Alternates To Padmasana For People with Stiff Knees

In an earlier post I wrote about the benefits of sitting in Padmasana. Just to reemphasize the point, the reason yogis prefer to sit in Padmasana is that it is the most stable pose for any activity which requires you to sit for a longer time without disturbance or need to move. Still body makes it easier to calm and tame the mind and stop it from wandering. For example, meditation or pranayama practice requires that you are able to sit with spine straight for a long time.

I have written earlier about loosening exercises for sitting in Padmasana. If you have very stiff knees, you would need a long time to make their knee joints flexible enough for Padmasana, though following the exercises regularly should gradually take you to a stage where you can proudly sit in a perfect Padmasana pose with both heels place on the opposite thighs.

While sitting for meditation or Pranayama it is important that we take care that two regions of the body are properly aligned. They are the back and neck. While sitting the back should be straight with the natural alignment and the neck should extend naturally from the back, neither leaning forward nor tilting backwards. Both these will depend on the sitting posture used. If the proper posture is not used then to keep the proper alignment of the back and the neck you will need to put pressure on your lower back. This will result in the lower back getting tired soon and become painful. The concentration then gets diverted to the back and you will need to constantly keep an eye on the back so that you can bring it to proper alignment. The secret to avoid lower back pain and practicing the sitting with ease is the lower body balance. To achieve lower body balance we need to ensure that a large area of the lower body is in touch with the ground and the base area is forming a triangular region so the the body weight is evenly distributed.

Here are few of the asanas and the postures which can help you to sit for long time in meditation or Pranayama. I am assuming that you can at least sit in Sukhasana (Easy Pose) and then you need to progress to a stage where in you can sit in Padmasana (Lotus Pose).

1. Sukhasana – One of the easiest asanas which you as a practitioner can use to sit on the floor. But for some people who are not habituated to sit on the floor, even this asana may be difficult because it involves folding the knees. If you can sit in Sukhasana for a long time then you can proceed to the other asanas like Ardh Padmasana and Padmasana. Drawback of sukhasana is you need a strong back otherwise you will have lower back pain when you sit for long time.

2. Ardh Padmasana – In this pose only one of the ankles lays on the top of the opposite thigh. This is more stable asana as compared to Sukhasana at the same time it is also more difficult to practice. Sitting in this pose for longer time makes the knees less stiff and also opens up the groin.



4. Baddhakonasna – Triangle Pose


5. Siddhasana -

5. Vajrasana (Thunderbolt pose) -