This may sound like a silly question, but I’ve been asked what is the proper distance for a student to have between his/her knees? In one workshop, a participant, working with a colleague said, “she should have her knees closer together, otherwise her lower back is closed.”
Some people are more comfortable with their knees quite wide and others with them close together. Is there and anatomically optimal position? Yes and no. Of course comfort is one important consideration and is what instrument you are playing. There are many factors involved and it’s just too simple to say the knees should be so or so. The flexibility in the hip joints and the muscles around the hip play a very important role as do the height and angle of the chair. Cellists need to have their knees apart and some guitarists use a foot pedal so the position of the knees can be influenced by outside factors. If you have a student change the position of the knees without considering these other factors, you may be creating more tension than was there before and that is certainly not helpful. Standing can be similar but then it’s more a question of the distance between the feet.
What to do? Again, it’s time to experiment. If you have the sense that you or a student of yours should change the position of your/his/her knees, do so in small increments. Ask, “what else in the body changes when the distance between the knees changes?” It could be that very little changes and it’s also possible that changes will be very noticeable. If your knees have to be wide in order to feel comfortable, this could mean that the muscles and tendons on the outside of the hips are shorter than optimal. If you have to have your knees very close together, then you may be holding them and that uses extra energy and both extremes can effect the position of your pelvis and length of your spine.
Going back to experimenting, you can also begin to notice how your posture, position of your head and breathing are influenced by the position of your knees. In the case of the above example, the person in question was not comfortable when she put her upper legs where her peer thought they should be. She actually felt that is was more difficult to breathe and less comfortable to sit. Once again, we have to realize that when we change something in our organization, there will also be changes in other places.
Be sure to check out the DMS podcasts, Feldenkrais mini lessons for musicians and speakers.
If you have any specific questions or comments on breathing and posture, send me an e-mail and I’ll try to respond in a future blog. Until then, breathe, sit and stand well!
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