Julie Gudmestad: Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend – Calm Your Mind While Stretching

Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend offers the calming benefits of inverting your head below your heart combined with a deep stretch for your hamstrings and inner thighs—all with a wider, more stable base than traditional Standing Forward Bend.

This tutorial teaches you how to practice Prasarita Padottanasana safely for your back and effectively for your legs. In this practice, Julie Gudmestad guides you through Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend with attention to the details that make forward folds therapeutic. You'll learn proper stance width: feet parallel, about 3-4 feet apart (wider for taller practitioners), with toes pointing forward or slightly inward.

The tutorial covers the essential hip-hinge action—folding from your hip crease rather than rounding from your spine—and the hands-on-hips checkpoint that ensures you maintain spinal length as you begin to fold. Julie demonstrates multiple hand positions: hands on the floor (or blocks), hands clasping behind the back for a shoulder stretch variation, and the traditional position of head reaching toward the floor. You'll learn to keep your legs active—quadriceps engaged, weight distributed evenly across your feet (not falling into your heels or inner arches)—and the importance of maintaining a slight engagement in your low belly to support your spine.

The tutorial addresses the common tendency to shift weight backward and how this reduces the hamstring stretch. This tutorial is perfect for anyone seeking the calming effects of mild inversion, those working on hamstring and inner thigh flexibility, or practitioners wanting a stable-base forward fold option. The wide stance makes this more accessible than narrow-stance forward bends for many bodies.

Led by Julie Gudmestad, whose expertise in therapeutic yoga ensures you're folding safely while receiving the nervous system benefits of inverting.