Regular yoga exercises could hurt your knee, caution doctors

Health studies show that certain exercises can cause wear and tear of bone joints forcing people to undergo surgeries.

"Studies have shown that deep knee bends can lead to wear and tear of the knee joints ultimately calling for a knee replacement surgery," Dr Ashok Rajgopal, chairman of the Bone and Joint Institute in Medanta-The Medicity, said.

"Many yoga gurus have undergone knee replacement surgeries with us because of this excess wear and tear," he said.

Each time a person conducts deep knee bends he is actually dislocating the knee joints that puts pressure on them, the doctor explained. "This is witnessed among yogic gurus while doing 'vajrasana'."

While patients have beeen opting for total knee replacement, they complain of difficulty in walking or bending the knee post surgery. So the experts have now come up with 'customised knee joint replacement' that promises to ease all discomfort associated with it.

"The standard implant used earlier would not replicate the original bone that existed before surgery. Ultimately, the alignment of the hip, knee and the ankle necessary for comfortable walking does not happen," Dr Naresh Trehan said.

"Customised knee joint is a success because it is a carbon copy or the identical reproduction of the original joint. It is of exact size, shape and fits into the position of the lost joint bones. This gives good alignment and there is no post surgical complains," the Chairman and Managing Director, Medanta, said.

Rajgopal said that when a a person bends his knees, he does not bend it only but also rotates, slides and rolls the joints too.
"When deep bends are done, the pressure falls on the cartilage that leads to degeneration of the knee joints leading to incidence of knee arthritis," he said.