Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend
परिवृत्त प्रसारित पादोत्तानासन
Parivṛtta Prasārita Pādottānāsana — an intermediate twist that works the obliques, hamstrings, hip adductors.
How to do Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand with the feet wide apart and the outer edges roughly parallel.
Fold forward from the hips with a long spine and set both hands on the floor or on blocks.
Walk the right hand in until it is under the centre of the chest, on a block if the floor is far.
Rotate the ribs to the left and reach the left arm up towards the ceiling.
Hold with both legs firm, lower the arm, and repeat on the other side.
Hold: 30–60 seconds each side. Keep the breath moving throughout — if you are holding it, the pose is too much for today.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend does
Described mechanically — what the movement does to muscle and joint. Not a list of conditions it treats, because a pose does not treat conditions.
- Rotates the spine with the head below the heart and both feet fixed.
- Lengthens both hamstrings and inner thighs throughout the twist.
- Loads the obliques to hold the ribcage open against gravity.
Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend is one of 25 twists in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that rotate the spine around its long axis with the pelvis anchored.
Who should skip Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend, or change it
- Pregnancy — skip the rotation and stay with the plain wide-legged fold.
- Disc injury: flexion combined with rotation is a demanding load on the lumbar spine.
- Sacroiliac irritation.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- High blood pressure or glaucoma, since the head hangs below the heart.
General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts. If you are pregnant, recovering from surgery or managing any health condition, ask your doctor before starting a practice, and learn the pose itself from a qualified teacher who can see you move.
Common mistakes in Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeTwisting from the shoulders while the ribcage stays flat.
FixSet the supporting hand under the sternum and turn the ribs, not the arm.
MistakeWeight sliding into the heels so the fold stalls.
FixShift the hips slightly forward over the ankles before you rotate.
What a practice like this costs in energy
Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values per style of practice, so Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend is mapped to the nearest published code — 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET — and the figures below are for a practice of that kind, not for holding this one pose.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
Calculated as MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 kcal per minute — the standard ACSM relationship, shown in full on the method page. Scale it to your own weight by multiplying by your weight in kilograms and dividing by 70. The whole activity dataset, including every non-yoga activity, is at BurnLab.
Questions
How do you do Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend?
Stand with the feet wide apart and the outer edges roughly parallel. Fold forward from the hips with a long spine and set both hands on the floor or on blocks. Walk the right hand in until it is under the centre of the chest, on a block if the floor is far. Rotate the ribs to the left and reach the left arm up towards the ceiling. Hold with both legs firm, lower the arm, and repeat on the other side. Hold for 30–60 seconds each side.
What does Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend work?
Primarily the obliques, hamstrings, hip adductors, with the spinal erectors, shoulders, calves assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: rotates the spine with the head below the heart and both feet fixed.
Who should not do Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend?
Pregnancy — skip the rotation and stay with the plain wide-legged fold. Disc injury: flexion combined with rotation is a demanding load on the lumbar spine. Sacroiliac irritation. Recent abdominal surgery. High blood pressure or glaucoma, since the head hangs below the heart. This is general information, not medical advice — if any of these apply to you, ask your doctor and learn the pose with a qualified teacher rather than from a page.
Is Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend is rated intermediate here: it assumes a working base of strength and range, and a teacher who has watched you move. Build up through the twists poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend burn?
The honest answer is that nobody has measured a single asana. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values for styles of yoga, not for individual poses. Revolved Wide-Legged Forward Bend sits closest to Compendium code 02150, yoga, Hatha, at 2.5 MET — about 92 kcal for 30 minutes of that kind of practice for a 70 kg adult. Holding one pose for a minute is a rounding error either way.
Related poses
More twists — first at the same level, then the rest of the family.
Asana names are traditional. Every step, benefit and caution on this page is written for YogaPath rather than reproduced from any book, studio or other library — see how this site is written. Energy figures derive from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts.