodh Gupta, celebrity yoga trainer based in London.

http://www.subodhgupta.com/testimonials.html

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Subodh Gupta has been interviewed by various TV channels and his views and articles appear regularly in magazines and newspapers in India and the UK.
http://www.subodhgupta.com