Howdy y’all! I have a delicious pose for you this week! We’re going to dive deep into Wide-Legged Standing Forward Fold with a TWIST, aka Parivrtta Prasarita Padottanasana. I personally love incorporating this pose into my daily morning routine.
It gives a gentle wake up call to all the muscles in my legs, my side body, and my spine and helps get my day going. Let’s not waste any more time and get started on the juicy benefits, shall we?
Benefits of Wide-Legged Standing Forward Fold with a Twist
This pose strengthens the core, upper back, and shoulders, and stretches the hamstrings, calves, hips, lower back, and spine. While allowing the heart center to shine, it relieves stress, anxiety, and mild depression by calming the mind down and leading it away from your to-do lists.
This variation of Prasarita Padottanasana brings in the detoxifying richness with the twist, allowing the organs like the liver, kidneys, and spleen a good rinse, letting all of the toxins wash out of our systems.
Wide-Legged Standing Forward Fold with a Twist Step-By-Step
- Let's start from Downward Facing Dog. Lift your right leg high and pull it through between your hands, Low Lunge.
- From here, walk your fingertips to the left side of your mat and bring the feet parallel or slightly pigeon-toed (toes in, heels slightly out) to protect the low back.
- Inhale, and halfway lift the torso creating a flat back, extending the line of energy from the crown of the head to the wall in front of you while pointing your tailbone to the wall behind you. Feel that dynamic pull in opposite directions. Keep this in mind.
- Place the right palm under the face in line with the midline of the body, exhale as you hollow the belly and twist, lifting your left hand, fingertips pointing towards the sky.
- Stay here for five breaths. Allow yourself to really feel the stretch in the inner right thigh. Then slowly bring the left hand to the earth to meet the right. Inhale as you halfway lift again to neutralize the spine.
- Exhale, now with our left hand placed under the face and gentle twist to the right. Stay here for five breaths.
Tips
- Stay active in the core. With every twist we want to engage the abs and hug everything in so ALL the internal organs can get a good rinse.
- Make sure your shoulders aren’t hanging around your ears. Pull them down and back.
- If you cannot reach the ground, place a block underneath your lower hand.
- If you want an added challenge, lift those fingertips off the earth to strengthen your core.
- If your legs are straight, shift the weight to the ball mounds of the feet or you can very slowly rock back and forth from the heels to the ball mounds of your feet, feeling all the different muscles of the legs being activated. This gives you an opportunity to realize how subtle micro-adjustments like shifting the weight can affect the body.
I hope you enjoy this delicious pose! Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or comments!
