PRASARITA PADOTTANASANA
(Pra-SAH-ree-tah pah-doh-tahn-AHS-anna)
prasarita = stretched out, expanded, spread, with outstretched limbs
pada = foot
ut = intense
tan = to stretch or extend (compare the Latin verb tendere, “to stretch or extend”)
Intense Spread Leg Stretch
Prasarita Padottanasana is essentially a wide-stance standing forward bend; indeed, prasarita padottana literally means “spread out feet intense stretch.” Technically the pose in the spotlight here is PP I, the II version is slightly more challenging and is typically performed as part of a two-pose sequence with Intense Side Stretch Pose (Parshvottanasana). For our purposes, PP I (hereafter referred to simply as PP) will be performed in three stages, which we will ingeniously dub one, two, and three.
Not surprisingly for a forward bend, PP stretches the backs of the legs and, and because of its wide stance, the inner groins. In a pinch it also serves as a substitute, as do all the standing forward bends, for Head Stand (Shirshasana), since the head is brought lower than the heart. Many of the benefits of the latter pose–especially bathing the poor old tired brain with freshly oxygenated blood to perk it up–accrue to PP without any of the weight-bearing stresses on the neck. And in general PP is a good warm-up for other wide-stance standing poses, like the Warrior variations (Virabhadrasana I, II, III) and Side Angle Pose (Parshvakonasana).
PRELIMINARY
Many beginners are somewhat reluctant to stand as wide as they should in PP. Of course the exact distance between your feet depends on the length of your legs, shorter people won’t stand as wide as taller folks. A good way to determine your width is to start in Mountain Pose (Tadasana) with your arms stretched out straight to your sides, parallel to the floor. Step your feet apart until each is approximately below the same-side wrist. If you can’t easily touch the floor in a standing forward bend with straight knees, be sure to have a couple yoga blocks handy to support your hands. Never force yourself into a forward bend: if you have to round your torso forward from your belly to get your hands on the floor, it’s really counterproductive and potentially injurious. Don’t be stubborn, USE THOSE BLOCKS.
PRACTICE
1. Stand in Tadasana, facing one of the long edges of your sticky mat, then step or lightly hop your feet apart anywhere from 3½ to 4½ feet (depending on your height, taller people wider). Rest your hands on your hips. Make sure your inner feet are parallel to each other. Lift your inner arches by drawing up on the inner ankles, and press the outer edges of your feet firmly into the floor. Strengthen your thighs. Inhale and lift your chest, making the front torso slightly longer than the back.
2. Exhale and, maintaining the length of the front torso, lean the torso forward from the hip joints. As your torso approaches parallel to the floor, press your fingertips onto the floor directly below your shoulders. Extend your elbows fully. Your legs and arms then should be perpendicular to the floor and parallel to each other. Move your spine evenly into the back torso so that your back is slightly concave from the tail bone to the base of the skull. Bring your head up, without crunching the back of your neck, and direct your gaze upward toward the ceiling.
3. Push your top thighs straight back to help lengthen the front torso, and spread your inner groins to widen the base of your pelvis. Take a few breaths. As you maintain the concavity of your back and the forward lift of your sternum, walk your fingertips back toward your feet, keeping the elbows straight. When you reach your limit of the straight-arm, fingertip walk-back, take a few more breaths and then, with an exhale, bend your elbows and lower your torso and head into a full forward bend. Make sure, as you move down, that you keep your front torso as long as possible. If possible rest the crown of your head on the floor.
4. Press your inner palms actively into the floor, fingers pointing forward. If you have the flexibility to move your torso into a full forward bend, walk your hands back until your forearms are perpendicular to the floor, be sure to keep your arms parallel to each other. Strongly push the elbows away from the mid-back. Draw your shoulders away from your ears.
5. Stay anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute. To come out, bring your hands back on the floor below your shoulders and lift and lengthen your front torso. Then with an inhale, rest your hands on your hips, pull your tail bone down toward the floor, and swing the torso up. Walk or hop your feet back into Tadasana.
- Benefits
Strengthens and stretches the inner and back legs and the spine
Tones the abdominal organs
Calms the brain
Relieves mild back ache
- Modifications & Props:
Some beginners aren’t able to easily bring their hands to the floor and need a good deal of support in this forward bend to protect their lower back. Try raising your hands off the floor by resting each on the end of a block. If your back is still rounded, then use a folding chair to support your forearms. Always remember in forward bends to emphasize the length of the front torso.
- Variations:
The pose as described here is technically known as Prasarita Padottanasana I (in the Iyengar system). Prasarita Padottanasana II is a more challenging variation. Perform step 1 of the main description above. Then bring your hands into anjali mudra but behind your back, a hand position technically known as prstanjali mudra (prsta, pronounced prish-ta, meaning “the back or rear of anything”). To do this lean your torso slightly forward and round your back. Then press your palms together behind your back with your thumbs resting on your sacrum, finger pointing toward the floor. Exhale and turn the fingers, first toward your back, then upward, so they point toward the ceiling. Slip the pinky sides of your hands up your back as high as possible, ideally between your shoulder blades. Roll your shoulders back and lift your chest, pressing the pinkies deeply into your spine. Finally exhale into your forward bend and bring your head close to or onto the floor. If this hand position isn’t possible for you, simply cross your forearms behind your back and hold the elbows with the opposite hands.
- Beginners Tip:
Most beginning students aren’t able to easily touch the crown of their head to the floor in the last stage of this forward bend. Instead you can support your head on a padded block, a thickly-folded blanket, or a bolster.
- Advanced Tip:
Advanced students can get a better sense of how to work the arms in this pose by using a block. Set a block on one of its sides, with its long axis parallel to the long edge of your sticky mat, on the floor in front of you. Lean forward into the pose and grip the block between your forearms, just below the elbows, and pick it up off the floor. Then complete the pose with your palms and crown on the floor. Now squeeze the block firmly between your forearms, pressing your inner hands actively into the floor. This action of the arms will also get you ready for poses like Headstand II and Pinca Mayurasana.
PRASARITA PADOTTANASANA
One of the strange rules of that strange language, Sanskrit, is called sandhi, literally “junction.” The words in a Sanskrit sentence aren’t spaced apart like English words, instead they’re allstrungtogetherlikethis. But that’s not all. Often the letter that ends one word is “euphoniously combined” with the letter that begins the next to form a brand new letter. I won’t even try to explain how and why; as a simple example though, let’s look at padottanasana, which is actually a combination of three separate words: pada, uttana, and asana. Notice that when the final “a” of pada meets the “u” of uttana, the two letters are combined as “o”(the same occurs in the famous mantra OM, which is actually spelled AUM), and when the final short “a” of uttana meets the beginning short “a” of asana, the two become a long “a.” (and the pronunciation changes from “uh” to “ah”).
What does this have to do with yoga? Traditionally daily yoga practice was timed according to sandhya, a word related to sandhi which also means “junction,” but more particularly the significant “junctions”of night and day–dawn and dusk, noon and midnight. Sandhya, like sandhi, takes place at the confluence of two “letters,” here the light of day and dark of night. Throughout most of a 24-hour day, one letter is dominant though tinged to some degree with the other. But at dawn and dusk they’re in balance, at noon and midnight one is purified of its other. The yogis believe these outer conditions are intimately related to and powerfully influence the constantly shifting “light” and “dark” energies of our lives (usually characterized as HA and THA or Sun and Moon). During the outer sandhya, its balance or purity is reflected in our normally unbalanced or impure consciousness. This naturally calms our mind and induces a meditative state, which is why Svatmarama, author of the fourteenth century Hatha Yoga Pradipika enjoins us to practice “four times a day–morning, midday, evening, and midnight” (2.11).
Of course I’m not suggesting we practice four times a day, for most of us just once a day is a triumph. But every now and then we should stop whatever we’re doing at sandhya and watch how the outer play of light and dark is affecting the inner play of our life energies.
