Hi,
I get a bit confused about the square pose. As I have understood, people are different in internal and external rotation of the femur, so wouldn't that unable some people to never really be able to do the square pose with one ankle over the opposite knee? But so many teachers say that if you are "not flexible enough" don't do this variation. Hm, but what about compression, what about the limitations by the skeleton, or have I missed out on something here?
You write this about the pose:
"A deeper option is to place one ankle over the opposite knee and the other ankle under its opposite knee. If the first knee is very high in the air, you are not ready for this variation!"
But if you are internally rotated, will you ever be ready?
Kind regards Anna
Some people love Square Pose, but I am not one of them. My hips can not externally rotate enough to comfortably put my foot on the opposite knee. I feel the torsion in my knees. So, if I want to do Square Pose, I do the “loose” version which is basically sitting cross-legged with my knees wider than my feet. (I think Paul Grilley calls this version the "untied shoelace".)
You are correct, some people, due to the orientation and depth of their hip sockets and/or the amount of torsion and length of the neck of their femurs will never be able to do Square Pose. But that is okay. There are other ways to get the desired stresses into the targeted areas: consider Butterfly Pose — it is simply Square Pose with the knees abducted. Or Shoelace Pose, which is Square Pose with the legs fully adducted. In all these postures, the femur is externally rotated at the hip socket, but there is much less pressure in my knees in Shoelace than in Square. I love Shoelace and Butterfly, so I skip Square and do those instead.
Thanks a lot! This is how I have understood it but I got confused as so many teachers say that it will be better with time when you get less tight, more flexible, or how they express it, and I have resisted against that in my mind... so with this explanation I got confirmed that my understanding of the anatomy has been right.
Warm regards Anna
