Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)

Pronunciation and meaning

Uttanasana: oot-tun-AHS-uh-nuh. The double t is held a moment, and the stress falls on AHS.

A standing forward bend is a fold from the hips with the head hanging toward the floor. Uttanasana means intense stretch: ut is intense and tan is to stretch. It lengthens the backs of the legs and lets the spine hang, and it is fine, even wise, to bend the knees as much as you need.

How to do Standing Forward Bend

1. Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and your hands on your hips.
2. Breathe in and lengthen up. Breathe out and hinge forward from the hips, keeping the back long at first.
3. Bend your knees generously and let your hands rest on your shins, on blocks or on the floor.
4. Let the head and neck hang heavy, and shift your weight a little toward the balls of your feet.
5. Stay for five to eight breaths. You can hold opposite elbows and sway gently if that feels good.
6. To come up, bend the knees, bring the hands to the hips and rise slowly with a long back, head last.

Make it easier

• Rest the hands on two blocks, a chair seat or a low table.
• Take the feet wider than the hips if the lower back feels the fold.

Pregnancy and after birth

Pregnancy. Adapt. Take the feet wide for the belly, keep the hands on blocks or a chair so the head stays above the hips, and rise very slowly to avoid dizziness. Check with your OB or midwife before you start.

After birth. Adapt. After your doctor or midwife has cleared you, keep the knees bent and the hands on blocks at first, and come up slowly. Long hours of carrying a baby make a gentle hang very welcome.

See prenatal yoga notes by trimester before you adapt a pose.

Common mistakes

• Locking the knees and rounding hard through the lower back to reach the floor.
• Coming up quickly with the head first, which can make you light-headed.
• Hanging all the weight back in the heels.

The standing forward bend is the first fold most people meet, and the one they most often try too hard in. The aim is to hang, not to touch the floor.

Bent knees from the first breath are the kindest start, so the fold comes from the hips and the back stays easy. That is how yoga for beginners usually introduces it.

It is also the fold inside each round of Surya Namaskar, which is where you will meet it most, and one of the shapes on the standing poses page with two lines on each.

Folding over one leg with the hips square is Pyramid Pose, or Parsvottanasana, and with the feet wide it is the wide legged forward bend. Lifting one leg up behind you from the fold gives you Standing Split Pose, Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana.

What is a half forward fold?

A half forward fold, Ardha Uttanasana, is the halfway lift between the full fold and standing. From the standing forward bend, place your hands on your shins, your thighs or two blocks, and on an inhale lift your chest until your back is long and roughly parallel to the floor. Keep the knees soft, the neck in line with the spine and the gaze on the floor a little ahead.

It shows up in every Sun Salutation, on the inhale between the forward fold and the step back, and it is a useful pose on its own. Many people find it the clearest way to feel the difference between folding from the hips and rounding from the waist, because the back has to stay flat.

If the hamstrings are tight, bend the knees more and keep the hands higher. If the lower back works too hard, bring the hands to the thighs. A forward fold, half or full, should feel long rather than strained.