Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend
प्रसारित पादोत्तानासन
Prasārita Pādottānāsana — a beginner forward bend that works the hamstrings, hip adductors, calves.
How to do Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand with the feet wide — around a leg's length — with the outer edges parallel.
Place the hands on the hips and lengthen the spine on an inhale.
Hinge forward from the hips with a flat back until the torso is horizontal.
Take the hands to the floor, blocks, or a chair seat, keeping the weight slightly forward in the feet.
Let the head hang if the neck is comfortable, hold, then come up with a long spine.
Hold: 45–90 seconds. 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 Wide-Legged Standing 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.
- Lengthens both hamstrings and the inner thighs at once.
- Decompresses the spine through a supported hang.
- Loads the calves as the weight shifts towards the balls of the feet.
Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend is one of 22 forward bends in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that fold the torso towards the legs, lengthening the whole back line of the body.
Who should skip Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend, or change it
- Low back injury — keep the torso higher and the hands on blocks.
- High blood pressure or glaucoma, where a head-below-heart hold is not advised.
- Dizziness on standing up: rise slowly with the spine long.
- Hamstring tear.
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 Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeWeight sitting back in the heels so the fold stalls.
FixShift the hips slightly forward over the ankles before folding.
MistakeRounding from the waist rather than hinging at the hips.
FixBend the knees, find the hip crease, then straighten the legs as far as the fold allows.
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 Wide-Legged Standing 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 Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend?
Stand with the feet wide — around a leg's length — with the outer edges parallel. Place the hands on the hips and lengthen the spine on an inhale. Hinge forward from the hips with a flat back until the torso is horizontal. Take the hands to the floor, blocks, or a chair seat, keeping the weight slightly forward in the feet. Let the head hang if the neck is comfortable, hold, then come up with a long spine. Hold for 45–90 seconds.
What does Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend work?
Primarily the hamstrings, hip adductors, calves, with the spinal erectors, shoulders, neck assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens both hamstrings and the inner thighs at once.
Who should not do Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend?
Low back injury — keep the torso higher and the hands on blocks. High blood pressure or glaucoma, where a head-below-heart hold is not advised. Dizziness on standing up: rise slowly with the spine long. Hamstring tear. 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 Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend suitable for beginners?
Yes. Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend is a beginner-level pose on this site, which means it is learnable in a first class and has a version that works for most bodies. The cautions above still apply.
How many calories does Wide-Legged Standing 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. Wide-Legged Standing 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.
Sequences that use Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend
Related poses
More forward bends — 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.