How Do You Know If You Are Doing Seated Cross-Legged Pose Correctly?

How do you know if you are doing seated cross legged pose correcty?

Here’s what it should look like:

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Here’s what it looks like if you are doing it incorrectly:

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Many people, especially beginners, find that they are unable to relax their knees onto the ground in Seated Cross-Legged Position. This can be due to joint injuries in the hips, knees and/or ankles, or simply a matter of tight muscles causing a lack of flexibility. If your knees are excessively elevated off the ground, modify the pose to provide support for your knees.

You should consider a modification if you experience the following:

  • Your knees are way up in the air
  • You feel pinching in the lower back
  • You find yourself leaning forward

Your knees are way up in the air:

If your knees are unable to rest comfortably on the ground, you can try elevating your hips so that they are higher than your knees. This takes some of the strain out of the rotation at the hips creating more space for the knees to drop naturally and comfortably. To do this, sit on a block positioned at its lowest or medium height. Be sure to sit in the center of the block for stability. Adjust the height so that your hips are elevated above your knees. If your knees are very high off the ground, you may need to blocks stacked on top of each other.

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Another option is to place supports beneath the knees to relieve unnecessary strain on the hip and knee joints. To do this, place a block, bolster or pillow under each knee. Adjust the height of your supports to your comfort level. You can experiment with the exact positioning to find what feels best for your body.

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Bonus tip. Do not round the back in Seated Cross-Legged Pose. This happens when leaning backwards with the middle back, tucking the butt under and hunching the shoulders forward. This creates compression in the front edges of the spinal vertebrae, and should be avoided. It is usually the result of letting the core muscles get lazy. Make sure you are fully engaging your core, stretching your spine to get as tall and erect as you possibly can. The shoulders should stack directly over the hips with the spine aligned between them.

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