What Your Knees Should Be Doing in a Chair Pose Twist

What Your Knees Should Be Doing in a Chair Pose Twist

Do you know if your knees should stay together in a chair pose twist? If you’re not sure, don’t worry – I’m here to help! The short answer is, No – one knee should move forwards. Unfortunately in the yoga world, I’ve been hearing an awful lot of the opposite of this when taking classes, so I’m here to challenge cues you maybe have heard before that didn’t feel quite right, and explain WHY they are wrong.

If you’re not sure what a chair pose twist is, it looks like this:

This is the correct way to be doing it – if you look at her right knee you can see that it is slightly going forward. Unfortunately, there are many yoga teachers out there that tell you to stop this from happening – that you should be keeping your knees in line with each other. This is WRONG. A lot of things with anatomy and biomechanics are gray and not so black and white, but this is one of the black and white things.

Let your knee go forwards in a chair pose twist.

Here’s why:

1. This is a full body twist. Meaning, your upper back is turning, your lower back is turning, and your hips should therefore also be turning. Looking at the picture, her right hip has to go forwards in order to help the rest of her spine move. Had this been an isolated twist, the conversation would be different.
   1. If we were just isolating the twist in the ribs and not letting the lower back join in, the twist would first of all, be a smaller twist. Smaller movement = less has to move.
   2. Had we been isolating, you would not be able to get your elbow to the outside of the opposite knee BECAUSE it is a much smaller movement to isolate an area of the body.
2. Your Sacrum is a joint – and while it doesn’t move a lot – it DOES still move.
   1. When you jam that front knee back, you’re pushing your hip back, which is most likely jamming up your sacrum. You’re effectively stopping movement where it should be moving. Again this goes back to the fact that this is a large twist – which means it is a full body movement. Again, had we been isolating, the biomechanics of this pose would be different.
   2. Smaller movement = less has to move. Bigger movement = more has to move.

Still don’t believe me? Go ahead and try it both ways – keep your knees together, and then do it again on the same side with allowing 1 knee to go forwards. I’m like 99.99999999% sure you’re going to tell me that letting the knee go forwards will feel better.

So here’s my question for you: Have you heard this cue before? What other cues have you heard that don’t feel right to you?

Drop me a comment and let me know!