Lock the Knee

In my last post I made an observation. In standing head to knee some constestants in the New England regional championships appeared to tighten their thigh muscles all the way up to and including the gluteal muscles. One of the people following this blog, Jennifer, commented on how she relaxes her gluteal muscles when standing on a locked leg. I have been focusing on that topic since.

When I am in the first part of the posture, before my elbows bend down, my butt is tight for sure. However, a little relaxing goes a long way when getting chest down, head down and touching forehead to the knee. Same applies in standing bow pulling pose. When I set up and lock my knee, the gluteal muscles are tight. However, getting the upper body down parallel to the floor produced a loosening of those muscles (I'm really resisting tight ass jokes here folks).

I have asked a four of my student with a good standing head to knee pose if they tighten the gluteal muscles. All said they had not even thought about it until I asked and then said they were relaxed after focusing on them.

There's a nice discussion in the comments section of the last post as well.

Let's go to the source. What does Bikram say?

Pretty much "lock your knee". Bikram does not get into long discussions about minutiae. As I recall, he doesn't much engage in banter. He will very quickly say something like, "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT LOCK YOUR KNEE MEANS"?

Bikram does say "Contract the thigh muscle, whole kneecap lifts up".

My kneecap barley moves, oh well.

The original director of my studio, Bikram Yoga Northampton, was Karen. When I was a student there, I once asked Karen about some arcane details in a posture. I always remember her response. Karen replied that Yoga was preparation for meditation. If after class you felt quiet and more relaxed you did it right. Too much attention to too many details becomes a distraction to the meditative aspects.

Karen made a good point. However, like many in Bikram World, I like to examine details too, it's fun. But I am going to recommend that we do not over think the lock your knee thing. Play with it like I am doing. I have been waiting until I am in a locked knee position and the I bring attention to my glutes to see what's going on.

My next post will be about attention, focus and consciousness.