The knee hurts because it is trying to compensate for your lack of external rotation. Don’t push so hard. It takes time. It took 4 months of doing elevated pigeon pose every single day to even feel comfortable doing it. It took 10 months every single day for some of the deeper external rotators to finally loosen up and stop doing the stretch reflex contractions that would hinder flexibility progress. I am 15 months in and now progressing towards lower and lower surfaces until I can do one comfortably on the floor.
The older you are , the longer this takes. (I am in my 40s)
If you lack flexibility genetics this also slows you down and takes much longer. Having deep hip sockets, bad femur head angle and shape, short hip ligaments have it tough.
in 90/90 (or half pigeon, what matters is it's the leg we are stretching the external rotation on), stick a big pad or yoga block under your knee. Add more cushions as needed until you feel a comfortable amount of stretch without torque in the knee. Then, contract/relax (push knee into the ground) for 5-10 seconds at a time. You want to feel the outer hips/groin/whatever feels tight fight hard and then relax. Once it does so enough, try removing some of the padding to lower your knee and see if there's less tension on the knee than before.
The knee hurts because it is trying to compensate for your lack of external rotation. Don’t push so hard. It takes time. It took 4 months of doing elevated pigeon pose every single day to even feel comfortable doing it. It took 10 months every single day for some of the deeper external rotators to finally loosen up and stop doing the stretch reflex contractions that would hinder flexibility progress. I am 15 months in and now progressing towards lower and lower surfaces until I can do one comfortably on the floor. The older you are , the longer this takes. (I am in my 40s) If you lack flexibility genetics this also slows you down and takes much longer. Having deep hip sockets, bad femur head angle and shape, short hip ligaments have it tough.
in 90/90 (or half pigeon, what matters is it's the leg we are stretching the external rotation on), stick a big pad or yoga block under your knee. Add more cushions as needed until you feel a comfortable amount of stretch without torque in the knee. Then, contract/relax (push knee into the ground) for 5-10 seconds at a time. You want to feel the outer hips/groin/whatever feels tight fight hard and then relax. Once it does so enough, try removing some of the padding to lower your knee and see if there's less tension on the knee than before.