I've taken close to 150 classes, and I'm still struggling with standing forehead to knee. I feel like I have the srength to get there, but everytime I feel like I'm solid my balance fails me at the last second. It seems to be the only one in the Fire series that I can't ever really nail. There are other postures that give me trouble, but most days I can do most postures - except for this one!

I'm just wondering how long it usually takes to really get there with this posture. I'm interested in other folks' experience with it.

Hi Sunny,

This is a posture that can take years to truly master. There is SO much involved on a more subtle level than what you may initially notice whilst looking around the room.

Next time you take a fire class ask your teacher ahead of time to come help you on this one. Your teacher can help make sure you are truly solid and ready to start kicking out. We often think we are and then kick out with our hips out of alignment and the core completely disengaged. The casual viewer wouldn't ever guess that there was much work to be done =)

If you find that you are truly solid in the preparation pose then be contect to kick 1/2 way out (or 1/2 or 1/4) and become strong and stable there. In a few weeks you can move a little further and so on. When you DO finally kick out you will be in another place to be patient and work hard with two strong legs, a strong belly and back. Eventually, you will start to bend the elbows and come to the fullness of the posture.

As your teachers we are here to support you every step of the way so call on us!

<3

SHtK is a challenge for me as well. Some days I can kick out and some days my glutes or hammies are too tight to do it with a straight standing leg. I find this can vary from a morning class to an afternoon or evening class. Evening classes I can 99% of the time kick out and be fine for most if not all of the full minute. Morning classes like 6am I have to stay in the head to knee preparation almost every time.
As far as your balance goes, my only unprofessional tip is try focusing on strengthening your inner thigh muscle. After falling out of many a balancing posture and getting upset with myself (my thighs are so strong, why can't I balance?!) I tried to focus on what wasn't tight and flexed that could be throwing me off. I found that my inner thigh muscle needed some strengthening and attention. You can work on this tiny muscle by going to wood classes and checking in with yourself in Triangle pose. Are you pulling your legs together where the towel would bunch up if you were on a slick surface? If not, try that and see if over time your balance in Head to Knee improves. Most of all, be patient with yourself. Everyone is built differently and needs more or less work on a particular posture than the next person. Enjoy the journey!

Hi Sunny!

Here is my journey with this beautiful posture. I was in strong standing wind relieving for the first 30 classes getting my balancing leg and lifting leg strong. I went through teacher training (3 classes a day for 8 weeks) in preparation to forhead to knee (rounding down) but did not have the strength to kick out. At 200 classes I had the strength to kick out and keep my standing leg straight and hold the pose but my core was not fully engaged and I could feel myself sinking into the hip ror my standing leg and then falling out of balance. At that point my kicking leg would not fully extend due to tight hamstings. At 350 classes both legs were straight, my core was strong and I could hold the pose but would fall out of balance when I tried to bring my forehead to my knee. I am at 700 classes now and just recently began holding forehead to knee for the whole hold time. This is my journey with this pose. Everyone has their own and as a teacher, I see most students coming into this pose at a quicker rate than I did. However, try to let go of where you think you should be and listen to your body. The most important aspect of this pose is the standing leg being STRAIGHT and ENGAGED. Students with tight hamstrings should not expecct to get the kicking leg straight and round down in the beginning. Like me it will take time to open up to that. If you already have that flexibility to keep both legs straight you may still have to strengthen. Wood classes are a great place to develop core strength.

Happy discoveries and remember. Go at your own pace. It's not a race and the journey never ends.

Sunny, I am close to 150 classes. I experience a diffferent struggle there. My standing leg feels like I can not only kick out but hold it until the teacher says release but when I do kick out, it is a matter of seconds before my standing leg asks me to knock that off. I think each of us have different daily results with each posture. One day I might have great balance, the next day I don't. I used to get frustrated with this feature, now I just keep going to the next class.

Some days I can do this one, some days I can't - and I have more than 250 classes. I think the key is to work on being really solid in your standing leg. I have a tendency to lock out my leg and hyper extend - then my balance is great, but thats not so great for my knees. I've been working on getting my leg solid with out hyperextending, the next part is to master the balance

No advice. Just wantd to let you know that you aren't the only one. Just think of it like this - when you get there, what an achievement it will be, and it will be a wonderful strong posture for you because you've spent all the time preparing. Just accept where you are, you struggle with this one, others strugle with eagle, or locust or some other posture.

I have been practicing since 1999 and to this day I love standing head to knee.

I remember what it was I had to do to take the next step forward with this pose. I will do my best to give details from step 1 onwards.

Step 1. Clear your mind and say to yourself I am not going to fall out of this pose today. Keep your eyes fixed on one spot and do not move the eye balls (this is a meditation technique it helps keep the body and mind very still and concentrated)

Step 2. Establish a very solid foundation. When shifting from one leg to the other make sure you are not collapsing into the standing leg, meaning you have to bend the standing leg slightly and contract all muscles surrounding the joints, start to straighten the leg without loosing the contraction of the muscles above and below the knee. Start with spreading out your toes wide(try to see daylight between each toe), this will help keep the weight balanced equally over the entire foot, you know you are collapsing when the weight is sinking all the way back in your heel and you are feeling pressure in the back of the knee of the standing leg.

Step 3. Suck in the stomach like you have never pulled in the muscles of your abdomen ever before (see image) Keep the abdominal muscles engaged through the entire posture, this will help you with your balance, it will also help you round your spine to its maximum.

Step 4. When holding the foot, the foot is light in the hands toes are active and flexing towards the face, your ab muscles and hip flexors are lifting the foot in position, think to yourself, I am lifting the foot into position with my abdominal strength, the hand grip is not a resting ground, the hands are merely a track to guide the foot as it is kicking forward from the hip.

Step 5. Alignment, Alignment, Alignment. Make sure your body is square to the front, there is a tendency to collapse the hip of the kicking leg when rounding over to pick up the foot, this is due to tight hamstrings, a way to over come tight hamstrings is to lift the knee of the kicking leg into a higher position above hip height. Keep the hips square to the front, when kicking the foot forward be sure your heel of the kicking foot is extending directly in front of the hip bone of your pelvis. A mistake students make is kicking the foot towards the belly button line due to weakness of the inner thighs. It will require a huge amount of concentration to kick straight out from the hip with the heel leading the kick.

Step 6. When kicking out there is a tendency to bend the elbows, do not bend the elbows or standing leg, keep the abs strong and lifting. This will help keep alignment and will stop you from collapsing back into the heel of the standing leg.

I will try and post a image of the posture

Step 7. When you have kicked all the way out, both legs are straight and strong, both arms are straight and your alignment is perfect, lift the chest as high as you can, this lengthens the waist and prepares you for putting your head on your knee. Bend your elbows below your calf muscles and squeeze your leg with your bent elbows, you are squeezing so tight you could let go of your foot with your hands and nothing would move. This is going to create a tremendous stretch down your lower back and down the both of your hamstrings to your heels.

Step 8. Look at your extended leg in front, focus your eye gaze here and breathe deep, tuck your chin and move your eye gaze one step at a time from your toes to your shin bone ( here your eyes will be looking down wards, it is here you need lots of willpower because the leg with start to drop, think opposite, the moment your gaze goes downwards think to yourself, lift the leg higher by contracting so strong with your quadriceps muscles above the knee cap of both legs. Focus your downward eye gaze on the big toe of your standing leg, pause here strengthen your abs again, exhale the breath and round the back of your spine as far up towards the ceiling as possible and your head will automatically land on the knee. Your eye gaze is now looking directly at your belly button.

Step 9. Here hold the breath for as long as you can ( this is a meditation on breath retention at the last part of the pose, no air left in the lungs and a full contraction of all internal organs, the yogis call this the bliss of asana, I too agree with this description, nothing compares to the full expression of this pose)

Step 10. Concentration, Strength, and Flexibility all wrapped together as one! Enjoy let me know if this helps at all.

It can take months or even years! One thing my instructors have always stressed to me is to master the baby steps before progressing. So master Strong Wind Relieving first, and the preparation. Really get your standing leg straight strong and practice shifting your weight forward. This was hardest for me. I am still working to be able to hold for longer than 10 sec the full expression of standing forehead to knee and really working to bring my forehead to the knee. I am at 123 classes. Everyone's body is different so keep working at it! You will have it down before you know it if you back track and build your strength in baby steps! I know we will both have it perfect some day soon

I totally understand. I have over 200 classes and have felt like I have been regressing in this posture--it seems to get harder and harder the more I go to class! In fact, I used to kick out all the time, but recently I haven't even been kicking out most of the time. I think that I was relying more on my balance and flexibility before, but now I'm trying to really focus on the strength of my standing leg and not allowing my knee to lock. Also, it seems to take an incredible amount of strength to be able to roll my weight into the ball of my foot as I kick out, and I don't think I'm quite there yet, so I went back to preparation.

Mixing in a wide variety of classes (wood/earth/metal/84 asanas) seems to have really helped my strength as well, especially since I started going to 2 wood classes per week. In fact, last week, I went to a wood class and the fire 60 immediately after, and that was the strongest fire class I have ever had--I was amazed at how effortless the postures seemed! Also, in 84 asanas, we do a strengthening version of forehead to knee with our knee bent up, fists on top of our knee and our forehead pressing into the fists. This has helped me to realize that I can (with practice) keep my balance with the forehead to knee, and eventually kicking out as well.

I don't think there is really a timeline for anyone to master this posture...in fact, I'm not sure anyone ever really masters any postures. It seems that the more I do yoga, the more I learn, and the more room I have to improve. But that is good, because I am always challenged! I just try to work as hard as I can in each class, and I know as long as I do that, I will be getting as much benefit out of it as I can.

Thanks for all the great comments, guys. I've realized I need to back up a little and instead of trying to get my forehead to my knee I need to concentrate on just kicking out for the whole count.
When I'm kicking out, my head is already SO CLOSE to the knee it just seems like I'm ALMOST THERE!!! And this has probably resulted in my trying to rush that last four inches or so without being as solid as I should be in the kick.

Thanks again, your insights were really helpful.