Paschimottanasana: Placing the Head Down

Buddha Bose, Paschimottanasana

Paschimottanasana with a flat spine

There are a couple different ways that forward bending postures --- including Paschimottanasana, the seated forward bend --- are taught.

Some teach the posture with the back as flat as possible, tilting the pelvis forward significantly, reaching the head toward the feet and perhaps even pulling with the arms. This method (pictured to the left) has become more popular in recent decades with the rise of yoga competitions, yoga photography and the integration of contortion into yoga practice.

The other way to execute the posture is to allow the spine to bend forward, perhaps even encouraging it, and placing the head down on the legs near the knees. This is what one might call the "traditional" way to execute the posture. There is evidence for this method in historic yoga texts, ample precedent in the Ghosh lineage, and good reason for it in the body's anatomy.

HISTORY
Paschimottanasana is one of the oldest postures in the yoga canon, dating back at least 500 years. In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, one of the foundational texts of hathayoga from about 1500 CE, this posture is instructed as follows: "when one sits with his forehead resting on the thighs, it is called Paschimottanasana."

---

BISHNU, BUDDHA & GOURI
There is abundant precedent for this method in the Ghosh and other lineages, with Buddha Bose, Dr. Gouri Shankar Mukerji and Bishnu Ghosh himself all teaching the posture with the head down.

Buddha Bose, pictured above, says to "draw in the abdomen slightly and then slowly bend the trunk forward until the forehead touches the knees." He goes so far as to say that spinal bending in the posture is vital: "Regular and continued practice will eventually make the spine flexible enough to permit this."

Dr. Gouri Shankar Mukerji, pictured to the right,  tells us, ​"now slowly bend forward, rest your nose between the knees and your chest on the thighs...The face should lie between the knees, and the legs should remain extended."

Even Bishnu Ghosh himself, in his 1961 publication ​Yoga Cure, instructs the posture "with chest, abdomen and forehead touching the thighs and knees respectively." To the right is a picture from that publication by Ghosh, of his daughter Karuna.

Also to the right is a photo of Bikram Choudhury, developer of Bikram Yoga, with his head down.

Dr. Gouri Shankar Mukerji, Paschimottanasana

Karuna Ghosh, Paschimottanasana

Bikram Choudhury, Paschimottanasana

Superficial back line of fascia (from Anatomy Trains)

ANATOMICAL
Last but not least, there is good anatomical reason for bending the spine in this posture, as opposed to straightening it and reaching the head toward the feet.

On the back of the body is a path of connected tissues called the Superficial Backline of fascia. It extends from the toes across the bottoms of the feet, up the backs of the legs across the back of the pelvis, up the back of the spine and neck, and over the top of the skull (pictured left).

The physical purpose of Paschimottanasana is to lengthen the back of the body. Its name even means "backside stretch." This includes the feet and calves, the hamstrings, the entire spine and the neck. You can clearly see the connected nature of all these parts in the fascia of the backside. This is why the posture intensifies when you pull your toes back or drop your head. Both actions affect the entire backside of the body.

If we practice this posture with a flat spine, we shorten the backside from the pelvis to the head, losing half of the posture and putting extra pressure on the lower half. This lengthens the hamstrings extremely, sometimes leading to hamstring or hip injury, while neglecting length in the spine and the integration of the body as a whole.

---

CONSIDERATION
It is possible that forward bending can be detrimental to bulging, herniated or degenerated discs in the lower spine. In these cases, it is best to avoid bending the spine forward, even skipping postures like Paschimottanasa altogether.