There’s No Right Way To Forward Bend In Yoga: Here’s What Matters Instead

While often considered the simplest category of yoga postures, a good forward bend in yoga is more complex than it appears. We spend a lot of time in flexion. Flexion can sometimes feel easier or more intuitive than movement in other planes, like extension or rotation, for example. But, despite how much time we spend in flexion in our lives, there is still a lot to understand when we take flexion, bring it into a yoga context, and call it forward bending. In this article, I explain everything you’ve wanted to understand about forward bending in yoga and more!

Why do we do forward bends?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of forward folding, let’s zoom out for a moment. Whenever we get into the minutiae of postural yoga, it’s important to remember what postures are in service of. The primary intention of fundamental yoga postures is to bring the body towards balance. This supports physical and mental health, but just as importantly, it allows us to embody a greater physical stillness. This reduces the distractions of bodily discomfort and restlessness so we can focus more deeply and continuously on other types of practice, pranayama, meditation, etc.

Functional intentions

Our functional intention in forward bending is creating length along the back of the body. The English translation of paschimottanasana, the Sanskrit name for a straight-legged seated forward bend in yoga, is western stretch. In the yogic tradition, if you were facing the sun in the east during your morning practice, and you folded forward, you would be stretching the western, or back, of the body.

Basic anatomy of forward bending

As I alluded to in the introduction, the basic anatomy of a forward bend is flexion. Specifically, the simplest forward bend is about ⅔ hip flexion and about ⅓ spinal flexion. The myofascia (muscles and their associated connective tissue) along the back of our body is one long connected piece. For that reason, restrictions to a forward fold can happen anywhere along the back of the body. That means we can find restrictions to forward bending at the bottoms of the feet, in the calf muscles, in the hamstrings and posterior adductors, in the gluteal muscles, along the back of the spine, and even in the head and neck.

First encounters with forward bends

Our first encounter with the pattern of forward bending is often not in a single posture. Instead, it’s within the context of a sun salutation. If we do a vinyasa-style practice, we might experience the elements of forward bending multiple times during the sun salutation-like transitions in between postures. In a common version of a sun salutation, the first place we encounter a forward fold is the standing forward bend after we initially lift our arms.

In chaturanga, we also meet one aspect of a forward bend in yoga. We have an opportunity to lengthen the plantar fascia on the bottom of our feet because our ankle joints are dorsiflexed. We then encounter the forward bending pattern again when we arrive in downward facing dog.

Downward dog as a forward bend

Downward dog has the potential to lengthen the whole back of the body from the bottoms of the feet through the calf muscles, hamstrings, and spinal erectors. It can even lengthen the back of the head and neck if we tuck our chin a little bit. Often in this pose, students especially notice the tension on the bottoms of their feet and calf muscles in addition to their hamstrings. Those are all areas that we can lengthen by regularly doing forward bending.

Simple seated and standing forward folds

Our next stop on our tour of forward bends is commonly the simple standing and seated versions of a forward fold. From there, we can create seemingly endless variations on this simple shape. Let’s break down simple forward bends further and look at how we tailor that hip flexion and spinal flexion to our own body and the specific pose. Then we’ll talk in more detail about how variations affect the basic elements of the forward bending pattern.

Pelvic position in seated forward fold

Seated forward fold, as I said earlier in this article, is about ⅔ hip movement and ⅓ spinal movement. In order to forward bend in yoga, we have to flex at the hip joints, but how much should you tilt your pelvis in forward bending? This is a question that I’ve been getting a lot lately, and there isn’t one single answer to that question. It depends on your body. If you move easily at the hip joints in flexion, then you probably don’t need to overthink this movement. Just fold forward from your hip joints until you come to the end of that movement. At that point, add some flexion from your spine to complete your forward bend.

However, if you feel like something is restricting you from sitting up and bending forward, or if you experience low back pain or sit bone pain, then take a look at your pelvic position and see if something needs to change. If your default static posture is more of a posterior pelvic tilt, try sitting up on a block to get your pelvis more towards neutral. If you tend to hang out in more of an anterior tilt, try not folding so far at the hip joints. If one of those feels better, then repeat that setup for a few days or weeks. If it’s not working, then change it again, and explore a different amount of pelvic tilt.

Spinal flexion in seated forward fold

Should your spine bend in a forward fold? The short answer is yes. How much the spine should bend is a different question. One recent trend I’ve seen is to try to avoid any flexion of the spine in forward bending. Classical Hatha yoga actually incorporated forward folds with a fairly rounded spine. More contemporary asana practice typically prioritizes lengthening through the spine before folding forward.

Neither of these is necessarily more right or better than the other. They just have different intentions and different effects. I’m not entirely sure where this recent trend to try to avoid all flexion in the spine in forward folds comes from. More importantly, why would we bend the spine in a forward bend in yoga, and how much is a good idea?

How much spinal flexion in forward folds?

A general intention to lengthen the spine before folding forward follows the overall intention of a forward bend. But we can overdo the effort to lengthen the spine just as we can overdo the intention to connect our head to our shins. I recommend that students lengthen their spine while they reach into their forward bend. When you come to the end of the amount of hip flexion you can do, your spine will flex. This is normal and part of forward bending. Allow the spine to flex as necessary without overdoing it. Don’t overanalyze this. If you’re not experiencing pain, restriction, or some kind of dysfunction, you’re probably already doing the right amount of spinal flexion for you.

Additionally, most of us have adopted a forward head posture to at least some degree. Our default resting posture during the day is with our head extended back and shifted forward on our neck. This is one more reason to allow our cervical spine to follow the rest of the spine and do some flexion in our forward bending. This allows our head to come out of that extended position for at least the brief amount of time we spend in our forward bends in yoga.

That said, there are specific situations where spinal flexion is contraindicated. Issues with herniated discs are one of those situations that are more likely to aggravate an existing injury. In this case, you would want to minimize spinal flexion to reduce any chances of creating further issues with herniations. Read on or scroll to the section on working with herniations in forward bending for more specific ways to adapt forward bending practice for this situation.

Standing forward fold

When we move from seated to a standing forward bend, our relationship to gravity changes. When we’re standing and fold forward in a regular forward bend, our hamstrings eccentrically contract to resist the pull of gravity and slowly lower us toward the floor. If we don’t manage that shift easily, we can lose our balance and fall.

In standing, our feet are our base, and everything else above is organized relative to that base. Once we’re in the pose, we can use the play with gravity to work in different ways to create length along the back of our body. When we’re in a standing forward fold, we can play with letting our weight shift more forward toward the balls of our feet, which will intensify the pressure into our hamstrings.

When we’re seated, our pelvis is our base, and our feet and lower legs can be less involved. We have to be more intentional in a seated forward bend if we want to be sure to lengthen the tissue of our back body that starts with the plantar fascia on the bottoms of our feet and continues through the Achilles tendon to become our calf muscles, the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles.

Variations of forward bends

Realistically, most yoga postures don’t fit within a single category. Most forward bends change or add to the basic format of a forward bend in some way. They add external hip rotation on one leg, for example, to create janu sirsasana A. They could add a shape change of one leg like Marichyasana A, or they incorporate arm balancing by asking us to balance the forward bend on our hands like tittibhasana.

However, what stays consistent throughout poses in the forward bending category is that we are lengthening tissues along the back of our body. That is true when we step our feet apart for a wide-legged forward bend in yoga, when we do an inverted forward bend like plow, when we do an arm balancing forward bend like tittibhasana, and when we do an especially deep forward bend like a leg behind head posture. Let’s look at some common variations of forward bending and how the anatomy changes.

Legs together versus wide-legged forward bending

When we separate our legs into a wide-legged forward bend, whether it’s standing, seated, or supine, where we put pressure along the backs of the thighs changes. When we do a wide-legged forward bend, instead of sending pressure primarily down the hamstrings, as would happen if we did a forward bend with our legs roughly hip-distance apart, the adductors receive some of the pressure. In particular, we often feel a stretch sensation in adductor magnus.

The adductor magnus is a large muscle with multiple superior and inferior attachments. However, a significant portion of adductor magnus fibers attach superiorly at the ischial tuberosities, just like the hamstring muscles, then travel vertically and attach at their inferior end onto the adductor tubercle near the medial femoral condyle. So when we do a wide-legged forward fold, we lengthen this section of adductor magnus along with the hamstrings.

Changing the pelvic position

One way that we create variety in movement patterns in our forward folds is by changing the position of our pelvis. Variations of Marichyasana, janu sirsasana, triang mukhaikapada paschimottanasana, and padangusthasana are all examples of poses where we change the position of one leg while leaving the other leg out straight, and then fold forward. This changes how pressure goes into our pelvis on the bent leg side as well as what we feel on the straight leg side.

Forward bending in inversions and arm balances

Although the pattern of forward bending may be one of the simplest patterns that we work with in yoga, we can find the forward bending pattern within complex postures. If you look closely, you might notice that postures like tittibhasana, bhujapidasana, and any leg-behind-head pose, including supta kurmasana, include a forward bend pattern. Forward bending isn’t the only pattern in those poses, of course, but that simple pattern of forward bending is one part of each of those more complex postures.

As I mentioned already, forward bending can be combined with every other category of yoga postures to create more complex shapes. Forward folding can even be combined with inversions and arm balances, although we may not immediately notice the forward bending aspect in more complex postures. For example, plow pose is a forward bend. It is also an inversion. While you probably are always aware of the inversion aspect of this posture when you do it, you might not have noticed that it is also a forward bend.

Similarly, we can combine forward folding with arm balances. Tittibhasana, or firefly pose, is like a wide-legged forward bend but with our hands as our base and legs resting on our upper arms. Bhujapidasana has a forward folding aspect plus an arm balance piece because we are balancing on our hands, and it includes some external hip rotation. Headstand with a half bend is an arm balance, an inversion, and a forward bend all in one pose!

Deep ranges of motion

In addition to combining aspects from different categories of poses to create more complex postures, we can also deepen the range of motion to create more challenging forward bends. Postures that include placing one or both legs behind your head are examples of forward bends that require a significantly deeper range of motion in flexion than most other forward bends.

In order to do any of the variations of leg behind head, we have to fold forward not just to our legs, but through our legs, coming close to the end of anatomically possible forward folding. What makes this group of postures extra challenging is that they require a fairly extensive forward bend plus a significant amount of external hip rotation.

Common patterns in seated forward bends

There are a few common patterns that I see in students as they work towards evolving their forward bend in yoga. Being aware of these patterns and addressing them in your or your students’ practices can go a long way towards making forward folds more comfortable and sustainable. And, if one or more of these common patterns is showing up in a simple seated forward fold, chances are good that the same pattern is also finding its way into more complex postures with a forward bending aspect. Once we notice and evolve these patterns in a simple forward fold, we can then apply them to other variations of forward bending postures.

Overworking in general

One common pattern that I see in forward bending is overworking in the pose. Overworking can happen for different reasons. Sometimes the idea of having a “goal” in a posture leads us to overdo it. If you’re cranking through the spine, dead-set on touching your head to your shins when you’re still a foot away, you’re probably overdoing it. Too much effort to force the head to touch the shins in a seated forward bend is not helpful or the intention of the posture. Be okay with being where you are.

Especially tight students may unintentionally be overworking in a seated forward bend if they are so tight that they are struggling against the resistance of their hamstrings just to sit upright. They may need support from props to position the pelvis in a way that they can find more ease in forward folding.

Overworking the abdomen

In addition to overworking generally, I also often see students overcontracting the abdominal muscles specifically. This is an important pattern to address. Stiffening or hardening the abdominals with excess tension will make it harder to bend and harder to breathe fully.

Overcontracting the abdominals can also show up for a few different reasons. For students who have a particularly strong posterior tilt in their resting posture, it can be difficult for them to resist gravity and sit up. They may contract the abdominals unconsciously from an effort just to work against gravity to stay upright when their pelvis is pulling them back.

Sometimes students also confuse contracting the abdominals with engaging the core. However, the two things are not synonymous. Although the abdominal muscles do act to stabilize the spine, it’s easy to overdo that engagement. Sometimes students have simply cultivated a habit of engaging the abdominals in other movement practices or activities, and it’s part of their unconscious default pattern. They now find it difficult to turn that kind of engagement off when they don’t need or want the abdominals to be strongly active.

Not working the calves and bottoms of the feet

The calves and the plantar fascia (the fascia on the bottom of the feet) are some of the most overlooked parts of the continuous line of fascia that make up the back of the body, which we lengthen when we forward bend. And while the hamstrings get plenty of attention, the calves and plantar fascia can be just as important.

In particular for people who run, hike, and cycle, the calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) can be strong, but also short and tight. If you notice your feet in more of a plantarflexed position (toes a little pointed) in a seated forward bend, gently draw the foot into a more dorsiflexed position to put more pressure into the calves and plantar fascia.

Strongly bent knees

Bending the knees is one way our body can work with tight hamstrings. If we have so much tension in the hamstrings that they are pulling our pelvis under and we’re having trouble sitting up, bending the knees is one way to work around that. However, it can also change the effect of doing our forward bend.

Because the hamstrings cross two joints, if we only reduce tension in them from one end by bending the knees, it’s possible that we can overstretch the sit bone end of the hamstrings. For that reason, I recommend that if students need to bend their knees to make a seated forward bend accessible, they also engage by gently straightening the knees a little bit. I suggest students try to straighten their legs with only about 20% of their strength.

Knee hyperextension

The opposite end of the knee bending spectrum is knee hyperextension. Hyperextension can refer to either a movement or the position of a joint in the body. In this case, I’m referring to putting the knees in a position that is past extension. Sometimes people refer to that position as “locking out the knees.” Not everyone can take their knees into this position. But for those who can, repeatedly taking the knee joints into hyperextension can overstretch the ligaments and tendons of the posterior knee over time. A slight softening of the knee joints to maintain a microbend can help keep the knee joints out of hyperextension, and in a healthier position for the long term.

Laterally rotated thighs and inverted feet

Our bodies have creative ways of going around tension in the short, tight areas in our body. One of the ways our bodies try to go around tight hamstrings in a seated forward bend in yoga is by rolling our legs out. If we let our feet go along with our legs when they roll out, that has the effect of inverting the feet. If you see this pattern showing up in your forward bend, or that of your students, moderately engaging the adductors can help resist the pull of the legs to roll out and maintain the legs in more of a neutral position.

How to evolve your own forward bend in yoga

• Be consistent in your yoga practice (at least 3-4 days per week; 5-6 days is better)
• Set yourself up well for your particular body
• Explore multiple variations of accessible forward bends during each practice
• Start with more accessible poses and work up to more complex postures or those requiring a deeper range of motion. Add more complex forward bends after you are comfortable and breathing easily in the more accessible poses
• Be patient. If you do other sports or activities that shorten and tighten the hamstrings and calves, it will take time to significantly lengthen those muscles

Adjusting forward bends

As the teacher, once you see the patterns in your students’ forward bends, there are many tools you can use to assist them in finding a direction forward to continue evolving this category of postures. Hands-on assists are one tool that can support students in finding a new pattern. When you are thinking of offering a hands-on adjustment in forward bending, as with any adjustment, observe first. Then, ask yourself what you see, what you want to explore changing with this student, and why.

To help students build supportive long-term patterns, help them find grounding first, and lengthening second. Don’t overdo it. As teachers, be clear about your intention, but don’t let your own ego get involved so that you take students past what’s actually helpful to them. Remember to support students with establishing breath and focus in the new pattern, along with whatever changes to the shape of forward bending that you think would better serve them.

Forward bend in yoga: Injuries and issues

Hamstring injuries in forward bending are not uncommon in yoga. This likely has as much to do with the amount of forward bending we do in a typical yoga class as it does with forward bending itself. It’s the most common category of poses in most yoga classes and so many of the most common postures are variations on forward bends. The more time we spend doing anything, the more likely we’ll bump up against the possible issues that can come up with that activity.

Interestingly, hamstring injuries aren’t just common in yoga. In fact, flexion is simply a common movement we do in many activities. Sports and athletic training literature suggests that hamstring injuries are one of the most common muscle injuries among all sports-related muscle injuries (Edouard et al., 2016; Liu et al., 2012).

Specifically, researchers noted that hamstring injuries most frequently occurred when the athlete flexed the hip and extended their knee at the same time (Fournier-Farley et al., 2016; Lempainen et al., 2015; Askling et al., 2008), just as we would do when forward bending in yoga. Because the hamstrings cross both the hip joint and knee joint, as I said earlier, combining hip flexion and knee extension would lengthen the hamstrings to their maximum. You could imagine then why a forward fold would potentially leave the hamstrings vulnerable to injury if we went too far.

Sit bone pain in forward bends

One of the most common issues that students encounter when they do forward bends is sit bone pain. The ischial tuberosity, or sit bone, is a raised bony area on the ischium of your pelvis. It’s where all three of the hamstrings and adductor magnus attach at their superior end. Because all of these muscles attach at the sit bone, irritation, pain, or inflammation can occur with any or all of these muscles. That makes it a little complicated to determine what’s causing the pain and then how to work with it.

Sources of sit bone pain could include:

• Overdoing forward bends in yoga and creating inflammation at the hamstring attachment
• Actually tearing a hamstring (often includes an audible pop)
• A pelvic imbalance which shortens one hamstring, or puts more pressure and strain on the longer hamstring
• Trigger points that are referring into the sit bone area, especially gluteus medius
• Adductor magnus strain that creates inflammation at the superior attachment
• A sports-related strain or injury

Modifying for sit bone pain

The first step in modifying your yoga practice for sit bone pain is determining whether it seems to be more related to the hamstrings or adductor magnus. Typically, more hamstring-related sit bone pain is felt when forward bending with the legs together, but often not when forward bending with the legs apart. Adductor-related sit bone pain most often shows up in the opposite scenario. You most likely feel it when forward bending with the legs apart, but not with the legs together.

Modifying for hamstring-related sit bone pain

What I recommend as a good starting modification for seated forward bending with hamstring-related sit bone pain is to keep the knees straight, but only fold as far as you go without pain. Because the hamstring crosses both the hip and knee joints, if we only reduce tension at one end by bending the knees, it tends to pull even more at the other end, which is the sit bone end where we’re already feeling pain.

For a standing version of this modification, you might set up some blocks and place your hands on blocks to avoid going too far into the forward fold. As the irritation or injury at the sit bone heals, you can begin to go a little further.

Modifying for adductor magnus-related sit bone pain

My advice for working with adductor magnus-related sit bone pain is similar to what I recommend for hamstring-related sit bone issues. Continue doing some wide-leg forward folds in your practice, but don’t go as far. Instead, fold only as far as you can without experiencing pain. After you’ve been consistently without pain for a while, slowly start to explore a slightly deeper reach.

Low back pain

Modifying and helping students adapt their forward bend when they’ve experienced low back pain requires you as the teacher to observe and work out why they might be experiencing the pain. The specific adaptations are different for different situations. For students with a strongly posteriorly tilted pelvis, forward bending against the resistance of those tight hamstrings can result in low back pain. The muscles around the low back can get overstretched if the pelvis is pulling those muscles one way and then you try to pull against that to forward bend the other way. For that person, having them sit up on a block can tilt the pelvis more towards neutral and reduce the pull from the hamstrings.

For the student with the very strong anteriorly tilted pelvis, the reasons for back pain are different. If they go too far into the forward bend, it can irritate the low back. For this person, try having them back out of the forward bend from their pelvis a bit by having them move their pelvis into a little less anterior tilt.

Herniated discs

A spinal disc herniation happens when an area of the intervertebral disc is damaged, and the vertebrae surrounding it press on it, forcing an area of the disc to bulge. Due to the mechanics of our spine and the ways we typically use our bodies, disc herniations usually get pushed back and a little bit to the side. This makes herniations particularly vulnerable to being aggravated when we’re forward bending. To make things more complicated, the symptoms of general back pain and herniated discs can overlap. Both may include pain in the low back and difficulty standing straight or folding forward without pain. For those reasons, anyone who has experienced herniated discs should exercise some caution in forward folds.

Students in the acute stages of dealing with a disc herniation will probably be experiencing enough pain that you don’t see them in a yoga class. However, once someone has seen a medical professional and completed any therapy needed for herniated discs, then they may want to resume a yoga practice.

For those folks, what I recommend is initially doing their forward bends with a focus on the hip joints and minimal to no spinal flexion. That means you would initiate the forward fold from the hip joints and stop folding forward when you get to the end of available hip flexion, before the spine starts to flex. You can reinforce the idea of avoiding spinal flexion by even adding a little arch in the spine, almost as if you were just starting to backbend.

Being yourself in a forward bend

References

Askling, C.M., M. Tengvar, T. Saartok, and A. Thorstensson. 2008. Proximal hamstring strains of stretching type in different sports. The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 36(9):1799-1804.

Edouard, P., P. Branco, and J-M. Alonso. 2016. Muscle injury is the principal injury type and hamstring muscle injury is the first injury diagnosed during top-level international athletics championships between 2007 and 2015. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 50:619-630.

Fournier-Farley, C., M. Lamontagne, P. Gendron, and D.H. Gagnon. 2016. Determinants of return to play after the nonoperative management of hamstring injuries in athletes: a systematic review. The American Journal of Sports Medicine. 44(8):2166-2172.

Lempainen, L., I.J. Banke, K. Johansson, P.U. Brucker, J. Sarimo, S. Orava, and A.B. Imhoff. 2015. Clinical principles in the management of hamstring injuries. Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology Arthroscopy. 23:2449-2456.

Liu, H., W.E. Garrett, C.T. Moorman, and B. Yu. 2012. Injury rate, mechanism, and risk factors of hamstring strain in sports: a review of the literature. Journal of Sport and Health Science. 1:92-101.