This entry was published on April 8, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
In 2001, I co-formed teacher training with Donna Farhi in Vancouver, British Columbia. The 50 participants were experienced yoga teachers and body workers around the world. During training, we encouraged trainees to question the teaching methodologies that heat students in a unique model.
A false idea that we have talked about was the perceived need to practice what is probably the most emblematic pose of yoga: Padmasana (lotus installation). That day, we spent two hours practicing the poses that Donna practiced to prepare his body in Lotus. When we tried Padmasana towards the end of the class, I noticed that despite the depth and experience of the participants, only three out of 50 people could really do it safely.
It was very surprising for me. Previously, I had the impression that whoever tried quite strong enough and practiced on the right could possibly make lotus. This can be true for some people – Donna told us that it had taken him 10 years of prudent and patient practice to relieve his hip joints in Padmasana.
But it is not true that anyone can form his legs in the lotus position, no matter how much his practice is committed. Thanks to a workshop that I took with Paul Grilley on the anatomy for yoga, I discovered that waterproofing in soft tissues is not the most common reason for which people cannot do Padmasana. According to Grilley, everything is in the bones.
Why Lotus poses could be out of reach
Some bodies can never make complete lotus. It is not because the owners of these bodies are lower yogis or that they do not try strong enough. This may be due to the fact that their hip joints are formed in such a way that they do not allow the quantity of external rotation required to sit in the lotus.
There are many factors – all in the field of normal – which influence the quantity of external rotation in your joints. The depth, placement and orientation of your hip intakes can influence if your thighs tend to turn inward or outside more easily. The shape and rotation of the femurs heads and necks also affect rotation, as is the shape and rotation of your femur bones tree. You can see bone samples that demonstrate some of the possible variations that influence mobility on the Grilley website.
SUPTA ARDHA PADMASANA – A lotus installation for each body
Fortunately, there is no yoga pose – including Padmasana – you have to do to be a “good” yogi. Yoga has never talked about what your body can or cannot do.
That said, I found that most people are capable and can benefit from the practice of the Padma Padmasana, half-lunotus in Dorsal decubitus (SHL). Among other advantages, SHL stretches the piriformis muscles, external rotators that cross the sacroiliac joint (if). When the piriform is tense, it can press the sciatic nerve, perhaps causing sciatica, and can also contribute to sacroiliac dysfunction. Practicing the Padmasana supta can sometimes alleviate sciatic pain and can relieve excessive torque on your joint.
Half-lined is traditionally practiced in a sitting position. However, I like to practice it lying for several reasons. First, lying on the back removes the restriction of the soil under your legs. It allows your upper leg to cross your lower leg more easily. Second, lying on your back gives you comments to find out if your back is in a healthy position. Many people around their thorns when they try to form half the lotus from a sitting position. It is much easier to maintain a neutral spine when you are lying down. Finally, having both sides of your joint if on the ground keeps the joints in the neutral position.
How to practice Ardha Padmasana
- Start by lengthening on the floor on a yoga carpet or a blanket. Fold the two knees and place the soles with your feet on the ground.
- Cross your right ankle through your left thigh so that your ankle, not your foot, rest on the thigh. Many people prefer to place their right ankle a few centimeters from the knee, while others (like me) prefer to place the ankle closer to the left hip articulation. Try it in both directions, or on points between the two, to see what seems best to you.
- Attach your right arm through the opening behind your right knee and take the back of your left leg. Wrap your left hand around the back of your left leg and enter your fingers with both hands. If your hands do not connect, you can connect them with a yoga belt or strap.
- This is important: flex your right ankle and keep it bent all the time. This maintains both your knee and your stable ankle.
- Draw the two legs to your chest, relaxing your shoulders and arms. Take deep abdominal breaths, creating space on inhalations and set up in this space on your exhalations.
- Take 5 to 10 deep breaths before releasing your legs and let both feet stand on the ground. Take a few simply lying breaths on your back to feel what has changed. How do the two sides of the basin rest on the ground? Does one side of your body feel longer than the other? When you feel ready, go to your second side.
- If, at one point during SHL, you even feel the slightest discomfort in one or the other knee, please let go of the pose. There is no “good” knee pain. Lotus can be hard on your knees – less than when you are lying down and you practice one leg at a time – but be careful.
The most common disalping
Many people practice Padmasana with their feet, rather than their ankles, at the top of the opposite thighs. If the plants of your feet are faced upwards, you practice this disalcher. This is a recipe for ligaments that are too extinct in your ankles and a possible destabilization of the knee. A person I know is seated in this way for an hour and ended up undergoing bilateral knee surgeries.
This is why so many experienced practitioners could not make Padmasana in the training of Donna teachers. We made sure that people practiced healthy alignment principles when they finally placed their legs in the lotus. Practicing Padmasana with healthy alignment, with your pegs and seated on your thighs, is only possible for people whose hip joints turn very easily. Many people can make the poorly aligned version of lotus, but not that many people have the extreme range of the necessary movements to do it with the ankles – not the feet – at the top of their thighs.
There is more than one way of practicing lotus laying
While the Instagram photos of Lotus people pose in bikinis on the lited beaches at sunset can evoke romantic ideas on its importance in the cannon of yoga poses, do not forget that it is not for everyone. Whether or not your body may do Padmasana – or any other installation – is not a measure of your character or value as a yoga practitioner.
Padmasana supta Ardha Padmasana can be a healthy basic food in your Asanas repertoire. He gives a lot of the advantages of Padmasana, but little of his potential risks. What matters is not to know if you were born with a skeleton that can move in a particular way. What matters is the care, respect and mindfulness that you bring to the pose that you practice in a given moment.
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell discovered yoga in 1982 and started teaching in 1986. Charlotte is the author of Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyding Practice and Yoga for Meditators, both published by Rodmell Press. His third book is entitled Hip-Healthy Asana: The Yoga Pratitioner’s Guide to Protect of the Hips and Avoid Si Joint Pain (Shambhala Publications). She writes a monthly chronicle for Catalyst Magazine and is online Yoga U publisher. Charlotte is a founding member of the board of directors of Greentree Yoga, a non -profit organization that brings yoga to poorly served populations. Musician for life, Charlotte plays an oboe and an English horn in the Salt Lake Symphony and the Sextuant Folk Red rock Rondo, whose DVD won two Emmy Awards.