When Sitting on Your Yoga Mat Hurts, Do This

Seated Cross-Legged Pose (Sukhasana, or Easy Pose) is a popular yoga pose and appears in countless sequences, particularly as a “comfortable” position at the beginning and end of yoga classes. The translation from Sanskrit, “Easy Pose,” even illustrates how the pose is viewed in the practice. However, for many it is far from easy and can even hurt!

Aside from being an entry and exit point to the yoga practice, it helps you find external rotation in the hips and thighs, stretches the knees and ankles, and strengthens the back and core muscles. Also, it is supposed to help calm the mind because the body can be in an “easy” state and allow for meditation.

However, this pose can be quite painful or difficult for those with low back, hip, knee, or ankle conditions.

So, what can you do?

Determine what is uncomfortable.

Where do you have pain or difficulty in this pose? Notice if the issue is in your back, hips, knees, or ankles and look for ways to reduce pain in those areas.

Try different alignment.

Notice the cross of your legs. Try switching which leg is in front and where your legs cross. Try to align the crossing of your legs at your midline—it should line up with the center of your pelvis, navel, and nose. If you are crossing your legs at your ankles, try crossing them at your shins. Are your feet lined up under your thighs and can you push them farther away from you?

One of the benefits of this pose is that it strengthens the back and core muscles. With that in mind, try finding more core activation to help lift and lengthen your spine up from your sitting bones. This will help improve alignment and reduce rounding in the back.

Use props.

All areas of pain (back, hips, knees, and ankles) can be alleviated by raising the hips up higher off the ground. It is preferable to have the hips higher than the knees. To do this sit on a blanket, block, bolster, or chair. This gives your lumbar spine more space to reduce compression, lessens the intensity of the angle and stretch on the hips and knees, and decreases the weight placed on the ankles. The higher you lift up, the less pressure and pain you should feel. If you are sitting on a chair, you can raise your feet up some by placing them on a cushion, blocks, or a blanket to help achieve the appropriate level of stretch for your body.

If you feel more pain in the hips or knees, or your knees are still popping up, try placing blocks or rolled blankets under your knees to provide additional support and allow the hip flexors to relax.

You can also cushion your feet or wrap your ankles with a blanket if you need additional support for your ankles.

With all of these variations, you can also sit with your back against a wall. It will provide alignment cues and additional support for your weight.

Choose a different pose.

If this pose doesn’t work you, consider other poses. For example, you can sit in a chair without crossing your legs. Or if external rotation is the issue, you may like Hero Pose (Virasana) where you sit back on your heels with your legs together, though this is not generally friendly to those with knee and ankle conditions.

The goal with this pose is to find ease so you can practice building your mind-body connection. If the pose distracts you from settling in and observing the finer points of your breath, your body, your day, use some of these tools to make it work better for you.