Standing Splits Pose helps you build strength, balance, and flexibility all at once, so it’s a great foundational pose for your yoga practice!

Standing Splits Pose (Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana), also known as the Standing Split, or One Foot Expanding Upward Pose, is an awesome beginner-to-intermediate level yoga pose that strengthens your entire lower body, stabilizes the hips and pelvis, improves balance, and increases flexibility in the groin, hamstrings, calves, and thighs. It also helps build strength in thighs, knees, and ankles, is thought to calm the mind and stimulate the liver and kidneys. As a mild inversion pose, this pose also helps to improve circulation, reduce stress, and boost the immune system, so it’s a great one to practice often in the winter!

This is also a good pose to help prepare for Monkey Pose.

To modify the pose if your flexibility is limited, you can rest your hands on blocks, or, if you have trouble balancing, try placing the sole of your lifted foot against a wall.

If you have a recent or chronic ankle, knee, or lower back injury, you should avoid this pose.

How to Do Standing Splits Pose:

1. Begin in a lunge with your right foot forward. Place your hands on either side of your front foot, on blocks or the ground.
2. Shift your weight onto your right foot and slide your left foot in, then lift it off the ground.
3. Find a halfway lift in your torso, then fold your chest toward your toes.
4. Lift your left leg up as high as  you can while keeping hips level to the ground.
5. Hold for up to 60 seconds before lowering the left leg to a forward fold. Pause for a few breaths then step the right foot back and repeat on the other side.

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