International Yoga Day Celebrations 17th to 21st June | Morning 6 AM | Evening 7 PM
In this International Yoga Day session, instructor Badarinath Gella blends philosophical insight with a detailed, step‑by‑step program aimed at protecting and strengthening the knee joint. He begins by explaining yoga’s purpose as a mental‑resilience practice that goes beyond mere feel‑good exercise, then shifts focus to the knee, describing it as the body’s most abused joint and outlining five key contributors to knee pain: weak hips, stiff ankles, insufficient cartilage nutrition, poor alignment, and inflammation. Gella emphasizes that the knee reflects the health of the whole kinetic chain. The class proceeds with a progressive warm‑up—neck rotations, trunk twists, hip circles, ankle pumps, and knee rotations—followed by foundational asanas (Tadasana, Vrksasana, Trikonasana, Padahastasana, Bhujangasana, Setu Bandhasana, Pavanmuktasana) that promote balance, joint mobility, and muscular endurance. He then guides participants through targeted knee‑focused drills: seated knee extensions, straight‑leg raises, heel lifts, resistance presses, pillow squeezes, and controlled ankle/toe movements, always stressing slow, non‑jerky execution and proper alignment. The session concludes with breathwork (shoulder‑rib breathing, diaphragmatic breathing) and a pranadharana visualization that directs prana into the knees, ending with an Om chant and a reflective closing. Throughout, Gella repeatedly reminds viewers to listen to their bodies, adjust intensity to personal capacity, and use the practices to reduce pain, medication reliance, and improve overall well‑being.
Chapters
will help— it should help you to achieve a state where whatever happens externally, that doesn't impact you internally. It doesn't mean that you don't react. You will react, but it will not disturb you. I told you, right? Like, everybody will have grief if some— when we have personal loss, but how soon are you coming out of it? That is what matters. When we fail, everyone will get disappointed. We are humans. It's not that we don't get disappointed, we don't get sad, but how soon are we coming out of that? That defines your yoga practice. If that is not happening, that means you're not doing yoga. You're just doing some exercise form, feel-good, feel-good hormones you are releasing. That's all. That can happen through anything. Even if you go for dance, if you go for Pilates, if you go for anything, you'll get that feel-good hormones. But this has something beyond. That's the reason government has recognized this— sorry, United Nations has recognized this. And today we are going to discuss one of the important aspect of our body is knee. Knee is the largest joint in the body. And also, it is also the most abused joint. How many of you agree? Most abused. We walk on it, stand on it, climb on it, and we never think about until it starts hurting, degenerating, until you start getting knee pains. Today we have to understand the knee. Yoga is about knowing about the self. The more it should help you to understand your potential, it should help you to understand what you are capable of, it help— it should help you to understand what is happening in your body before doctors recognize. It's going inward, not going outward. Yoga is not workout, it's work in. Work in. Okay. So today we are going to understand the knee not just as a joint, but as reflection of how we treat our body, whole body, right? So I'm telling you, like, knee is the victim for everything. Actual knee problem is not knee problem. Below the knee, above the knee, there are different muscles. Exactly. Real problem is above the knee. Weak hips, and below, stiff ankles. If you have stiff ankles, weak hips, then the weight is going to— that there is— will be a burden on your knee. There will be a burden on your knee. You are putting unnecessary weight on your knee, right? And second, we have cartilage. It needs movement. Many people are in one position for longer time because there is no movement, there is no proper blood supply. When we are moving, there will be proper blood supply. When there is a proper blood supply, the, the joint, the cartilage will get proper nutrition and synovial fluid. There is a synovial fluid in the joints. See how the joints are moving in different Because it's a structure, it's a ball-like structure, and also there is a fluid which is helping us to move, right? Which is helping us to move. So like, when we move, when we start moving, walking, doing exercises, that will help you. And also the muscles— you need to have strong quadriceps, hamstrings to reduce the knee joint load. By just having strong quadriceps as well as hamstrings, you are going to reduce 40% of the load on knee joint. And fourth important thing is your alignment, right? You have to see how aligned your body is. Are you having forward bending posture? Are you having backward posture? Are you completely aligned?— the weight is equally distributed on your toes and heels together. When you're sitting, the weight is equally distributed on both the hips, or only one hip there is a heavy weight? You have to track that. And then inflammation is one of the culprit— culprit, I have to say. right? So there might be some inflammation happening because of various reasons, because of various reasons, right? So now we'll do some of the practices, especially, uh, like to strengthen our knee and muscles around the knee, and some of the asanas also. First I'll take you to 10 minutes, 10-15 minutes asanas, then we'll go only for the knee. Because it's a yoga day, I also want to cover some of the important asanas which also which can also help you. Yes, so stiff ankles, like, we are also going to do some ankle pumps, ankle exercises, because stiff ankles force the knee to compensate all the weight. Every step you take, every step you take, every walk. See, people think that walking will help. How many of you heard people saying like, if you walk, your knees, knees will get improved? But if you have stiff ankles You're putting more weight on your knee. You're harming your knee more. If you're having weak hips, you're having your knee more— you're hurting your knee more. If you don't have strong quadriceps, you're hurting your knee more. You're only thinking about walking, walking, walking. Somebody said like, you walk, your knee pain will go. But you have to understand the science. How will it happen? Yes. What is contributing towards the knee, knee joint? When you understand that science, it becomes— otherwise you will do just mechanical person. You're not understand, you're not aware like every step you are taking, how, what kind of load happening on your knee. At least if you can take, if you can do 2 minutes conscious walk, conscious walk. How we do conscious breathing, conscious walk. You are aware which muscles are engaging when you're walking, where is the more load. Happening, then you will be able to, uh, like, understand, like, about your body better. I am telling you, many people are unaware about themselves, their body, and they are practicing yoga. Then what is the use? Then you, you can say, why don't you say you are practicing an exercise? Why are we using the term called yoga? Right, exactly. So, so let's do some of the exercises. Uh, like, um, please stand up wherever you are because your ankles are directly loosening. Your ankle directly protects your knee. Every exercise you do constantly reduces knee pain and it will help you to reduce your medications a lot. And also your quadriceps are very, very important. Quadriceps are the knee shock absorbers. There is a shock absorption, quadriceps can take that. So please stand up wherever you are. So we'll do some of the practices and then we'll go to only for the knees, some of the yogic practices which you need to like, uh, do on regular basis. I'll be covering those. Yes. So first, let's quickly rotate our neck. Place your both hands on your waist. Turn your head towards your right side. Inhale, center. Left. Center. Right. Center. Left. Center. Bend laterally towards your right. Center, left, center, right, center, left, center. Now place your fingers on your shoulders, join your elbows in the front. Breathe in, up, back, down, and front. Up, back, down, and front. Up, back, down. Up, back, down. And front, up, back, down, and front. Now reverse direction. Back, up, front, down, back, up, front, down, back, up, front, down, back. Inhaling up, exhaling down. Last time, inhaling up, Exhaling down. Very good, very good. Now trunk movement. We are just moving the trunk. Stretch your both hands forward. Slowly twist towards the right side. Center. Left. Center. Inhale. Exhale, twist. Inhale, center. Exhale, twist. Breathe in, center. Breathe out, twist. Center and twist. Center and relax. Now hip rotation. Rotate your hips. 3, 4, 5, 6. Reverse direction. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Relax. Now both legs together. So ankle— like knee, knee rotation. We'll do the knee rotation. So this is one of the important exercises for your knee. Like we are adding as part of Sushumavayayama. This is called Sushumavayayama. Bend your knees, place your both hands on your palms on your knees. Do not put any weight, gently placing the palms. Do not put any weight on your knees. Rotate. 1, 2. Observe the movement of your knee in inside your body, what muscles are getting engaged. 4, 5, and 6. Reverse. 6. 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Relax. Now lifting your heels up, up, down. Ankle, we are working on the ankle, down. And also the calf muscles, absorb that, your calf muscles. Up and down, heels up and down. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 6, 5, 4. Very, very important exercise for knee health. Knee health. We are training our calf muscles, ankles. All the muscles around the ankles, calf are getting engaged. Okay, very, very powerful exercise. Here there are different movements you can do with this. Different movements you can do with this. Next we are going to practice Tadasana. So just give a little bit gap between both the legs, hip width gap. Interlock your fingers. While inhaling, raise your both hands up. Focus on one point in the front. Once you are comfortable, slowly lift your heels up. Look forward, look forward. When you are comfortable, lift your heels up. Only if you are able to balance, do it. Hold it, hold it. And relax. Heels down, hands above your head, spread your both the legs, and slowly, tiryakta dasana, bend towards your right, look forward. Inhale, center, change. Exhale and bend. Inhale and up. Exhale and bend. Inhale and up. Exhale and bend. Inhale and up. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. And inhale. And slowly release your hands. Very good. Release your hands. Relax, relax. The next practice we are going to do is Vrksasana. Very, very important practice for the balance, to improve the balance. Once you start doing these practices from young age onwards, you don't— you will not get any balance issues, memory issues, and all. After you get the issue, if you have to work on it, it becomes very difficult. So the easy variation, those who have balance issues, you can place your heel on your opposite ankle. And inhaling, raise your both hands up, join your palms, look forward. And those who are comfortable, you can take it little up, you can take it little up and try to balance. And others, those who want to do the advanced variation, what you can do is you can fold, hold your right leg with your right hand, place your right heel closer to the groin. Do not place it on knee, place it above the knee. If you place it on the knee, it may hurt your knee. It may hurt your knee. Those are knee issues, just do this, okay? Just do this, not above. From here, inhaling, raise your both hands up, join your palms. Focus on one point in the front. Stay here. See. And slowly, hands down and leg down. Now change the leg. Breathe in, raise your both hands up, look forward. Focus on one point in the front. And by the way, I have recorded a 30-minute breathing video I posted on YouTube for Yoga Day. So please make sure that whenever you have time, you're practicing that. Hands down and leg down. Very good. Next, we are going to practice Trikonasana. See, whenever you are practicing any asanas, first you have to train your joints. That is perfect. And you're practicing some of them which elongate you, then forward bending, sideward bending, twisting. Your asana should have all of this. And lying down, sitting, and supine. All this you have to include. Now we'll do Padahastasana before we go to the, uh, inhaling, raise your both hands up, lengthen your spine. First arch back, Hastottanasana, arch back, arch back. Exhaling, bend forward, stay here. If you have severe lower back pain, you don't need to bend. You just do as per your capacity. You can only use upper body. Stay here. Inhaling up, arch back. Exhaling back. Now place your both hands, palms on your hips, fingers pointing downwards, elbows closer to Each elbows parallel to each other. Push your hips forward, roll your shoulders back, and chest facing towards the ceiling. And drop your shoulders back, look up, and slowly come back. That means First we elongated our body, relax. Then we did forward bending, backward bending. Now we are going to do side bend, Trikonasana. Legs apart, turn your foot 90 degrees, right foot 90 degrees. Both heels are in one line, both heels are in one line. Open your both hands in the shoulder level, palms facing forward. Slowly, while exhaling, move towards your right side and bend down. Towards your right, left hand goes up. Look forward or look towards your left palm, wherever you're comfortable. Do not bend forward, bend laterally. Bend lateral. Okay, trikonasana. Inhaling, center, foot in opposite, opposite foot, and move towards your left. And bend down. Inhaling, center. And slowly, hands down. Slowly, hands down. Okay, so now We'll practice, uh, one prone position, Bhujangasana. Very, very important position. Anyway, sitting, we'll do it on chair for all the knee exercises. If you can lie down, please lie on your belly. Those who cannot lie down, you can sit and practice Bhujangasana. Elbows closer to your chest, palms next to your head, forehead on the mat, both legs together. While inhaling, raise your head, shoulders, chest up. While inhaling, raise your whole shoulders, head up. Exhale down. Now palms next to your head— sorry, palms next to your chest. While breathing in, raise your head, shoulders, chest up. Look forward. Bhujangasana. Slowly bend forward. And relax. Now lie on your back. Come on your back. So what you can do for the knee movement, easy for, uh, like one of the important movement for your knee, drag your heel towards your hip and stretch it back. So this is a very, very important exercise for your knee health. Slowly bring your heel towards your hip and stretch it. Leg move towards your hip and stretch. Move. Do it slowly, do it slowly. Yes, and stretch. Now opposite leg. Do not put any tension while you are doing this. Do it slowly, smoothly, without any jerky movements. I am seeing that some of you are giving jerky moments. Do not give any jerky moments. And relax. Now fold both the legs from your knees and make a circle with your knee joint. Make a small circle, whatever you can do it, do that only. Circle with a bent knee. Keep your knee bent and do the circle. We are rotating the knee joint, right? You can place your palm on your knee and just check how the knee is moving. Just to be aware, you can place your palm on your knee and see the movement inside your knee, the muscles engaging. Reverse direction, reverse direction. And relax. Opposite leg. 4, 5, 6. Reverse direction. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 1. Relax. Very good, very good. Now up and down, slowly lift up and down, how much ever you can do it. Okay, do not do jerky movements, or if you— especially if you have knee pain— no, knee bent, knee bent. Keep your knee bent. Bend your knee up and again down. Up and down movement for our knee. Slowly, slowly. Do not put any tension. Do not do it quickly, especially if you have knee pains. Otherwise, if you don't have any pain, there is no problem. Relax. Change the leg. How much ever you can, you can do that much. 5 and 6. Very good. Now ankle pumps again. So lift your heels up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Do not lift your hip, only heels. Heels up, only heels, not Setu Bandhasana. Some of you are making mistake. Heels up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. And down. Very good, very good, very good. Relax, relax, relax yourself. Now we'll do Setu Bandhasana. This is not part of any exercise, but just we are doing as a yoga asana, very important one. Palms closer to your heels. Take your palms closer to your heels. While exhaling, slowly lift your hips, lower back up. And slowly now. Very good. And next. Hug your knees. Pavanmuktasana. Hug your both the knees. Slowly, once you're comfortable, while exhaling, take your forehead towards your knee. And relax. And relax. Relax. Now please sit wherever you are. Turn towards your side, sit on the back and grab your chair and sit on your chair. We'll do some knee exercises now. If you have a pillow, please get a pillow also. If you have a pillow, please get a pillow as well. Pillow, keep it aside. Now you don't need the pillow. And after this, we'll do some breathing exercise also for 5, 5-10 minutes. So please have a seat wherever you are, right? Yes, very good. So first we are going to do knee extensions, then straight leg raises. Will do very, very important practices. I hope I can— you can see me. Yes. Yeah. Please sit comfortably. You can come little forward. Knee extensions up and down. Up and stretch your toes towards you. Stretch your toes towards you. And down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Last 2 times. Up and down. Up and down. Very good. Now change the leg. Up, down. Up, down. 3. Toes towards you. 4. 5 and 6. Relax. Now stretch your heel, stretch your heels, but maybe stretch your right heel only forward. Place it on the mat. Stretch your right leg forward and place your right heel on the floor and raise right leg up. And down. We are training these muscles also. What are the muscles? Up and down. Up, 3, down, 4, keeping 6. Relax. Change the leg. Do not bend your knee. Do not bend your knee, you are doing wrong. Adi Prasad, you have to stretch the leg straight. Yes, down, heel on the mat, not the foot on the mat. You have to place only the heel on the mat. Keep doing. 5 and 6. Very good. The next practice we are going to do— slowly take your leg forward, right leg forward, and slowly drag it towards the back. And forward. And back. Slide it back. 3. Forward and back. 4. 5. 6. Relax. Now change. 1. 2, 3. Do it slowly. 4, 5. Take it back, take it back as much as possible. And 6. Take it back as much as possible. And relax. Very good. Now slowly lift your heels up. Lift your heels up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up And down. Up and down. Now one by one, up and down, one by one. Do it slowly, do it as per your capacity only. If you are feeling uncomfortable, discomfort, pain, or anything, It's okay. Now we are going to do the resistance. Relax, relax yourself. Now we are going to do the resistance. So lift your up, lift your heels up and try to press on your palm. Press the— place the palms on your knees and press it downwards. Press it downwards and relax. One more time, up, press it, press it, press it downwards. And relax. One more time, up, press it, press it, press it, press it downwards, and relax. Last time, up, press it, press it, press it downwards, and relax. Right, so now lift your heels up and hold, hold it, hold it here like this. Just lift up and hold. Do not do anything, just hold. Observe the muscles engaged in this position. And relax. Very good. Now Move your ankles, like your toes, sidewards. Like toes inwards, sidewards. Inwards, sidewards. Inwards, sidewards. Inwards, sidewards. Inwards— Only toes. Do not move your knee. Not knee, only toes. Only toes. Sidewards, inwards, sidewards, inwards, sidewards, inward, sideward, inward, sideward, inward, sideward. And relax. Now you have to take your knees outwards. You have to take your knees outwards with resistance. Like, for example, place your palms on your sides of your knees. Place your palms on sides of your knees and press the knee, press the knee towards your sides and press the palms. Make sure that you're not allowing the knee to go. You're not allowing the knee to go, so you're just resisting. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. Keep doing, keep doing. Let me see. Don't move, don't move, don't move, don't move the knee. You're just allowing the knee to spread. What are you doing? Some of you are doing this. No. So you have to press, you have to press the knees like, like your knees wanted to move and your palms wanted to push. Both are happening together, but you're not allowing anything, any movement. You are very stiff. That is what you have to do, not moving the body. Yeah. And relax. Now if you have a pillow, use the pillow and place it between your knees and try to press the knees together. Try to press the pillow. Press, press, press, and relax. I'll go there. Place it in between your knees and press the, press the pillow. Press, press, press, relax. One more time, keep doing. Press the pillow with both the knees and relax. Press. And relax. Keep repeating. Press and relax. Keep doing. And relax. Very good. Now keep your pillow aside. Now stretch your toes up. Stretch your toes up. And relax. Up. Knee bent. Knee and heel are in the same line. Make sure that your knee and heel are in the same line. Very, very important. Knee and heel. Are in the same line. Stretch your toes up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Up— These are very, very simple practices, especially if you are going to senior citizen houses. All the ambassadors or anyone, like, sorry, Breath Healer certification course students, I highly recommend you to like integrate this, some of these practices. It will be helpful for them a lot. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Relax. Very good. Now Next movement we'll practice, Padani. Stretch your both hands forward, stand up and sit. Up and sit. Up and sit. Up. Keep doing. 4 more times. 4 times. Last 4 times. And relax. And last one, we will practice rotation. Make a rotation. Knee rotation. 1, stretch your toe forward and rotate. 2, toes forward. 3, 4, reverse. 4, 3, 2, 1, change. 1. 2, 3, 4. Reverse. 4, 3, 2, 1. Very good. Now this is very, very good. Like, I think like we'll go to breathing exercise, but I just wanted to do one ankle rotation as well. Stretch your toes forward. Rotate your ankles. 1, 2, 3, 4. Reverse. 4, 3, 2, 1. Reverse. Change. Sorry, change. 1, 2, 3, 4. Reverse. 4, 3, 2, 1. Relax. Very good. Now we'll practice breathing exercises. First, we'll practice shoulder rib breathing. For this, raise your both hands up, lengthen your spine. Place your right palm on your left shoulder blade, left palm on your right shoulder blade. Chin slightly up. Breathe in and out. Breathe in, 1, 2, 3. Breathe out, 1, 2, 3. Do not put any weight on your neck and shoulders. Keep your neck and shoulders relaxed. Breathe in slowly. Breathe out slowly. Inhale and exhale. Slowly raise your both hands up above your head, stretch up and relax. If you feel any stiffness, roll your shoulders backwards, forward, relax. Next, we'll practice diaphragmatic breathing. Place your right palm on your navel, left palm on your left thigh, palm facing upwards. Breathe in towards your abdomen, bulge your abdomen. Breathe out, relax your abdomen. Inhale slowly. Exhale slowly. Breathe in. Inhale. And out. Inhale, 1, 2, 3. Exhale, 1, 2, 3. Breathe in slowly towards your abdomen. Bulge your abdomen. Breathe out, relax your abdomen. Inhale. Exhale. Keep repeating. Focus on your breath. Keep doing, keep doing. Last time, breathe in, 1, 2, 3. Breathe out, 1, 2, and 3. Slowly release your hand. Keep your eyes closed. Normal breathing. And gently open your eyes. Next, we are going to practice Pranadharana. Because we are focusing on knee, even though whether you have knee problems or not, let's send some prana towards the knee. Yeah, pranic energy towards the knee. So in Pranadharana, it's a yogic visualization practice. Where you inhale and hold. While you're holding, feel like the divine, like the biological energy, the life energy, moving towards the knee region and energizing that part. While exhaling, the impurities from that region coming back and you're throwing them away, right? If you're having knee problem, that means there is a lack of prana inside your knee. So we are just restoring the prana. So palms on your thighs, palms facing upwards. Close your eyes. Observe your breath. Inhale and exhale. Now slowly breathe in. Feel like you're taking the healing energy. Hold your breath. While you're holding, make sure that the energy is moving towards the affected region. Now slowly, while exhaling, the impurities from that region moving towards your lungs, and you're throwing them away. Inhale. Feel like you're taking the energy, the white light. Imagine the white light, white energy moving towards your knees. Hold your breath. Feel the energy moving towards your knees. The knees are getting energized. Slowly, while exhaling, imagine the impurities from that knee region moving towards your lungs, and you're throwing them away. Breathe in slowly. Inhale. Breathe out. Keep practicing. Hey, practicing. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm sorry. It's okay. Inhale, hold, exhale. Keep practicing. Do it as per your capacity. Do it as per your capacity. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's okay. I'm sorry. It's okay. Slowly relax your efforts. Observe the changes. Slowly and gently come to any prayer position. Let us chant Om or Ameen or Amin for 3 times. Om Shanti. Shanti. Om Peace. Peace. Peace. Rub your both hands. Generate the heat. Cup your eyes. Open your eyes within cup of your palms. Smile on your face. Slowly release your hands. How are you feeling? Good.
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