Angelica GovaertOwner/Founder, Yogalebrity · Online Yoga Empire Builder

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21 Dec 2022 · 1 min

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In this instructional excerpt, a seasoned yoga teacher with 40 years of practice and 20 years of teaching challenges a common cue used by many yoga instructors: telling students to bend their knees in forward folds. He explains that bending the knees disengages the hamstrings, preventing true hamstring lengthening and limiting the ability to reach deeper into the stretch or touch the toes. He advocates keeping the legs straight to maintain hamstring engagement, emphasizing that this approach supports genuine flexibility gains. He also warns against following popular but inaccurate advice and urges teachers to source their information from reputable, knowledgeable origins.

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Here's one of the top things that yoga teachers are teaching wrong. I have been practicing yoga for 40 years and teaching yoga for 20 years. Back then, no one would ever dream of saying bend your knees. The reason why is because if we're trying to lengthen our hamstrings, we want those muscles engaged. As soon as you say bend the knees, then all of a sudden the muscles aren't engaged. And you're actually disabling your student from ever being able to get that lengthening in their hamstring to actually touch their toes or move deeper into the stretch. So if someone, their forward fold looks like this in order for them to keep their leg straight, that's fine. At least we're engaging those muscles. Don't make the mistake of doing what's popular just because somebody told you that it was okay. Make sure that you're getting your information from a good source. What's a good