Separate Leg Head to Knee with Stretching Pose

A woman performing a seated forward bend yoga pose in two different views, one with her leaning forward with her arms wrapped around her legs and the other with her holding her ankles, both on a wooden floor against a plain white wall.

Where is the Primary Focus? Spine, legs, and hips

For head to Knee
• Stretches calf muscles, back, shoulders, and thighs
• Stretches sciatic nerves
• Stretches the serratus and latissimus muscles
• Improves finger/hand strength
• Stretches achilles through foot flexion

 

For Stretching
• Stretches and lengthens the spine.
• Stretches hamstrings, glutes, calves, and lower back and hips.
• Tones arm muscles

 

When and Where Could I Feel the Stretch?
For Head to knee, the back of the straight leg, your back, and possibly the bent leg thigh.
For Stretching, Both legs, possibly up to your hip flexors, and your spine and possibly your shoulders. 

 

Why Should I Do This Posture?
It’s the last head to knee compression of the front of the spine and opening of the back of the spine, then it’s the last deep forward fold and stretch of the series. The parts of this posture balance each other out.

How Can I Improve?

I wish we could all improve by skipping it. I like that these stretches but by the end of class I’m tired and these feel like more effort than postures that feel good, yet when I really tune in and do the work I get the great stretch through the back of my straight leg, and especially that heal stretch when you turn you foot and toes back towards your face, and with both legs forward it seems to go right to where my body is tight that day, sometimes my back, sometimes my legs and even some days to my hip flexors.

For Head to knee, make sure both of your hips are firmly on the floor. If you have knee pain in the bent knee, bring your heel further away from your groin towards your straight leg heel to create less bend in the knee with pain. Once your hips and legs are settled, stretch your arms up and your torso up before you lean over to grab your foot. If grabbing your foot is hard, bend your knee so that you can grab your foot and then get your forehead to your knee. Once you have your forehead to your knee, it’s all finesse. Using both your forehead to knee pressure as well as just trying to slide your heel away, try to straighten your leg. The finesse comes from alignment at this point. When you try to bend your elbows down, the inside elbow will almost always need a little more help, roll in a little to the inside. Then it's a continued effort to move your heel away from your body to create more stretch and compression.

For Stretching pose, it’s less finesse, more straight-up engagement. Once you have done the sit up, bend your knees to grab your toes, then right away lift your chest up and get your spine straight as you can by using your abs to suck in and stretch long. The work then is to keep that length, and you fold more forward. Try moving your hips back and your heels forward to create the length through the entire back side of your body. Try being curious about how hips back or heels forward changes the posture for you. For me, heels forward often lets me keep my spine longer.

With both postures its always okay to bend your knees.

Like always, it’s a balance of effort and ease that creates long-term change.