In Warrior II, stack your front knee directly over your front ankle. Do not let your knee press beyond your toes.

I cannot imagine how many times I gave that direction in my first 10 years of teaching yoga. Like so many cues that I offered in my early years of teaching, I was simply repeating the things I heard from other teachers without actually understanding what I was saying.

The stacking of the front knee over the front ankle is actually a worthwhile cue for most students. Biomechanically a joint at a 90 degree ankle is quite stable. It’s the additional warning about the knee moving beyond the toes that isn’t worthwhile.

Like a lot of cues I once used and now reconsider, yoga teachers (myself included) have a tendency to harp on what not to do in a yoga shape. I fully understand that yoga teachers want to keep their students safe and simply offer cautions when deemed necessary. In my opinion and experience, pressing your knee beyond your toes isn’t something to be too concerned with in regards to the safety of the front knee. It’s actually good to allow your joints to move through various angle degrees.

If a student’s stance is simply too short and that’s causing their knee to go beyond their toes, then there’s a more beneficial conversation to have. For many students getting the front foot forward to setup a Warrior II stance is challenging. Rather than focusing on the stack of the front knee over the front ankle, yoga teachers, we should give our students the tools to step their foot forward far enough. Things like assisting the foot forward with their hand or stepping the foot forward from Table Top rather than Downward Facing Dog could do wonders for a student. Or, perhaps even more helpful, bring your students to standing, help them organize their feet in a Warrior II stance and then support them to find an angle in their front knee that feels strong and stable within their own body.

Again, stack your front knee over your front ankle is a fine instruction. And, especially if a student has a history of knee pain or injuries, it’s a cue worth offering. However, if you’re prone to adding the caution of the front knee pressing beyond the toes, know why you’re offering up that advice.