I’ve finally achieved my target of holding the ’embrace the tree’ stance for 20 minutes and it feels great. It’s taken 20 weeks but I did it. Even my knees haven’t protested too much which is a blessing.
I was concerned at the start that my knees would react in a negative way as they have done in the past when I tried to practice mid to low stances. I stopped doing those stances a long time ago to avoid the pain and damage to my knees (left knee weakened due to a previous injury). Please note that low and medium stances are beneficial and a very good workout if your knees can handle them. My knees can’t.