- Category
- Balancing
- Level
- advanced
- Hold
- 5 breaths per side
- Type
- Asana
- Breath
- Long exhales into the fold; let each one release the standing hamstring a little.
Standing Split
Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana — "upward extended one-foot posture"
Fold over your standing leg and reach the other leg toward the ceiling. Despite the name, how high the leg goes matters far less than keeping the fold deep and the standing hip steady — most of the pose happens in the leg on the ground.
Step by step
- 1From Standing Forward Fold, walk your hands a little ahead of your feet.
- 2Shift your weight into your right foot and lift your left leg behind you.
- 3Keep folding your chest toward the standing leg as the lifted leg rises.
- 4Keep the standing hip pulling back so the hips stay relatively square — resist opening sideways to fake height.
- 5Hands stay on the floor or blocks; if steady, take one or both hands to the standing ankle.
- 6Let your head hang and breathe.
- 7Lower the leg with control, rest in the forward fold, and repeat on the other side.
Benefits
- ✓ Deeply stretches the hamstrings and calf of the standing leg
- ✓ Strengthens the standing leg and the glutes of the lifted one
- ✓ Builds balance in a folded position, useful preparation for inversions
- ✓ Encourages a calm head-down position at the end of practice
Make it yours
- · Place both hands on blocks at whatever height keeps your weight settled.
- · Bend the standing knee — a bent-knee split with a deep fold is the honest version for most.
- · Rest your hands on a chair seat and lift the back leg to hip height only.
Take care
- Take care with hamstring strains — this is one of the deepest standing hamstring stretches; bend the standing knee generously or postpone it.
- If you have balance issues, keep both hands on blocks or a chair seat at all times.
- If head-below-heart positions leave you lightheaded, come up slowly and take a shorter hold.
This is general practice guidance, not medical advice. If something hurts, ease out of it.
Props that help here
- Manduka PRO — The buy-it-once option — dense, stable, famously durable. Heavy, so it lives at home, which is where practice happens anyway. find one
- Cork blocks (set of 2) — Bring the floor closer in lunges, folds, and triangle — and a block between the shoulder blades turns a backbend into something you can hold. find one
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