Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Paschimotthanasana (Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose): How to Do It Step by Step

Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Paschimotthanasana (Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose) is a wide-legged standing forward fold from the Bikram, or 26 and 2, hot yoga series. You stand with your feet about a leg's length apart, fold forward from the hips, hold your heels from behind and bring your forehead toward the floor between your feet. It stretches the hamstrings and the inner thighs, and it puts your head below your heart for about a minute.

Pose type: standing, wide-legged forward fold, mild inversion. Level: beginner to intermediate. Props: none needed, one or two blocks under the hands if your hamstrings are tight.

What the name means

The long Sanskrit name breaks into four parts. Dandayamana means standing. Bibhakta (also written vibhakta) means separated or divided, and pada means foot or leg. Paschimottanasana is the intense stretch of the west, which in yoga means the back of the body: in the old practice you faced east, toward the rising sun, so your back was the west side. Put together: the standing, separate-leg stretch of the back of the body.

The name is modern. It belongs to the sequence Bikram Choudhury put together in the early 1970s from the hatha yoga he learned in Bishnu Ghosh's school in Kolkata, and you will not find it in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika or other older texts. The shape itself is close to Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Forward Bend), which comes from Krishnamacharya's lineage and is taught in Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga.

Where it sits in the Bikram series

In the 26-posture series it comes in the standing part of the class, after Tuladandasana (Balancing Stick) and before Trikanasana (Triangle). The balancing poses before it make the legs work hard. This one lets them lengthen, and it brings blood to the head before the next standing pose. Our overview of the 26 Bikram yoga poses shows the whole order. Like most postures in the series, it is done twice.

How to do Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose, step by step

1. Stand at the front of your mat with your feet together and your arms by your sides.
2. Breathe in and lift your arms overhead, palms together. Then step your right foot out to the side, about a leg's length, 1-1.2 metres for most adults. Lower your arms out to the sides at shoulder height, parallel to the floor.
3. Turn your feet so they point straight ahead and the outer edges are parallel. Toes turned out make the knees and inner thighs work against each other.
4. Straighten your legs by lifting your kneecaps, without pushing the backs of your knees behind the line of the leg.
5. Breathe out and fold forward from the hips, not from the waist. Keep your spine long and your chest reaching forward as you go down.
6. Take hold of your heels from behind, with your fingers under the heels and your thumbs on the outside. If you cannot reach, place your hands on your ankles, your shins or blocks.
7. Bend your elbows and pull gently on your heels to draw your upper body down and in between your legs. Let your head hang toward the floor, forehead in line with your feet or slightly behind them. Shift your weight a little forward onto the balls of your feet so your hips stay over your ankles.
8. Stay for about 5-10 slow breaths through the nose. In a Bikram class the first set lasts about a minute.
9. To come out, let go of your heels, bring your arms out to the sides and rise with a long spine, leading with your chest. Step your feet back together. Rise slowly: people with low blood pressure can feel dizzy when the head comes up fast.

Benefits

What you feel most is a long stretch down the back of the legs. The wide stance and the fold at the hip joint lengthen the hamstrings and the inner thighs, the adductors, and the calves get some of it too. Our guide to hamstrings and yoga explains how these muscles cross both the hip and the knee.

• Back of the body: with the pelvis tipping forward and the head hanging, the muscles along the spine lengthen instead of holding you up.
• Arms and shoulders: pulling on the heels works the biceps and the upper back a little. It is a light load.
• Head below the heart: a mild inversion that many people feel as a rush of warmth in the face and a quieter mind afterwards, mostly from the slow breathing and the stillness.

The old version of this page said the pose stimulates the abdominal organs and improves circulation. Those claims are common in Bikram teaching, and no study we know of measures them for this pose. We have left them out.

Who should skip or modify it

• High blood pressure, glaucoma or a detached retina: keep your head above your heart. Fold halfway with a flat back and hands on blocks, or ask your doctor first.
• Low blood pressure or dizziness: come up slowly and stay with your hands on blocks.
• Pregnancy: in later pregnancy fold only halfway, keep the head up and stand a little narrower. The heat of a Bikram room is a separate question for your midwife or doctor.
• Hamstring strain or sitting-bone pain: bend your knees and fold less. A pulled feeling high up under the buttock is a sign to back off.
• Lower back pain: fold with bent knees and hands on blocks, and keep the spine long.
• Hypermobile knees: keep a micro-bend so the weight does not rest in the back of the knee joint.

More on this in our 10 tips to avoid yoga injuries.

Where teachers disagree: locked knees

Bikram teachers ask you to lock the knees in almost every standing posture, including this one. Their point: a straight, working leg lets the stretch go into the hamstrings instead of the knee. Many teachers from other schools, and most physiotherapists, point out that locked can turn into hyperextended, with the knee pushed back past straight and the load moved from the muscles into the ligaments at the back of the joint. Both can be right. If your knees stay straight when you lift your kneecaps, keep them straight. If they bow backwards, bend them a little. Either way, the thigh muscles should be working.

Common mistakes

• Rounding from the waist. If the back rounds early, the hamstrings stop stretching and the lower back takes the fold. Bend your knees or use blocks until you can fold from the hips.
• Weight in the heels. The hips drift back behind the ankles. Shift slightly forward onto the balls of the feet.
• Toes turned out. Point the feet straight ahead.
• Stance too narrow or too wide. Too narrow and the head will not reach toward the floor. Too wide and the feet slide and the inner knees strain. About a leg's length is right for most people.
• Pulling hard on the heels. Pull enough to lengthen the spine. Forcing the head down strains the neck and the back of the legs.
• Coming up fast. Rise slowly with a long back.

Preparatory poses

• Padangusthasana (Big Toe Pose): a standing forward fold with the feet close, holding the big toes.
• Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog): lengthens the hamstrings and calves with the head low.
• Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Forward Bend): the same wide stance, with the hands on the floor.
• Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose): opens the inner thighs.

Follow-up poses

• Trikonasana (Triangle Pose): the wide stance again, now with a side bend. In Bikram's version the front knee bends.
• Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose: the next forward fold in the series, over one leg.
• Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend): the same wide legs, seated.
• Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend): the seated fold the pose is named after.

Variations

• Hands on blocks: fold halfway with a flat back and your hands on blocks under your shoulders. Good for tight hamstrings and for anyone who should keep the head up.
• Bent knees: bend both knees, place your hands on the floor, lift your hips and straighten the legs a little at a time. This is the old beginner tip from this page, and it still works.
• Full expression: with a wider stance and open hamstrings, the crown or forehead rests on the floor between the feet. Keep the weight in the feet, not the head.
• Prasarita Padottanasana A to D: the four Ashtanga versions change only the arms: hands on the floor, hands on the hips, hands clasped behind the back, and fingers holding the big toes.

For a full practice for the back of the legs, try All About the Hamstrings, twenty minutes of Hatha with two blocks.

Frequently asked questions

What is Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose?

It is a wide-legged standing forward fold from the Bikram hot yoga series, in Sanskrit Dandayamana Bibhaktapada Paschimotthanasana. You stand with the feet about a leg's length apart, fold from the hips, hold your heels and bring your forehead toward the floor between your feet.

How do you do Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose?

Step your feet wide apart with the toes pointing forward and the legs straight. Fold forward from the hips with a long spine, hold your heels from behind and bend your elbows to draw your head down between your feet. Breathe slowly, then rise with a long back.

What is the difference between this pose and Prasarita Padottanasana?

The shape is almost the same. Standing Separate Leg Stretching is Bikram's name and version, with the hands holding the heels from behind. Prasarita Padottanasana comes from Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga and has four arm variations, A to D.

What does Standing Separate Leg Stretching Pose stretch?

Mainly the hamstrings and the inner thighs, with some stretch in the calves and along the muscles of the back. Pulling on the heels also works the arms a little.

What if I cannot reach my heels?

Hold your ankles or shins, or place your hands on blocks under your shoulders. You can also bend your knees. The stretch comes from folding at the hips, not from how far down your hands go.

How do you perform Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose?

It is the next forward fold in the Bikram series. From a long stance, turn to face one leg, bring your palms together overhead and fold forward until your forehead touches the knee of the front leg, with both legs straight. Our guide to Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose goes through it step by step.