I need to tell you something that one of my clients shared with me last week.

She told me she was always afraid to come into a low lunge, because teachers have told her many times that she should never let her front knee go past her toes in a lunge, or she might hurt herself.

It's an unfortunately common cue, and it's also complete nonsense.

Your knee goes past your toes every single time you climb stairs, get up from a chair, or squat down. It's a completely natural movement pattern. So why would it suddenly become dangerous on a yoga mat?

After nearly a decade of teaching therapeutic yoga, I can count on one hand the number of injuries I've witnessed. And you know what caused them? Not "improper alignment." It was people ignoring their body's warning signals and pushing past their limits.

Here's what I've never had to do: frantically correct someone's posture to prevent injury. The only adjustments I suggest are to help students optimize the benefits of a pose or adapt it to their unique body.

These "alignment cues" are a plague in yoga, because they perpetuate the belief that your body is fragile.

This belief creates a vicious cycle: pain → fear → avoidance → more pain. You become so afraid of moving "wrong" that you stop moving altogether. And that immobility is what's actually hurting you.

Your body is remarkably resilient. It's constantly regenerating, adapting, healing. It has sophisticated systems designed to protect you and warn you when something genuinely needs attention. What it craves most is varied, exploratory movement across different ranges.

When you stop moving in certain ways, your body interprets that as "we don't need this anymore" and reallocates that capacity. I'm sure you've already heard the saying: "use it or lose it". That is no nonsense at all.

So yes, let your knee go past your toes! Explore different alignments. Move with curiosity instead of fear. And most importantly, listen to your body's actual signals, not arbitrary rules someone once told you.

Your body knows what it's doing. Trust it.

And if you're unsure about any postures or exercises you're currently doing (or avoiding), I'd love to know and help you figure out how to make it work for you!

Take care 🧡

Clem