By Jonathan FitzGordon

Stop Hyperextending Your KneesJust stop.

Please.

Hyperextending your knees is doing all sorts of bad things to your body.

I teach people to walk because of the way I hyperextended my knees.

Born with very loose joints, no one ever told me not to hyper-extend them—especially my knees—even when I started taking yoga classes.

Sadly, the hyperextension of my knees allowed me to go deeply into many poses that were not available to others.

Ten years ago my knees were hyperextending 80% percent of my waking hours. Now I would put that number at 20% and my body is extremely appreciative.

After three knee surgeries, while presumably walking the path towards a fourth, I finally decided to examine why I was breaking down repeatedly.

.  .   

Two structural changes went most of the way to alleviate the back pain I had been dealing with.

I unlocked my knees and untucked my pelvis. Those two shifts—which are way more radical for a forty-year-old body than it might seem—allowed me to learn how to walk correctly.

Something that wasn’t available to my turned-out, tucked-under, and hyperextended gait.

Not everyone is capable of hyperextending the knees but the percentage of people who can and do are staggering, especially while walking.

If you know that you hyperextend your knees, stop right now. If you aren’t sure spend the next day or so checking in with the back of the knees.

They should be soft and relaxed. While the knees shouldn’t be bent you shouldn’t be bearing any of the body’s weight at the back of the knee.

The Loneliness of the IT Band