Spread-Leg Seated Forward Foldपाद प्रसार पश्चिमोत्तानासन

Sit on a folded blanket with the legs spread wide and the feet flexed. Take hold of the right foot with both hands, or loop a strap around it. Inhale and lengthen the spine, turning the chest towards the right leg. Exhale and fold along the inside of the right leg, bringing the forehead towards the shin. Hold for several breaths, come up, repeat on the left, then fold once down the centre. Hold for 45–90 seconds each side.

Primarily the hamstrings, hip adductors, obliques, with the spinal erectors, intercostals, calves assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens one hamstring at a time from a wide-leg base, then both together in the centre fold.

Hamstring or adductor strain — narrow the legs and use a strap. Low back or disc injury: keep the trunk higher and sit on a bolster. Sacroiliac pain, which the side-to-side folding can aggravate. Recent hip replacement. 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.

Not as a first pose. Spread-Leg Seated Forward Fold 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 forward bends poses marked beginner first.

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. Spread-Leg Seated Forward Fold 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.