Poses for Your Hamstrings
Big Toe Pose gently lengthens and strengthens even tight hamstrings, while Heron Pose gives you a more intense stretch.
Latest in Poses for Your Hamstrings
7 Best Yoga Poses for Tight Hamstrings
Bring some release and relief to your hamstrings—and your everyday life—with these classic yoga poses.
The One Thing You Need to Know to (Safely) Come Into the Splits
Spoiler Alert: It's not what you think.
4 Underrated Yoga Poses You’re Overlooking In Your Practice
Because there's more to life than hip openers.
This Is the Secret to Getting More Out of Your Forward Bends
“Going deeper” into your pose has nothing to do with how it looks.
Bound Angle Pose
Bound Angle Pose, or Baddha Konasana, opens the deepest part of the hip muscles.
Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend
Open wide into Prasarita Padottanasana to increase flexibility by leaps and bounds.
Staff Pose
It might look straightforward, but there's more to Dandasana than meets the eye.
Seated Forward Bend
A simple pose that's anything but easy.
Pyramid Pose | Intense Side Stretch Pose
Parsvottanasana encourages balance, body awareness, and inspires confidence.
6 Yoga Poses That Will Tone Your Entire Body
Trade in your gym workouts for these postures, which shape stronger legs, arms, and core.
Warrior 3 Pose
A standing posture centered around balance, Virabhadrasana III will strengthen your legs, ankles, and core.
Downward-Facing Dog Pose
One of yoga's most widely recognized poses, Adho Mukha Svanasana strengthens the core and improves circulation, while providing a delicious, full-body stretch.
5 Supported Poses to Build Strength for Dhanurasana
Just as it’s essential for archers to know how to string their bows, it’s important for yogis to learn how to properly engage their bodies in Bow Pose.
Extended Triangle Pose
Extended Triangle Pose is a quintessential standing pose that stretches and strengthens the whole body.
Standing Forward Bend
Uttanasana will wake up your hamstrings and soothe your mind.
Skip the Gym. These Are the Best Yoga Poses for Strength
Suddenly, your practice just became a lot stronger (literally).
Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose
Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose, or Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana, offers a deep, vivid stretch to the side body paired with loving and heart-opening movement.
Revolved Side Angle Pose
This revolved variation of Utthita Parsvakonasana requires a lot of flexibility to twist so deeply and ground the back heel.
Firefly Pose
Want to fly? Fire up your core. Firefly pose is an arm balance pose that requires more core strength than arm strength.
Pose Dedicated to the Sage Marichi I
Folding into Marichyasana I or Pose Dedicated to the Sage Marichi I calms your mind, extends your spine, and gives your internal organs a healthy squeeze.
Tight Hamstrings? Here’s How to Modify Your Practice to Make Standing Poses Doable
Practicing yoga with tight hamstrings isn't about stretching past your known limits. It's about finding a way to practice within them.
How to Use Yoga to Prevent (and Heal) a Hamstring Injury
Hamstring tears and strains are common among yoga practitioners, and overstretching can make it worse. Here's how to alter your practice to ensure a speedy recovery.
Rock Climbers, These Yoga Poses Are For You
Say goodbye to tight hips and hamstrings with this sequence to help you prep for and recover from climbing.
4 Ways to Adapt Standing Forward Bend to Your Body and Needs
Uttanasana is a soothing fold that stretches your back body while helping to calm and relax your mind.
Mind-Body Balance: 8 Poses to Ground and Uplift You
Go from tired and wired to feeling energized and calm with a sequence that targets your back, shoulders, hamstrings, and hips.
Inside My Injury: How Rupturing My Hamstring Tendon Helped Me Learn a Better Way to Stretch
Plus, a practice to help you learn how to stay safe when you practice, too.
Get to Know Your Hamstrings: Why Both Strength & Length Are Essential
Flexible and strong, hamstrings are key to a healthy, happy yoga practice. Here's what you need to know in order to lengthen and strengthen these muscles.
Tight Hips? You Need Jessamyn Stanley’s Hanumanasana Prep
Every yogi can melt hip tension with this Monkey Pose sequence (with mods!) from the yoga teacher, body-positive advocate, and Instagram star.
Prenatal Yoga: The Secret to Preventing Postnatal Saggy Butt
A droopy butt is a common side effect of pregnancy but you can prevent it—or correct it—by strengthening the right muscles.
Two Fit Moms: 8 Poses to Prep You for Hanumanasana
Whether or not you ever find yourself in the full expression of Monkey Pose, you can still enjoy the journey with these very effective preps from Two Fit Moms.
1 Pose, 4 Ways: Hanumanasana (Monkey Pose)
The yoga splits, or Hanumanasana, are a lifelong journey for many yogis. Fortunately there’s more than one way to skin a Monkey. These four variations of the pose each offer their own value and benefits.
Challenge Pose: 4 Steps to Lift into Firefly
Here's how to use the strength of your core and inner thighs to lift into this arm balance.
Achieve Uttanasana the Safe Way
Kathryn Budig's Modifications for Safe Alignment in Standing Forward Bend
5 Steps to Master Standing Forward Bend
Kathryn Budig shares her instructions to get into Uttanasana. Plus, reap the benefits and avoid these mistakes.
Firefly Pose Prep
Focus on deepening hip and shoulder flexibility to get ready for Tittibhasana.
Prep for The Splits
Check out YJ Editors's author page.
Fine-Tune Your Forward Folds
Dial in to the details for greater integrity in your forward folds.
Explore Your Hamstrings: Yoga Poses for All Three Muscles
Sage Rountree takes on the bane of athletes and yogis everywhere: tight hamstrings.
More Than a Toe Touch: Standing Forward Bend
Learn to pay more attention to how you come in and out of Uttanasana and less to where you end up.
Set All Ego Aside in This Seated Forward Bend
Forget destination and let Upavistha Konasana take you on an inner journey. Here are your directions, enjoy the ride.
Side-Reclining Leg Lift (Anantasana)
This side-reclining pose stretches the backs of the legs, the sides of the torso, and tones the belly.
Standing Split
When you practice Standing Splits focus on the stretch in your quad and hamstring, not how high you can lift your leg.
Warm Up and Cool Down: Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend
Prasarita Padottanasana is not only the perfect prep for standing poses but for your cool-down, too.
Recommended Poses for Parkinson’s Disease
Check out Peggy van Hulsteyn's author page.
Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose
In Extended Hand-to-big-toe Pose, maintaining solid grounding through the standing foot helps keep you steady.
Big Toe Pose
This pose gently lengthens and strengthens even stubbornly tight hamstrings.
You Have to Be Nice to Your Hamstrings to Lengthen Them
Flexible, strong hamstrings are key to any yoga practice. But they're often stubbornly tight. These five hamstring stretches gently lengthen and strengthen them.
Heron Pose
Heron Pose is an intense hamstring stretch. You may need to give Krounchasana some time.
Monkey Pose
Take a leap of faith into Hanumanasana or Monkey Pose, named for a figure in Hindu mythology who did just that. And when faith doesn't get you all the way there, practice will.
Locust Pose
Salabhasana or Locust Pose effectively preps beginners for deeper backbends, strengthening the back of the torso, legs, and arms.
Q&A: How Can I Heal a Hamstring Attachment?
Tim Miller gives advice for practicing with a common injury, an overstretched hamstring attachment.
Wide-Angled Seated Forward Bend
Upavistha Konasana is good preparation for most of the seated forward bends, twists, and the wide-leg standing poses.
Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose I
Oh, your aching back? Or maybe you can't crack those tight hamstrings. Supta Padangusthasana I or Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose I is for you.
Head-to-Knee Pose
Janu Sirsasana, or Head-to-Knee Pose, is appropriate for students of any level and melds a forward bend with a spinal twist.
Calm and Flexible in Mind and Body
Head-of-the-Knee Pose fosters flexibility in the hamstrings and spine while calming the nervous system.
Hamstring Helper: Reclining Big Toe Pose
Reclining Big Toe Pose provides a safe stretch for tight hamstrings and opens the door to a host of other asanas.