Hi! In this video you will get the five most important yoga exercises for
meniscus tear so stay tuned if you want to learn how to heal your meniscus my
name is Chi and you're welcome to The Body Conditioner here we work in not out
tip number one make sure your knee is properly aligned you want to keep your
knee over your ankle and that at all times
your knee alignment is super important for the health of your meniscus and the
knee in general so you can see here a valgus knee, a knock knee and you can
see that there is not a straight line between hip knee and ankle on top of
that you pronate and overpronate and we'll get to that a little bit later
however so in this case we will create much more strain and compression for the
lateral meniscus that means at the outer side and on top of that that increases
the strain and the friction in general on the knee it makes your knee more
unstable it makes your need much more prone to further injury and osteo-
arthritis unfortunately what we have here is a varus knee, bow legs, and again no
straight line from the hip through the knee to the ankle at the ankle we over
supinate and we will get that in the next exercise however more importantly
we will add strain this time around not to the lateral meniscus but the medial
meniscus and the same applies here too. You are very prone to instability prone
to further injury and osteo-arthritis so we want to make sure that we have a
straight alignment from hip through the knee to the ankle and that's where yoga
comes into play if we do squats properly with a yoga block or a glass bottle or a
book in between the thighs can you see that the alignment from hip through the
knee and to the ankle is absolutely straight and this is what we want to
have, bow legs or not knees alike. Tip number two avoid knee pain,
make sure that you do not feel pain in the knees stay within the pain free
range as you exercise and go about today most meniscus injuries occur when
getting up too quickly from a squatted position or lifting too much weight too
quickly that is the sharp pain that you get in the knee and that is your
meniscus so make sure that you keep your knee properly aligned tip number three
work the injured knee first because you want to make sure that that leg gets
most of your attention it's absolutely important that your quads are strong and
flexible and what I show you here is an exercise to strengthen vastus medialis
the medial part of your quads what you can see here is that you keep your thigh
on a block or an item that helps you elevate your thigh and then you
externally rotate the thigh and also over supinate and this way you lift the
leg up as you inhale and as you exhale you move it towards the ground and you
repeat that on both sides remembering that you want to start with your injured
knee first but also make sure that you treat and practice the other leg too to
maintain the good strength and flexibility, health in your knees and
healing for your meniscus but just as much as strength for the quads is
important we also need flexibility so here I show you different quad stretches
pull your heel towards the buttocks and keep your knee in a pain free range if
that works for you you can try to lift the thigh off the ground
please avoid to separate your legs too much you want to keep your thighs
relatively close together and then lift the thigh off the ground if that works
for you for the lateral quad stretch you lay on your side instead of your belly
and you pull your heel towards the buttocks the same thing either your
lower leg is straight or it's bent and make sure your knee remains in
the pain free range that is super important and keep your pelvis square
that means the ASIS bones at the front of your pelvis point straight at the
wall or at the ground if you are on your belly tip number four take it one day at
a time sometimes your knee will hurt sometimes it won't but make sure that you do what
it takes every single day. Lateral leg raises help us strengthen the hip abductors the
external hip rotators and I would like you to move your full backside against
a wall that means the back of your head your shoulder blades your buttocks and
the heels you bend your lower leg and you rest your upper leg, your foot
on a book or a yoga block and then you lift the leg up at this point I show you
what not to do you do not want to externally rotate your leg and you do
not want to move your leg away from the wall slide your leg up the wall and keep
your pelvis square do not bend the knee as you see me do it right now but
keep breathing in and out and just slide the leg up and down the wall inhalation
lifting the leg up and exhalation moving the leg down and since we strengthen the
hip abductors we also want to stretch them and here you cross your legs you
keep your sit bones on the ground you bend forward and you get a deep stretch
in the hip abductors and the piriformis this is another variation where you pull
one knee closer to the chest and then you lean towards the leg and begin to
get a deeper sensation in the hips also you make sure that you breathe in and
out you soften the neck you let your forehead soften and spread your jaw
soften and spread and with every exhalation you supply your hips with
oxygen that is super important doing that on the right side on the left
remember to start with your injured knee that is super important but also make
sure that you work the other side, that you practice the other side so that both
knees stay strong and flexible another variation is here the figure four
stretch here you can bend your upper leg and rest your ankle on the other leg you
bend both knees and then you pull the thigh towards your chest or you grab the
shin bone below the knee make sure that you keep the back of your head on the
ground and your shoulder blades also supported on the ground if this doesn't
work for you if you're super stiff then you can do another variation you can
press your feet against the wall and do exactly the same thing you keep your
legs rectangular and you press one foot against the wall what you can't see
right now is to increase the stretch you move the heel in this case the left heel
away from the wall you do that on both sides making sure that you keep the
pelvis square that you keep your knee within a pain-free range and that you
also look at a good knee alignment tip number five as you walk make sure you
keep your knees properly aligned that is super important to heal your
meniscus and this brings us to your foot alignment if your foot is properly
aligned you have an arch under the foot and that you can see here big toes
little toes and the outer edges of your heel on the ground if you over supinate
and lean away from the midline you have too much of an arch and your ankle gets
unstable that also means your knee has to overcompensate
if you overpronate and lean towards the midline your arch has collapsed and
equally your ankle gets unstable and again your knee has to overcompensate if
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