"But when I look at myself in the mirror after straightening my back leg, I notice that my body looks nothing like what the teacher says about "stacking your shoulders over your hips" and "reaching your tailbone toward the mat." Instead, I look like a banana. My hips are tilting forward and my belly is sticking out and rounding forward and I have this huge curve along my back body."
"That's because I experience lordosis, which is a pronounced curvature of the lower back that causes my hips to tilt forward excessively. When I try to make my back leg straight, all I'm doing is exacerbating that anterior pelvic tilt, which creates tension and sometimes pain in my lower back. And when you can't find the alignment that the teacher cueing or your body isn't responding the way other students' are or you experience pain, it's easy to feel like there's something wrong with you."
Anterior pelvic tilt and lordosis cause the hips to sit forward and create an exaggerated lower-back curve during High Lunge. Straightening the back leg can worsen that tilt, lift the tailbone, and increase lumbar tension or pain. Standard alignment cues like stacking shoulders over hips may not be achievable or helpful for these bodies. Maintaining a controlled bend in the back knee helps bring the hips more under the shoulders and reduces discomfort. Difficulty matching typical cues does not mean something is wrong; alignment should be adapted to protect the lower back and preserve comfort.
Read at Yoga Journal
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