The third week of November brings us to a stretch called hero’s pose in yoga. We have visited this stretch before but today we will focus on the shin and front ankle.
Lots of people have trouble with this position, it’s usually because the front of the ankle into the shin is very tight. Or sometimes it’s due to tight quads putting pressure on the knee joint making it uncomfortable. So if you have terrible knee problems, do not do this stretch. If it’s just uncomfortable to sit on the heels, you will need a yoga block or folded blanket to sit on. That will ease the knees. You may also need another blanket for the ankles, so grab two!
How to:
This is not something most people are comfortable with so if coming to the heels is difficult then move on to number 2.
If the stretch is too intense by just sitting like this or there’s pain in the ankle, roll the edge of a blanket and place it between the front of the ankle and the floor. As shown in the bottom photo.
1 Comment
EM
Putting a rolled blanket under the feet like in the photo will put the ankles into *deeper* extension and make the posture more difficult. The ankle would need to stretch further to be flat on the floor, not less. It may be more productive to put the blanket under the shins to decrease the amount of extension the ankle needs to have to be flat on the floor — that seems like a more appropriate modification for tight ankles. In hero’s pose, the rotation of the leg should be such that the line from the big toe to the ankle is where the foot is making contact with the floor.