Kermit’s body dimensions/mechanics allow him to sit easily with his legs crossed. Not everyone (including myself) finds ‘easy pose’, easy. Very basically, sitting with your legs crossed requires adequate range of movement in external hip rotation (ligaments/muscles around hips), hamstrings & hip flexors (inner core- iliopsoas etc).
Sitting with legs crossed is often used at the start of yoga classes for breathing exercises, gentle seated stretches and centring the mind. However, you won’t be able to do any centring whilst uncomfortably holding yourself upright with a rounded spine, worrying that you have failed at yoga and can’t do the pose (all while looking around the room & thinking everyone else is serenely comfortable floating off the floor with legs around their ears).
The first and most important thing I would say is, who cares? So you find it hard to sit with your legs crossed, I bet you are a kind and compassionate person doing the best you can in life. It’s swings & roundabouts, Kermit can’t do some other stuff in class that other people can.
Practicing positions like easy pose is useful in one sense to encourage range of movement in respective muscles/joints, allowing us to explore an alternative method of resting the body rather than sitting in a chair. However, sitting in pain for long periods of time isn’t beneficial for mind or body (in my opinion). We can use other yoga poses/ movements that encourage range of movement in relation to hip rotation, hamstrings & inner core conditioning. While we wait patiently ???? for this, in the meantime we can use blocks and blankets to raise the pelvis higher than knees/hips and find alternative sitting/lying positions when required. #yogafrogs #cardiffyoga#yogagwaelodygarth #sukasana #easypose
The not so easy, Easy Pose (legs crossed)
