I feel pain in my knees when I do pliés — what am I doing wrong?

All of our workouts are gentle and respectful to the body. You should never feel pain anywhere while doing Essentrics. If you do, however, feel pain in your knees when doing pliés—you may need to adjust your knee alignment.

Watch this tutorial on proper pliés positioning & follow these 4 STEPS to ensure you have proper knee alignment during pliés:

1. Stand on the full flatness of your feet (equal weight on the front and back of your foot)
   TIP: Don’t let your arches collapse!
2. As you lower, keep your knees in line with your big toes.
   TIP: Think about pushing your knees back!
3. Keep your back straight (shoulders in line with the hips)
   TIP: Don’t slouch!
4. Keep your quads engaged on the way down.
   TIP: Do it with a purpose!
   
   EXTRA TIP:
   If you have knee pain during your pliés, re-check your alignment and/or don’t go down as far. For fun–lift your toes to check!  Doing them properly will HELP the health of your knees. If you ever feel pain during one of our workouts try to loosen the movements and keep your body very limp. Move back to the last position you were in that was painless and do all movements up until this point. You will find that with time and practice, you can comfortably push yourself even further.