Bound Angle Forward Foldउत्तान बद्ध कोणासन
Uttāna Baddha Koṇāsana — a beginner forward bend that works the hip adductors, spinal erectors, glutes.
1–3MINUTES HELD
One line on the timetable. Bound Angle Forward Fold is held 1–3 minutes, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Bound Angle Forward Fold
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit on a folded blanket with the soles of the feet together and the knees out to the sides.
Move the heels a hand's width away from the body so there is room to hinge.
Hold the ankles or the outer feet and lengthen the spine on an inhale.
Exhale and fold forward from the hip crease, letting the chest travel towards the feet.
Rest the forehead on a bolster or stacked blocks, hold, then rise slowly.
Hold: 1–3 minutes. Keep the breath moving throughout — if you are holding it, the pose is too much for today.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Bound Angle Forward Fold does
Described mechanically — what the movement does to muscle and joint. Not a list of conditions it treats, because a pose does not treat conditions.
- Deepens the inner-thigh stretch of Bound Angle by adding hip flexion on top of the rotation.
- Lengthens the low back and the muscles either side of the spine.
- Stretches the glutes and outer hips as the pelvis tips forward over the open legs.
Bound Angle Forward Fold is one of 22 forward bends in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that fold the torso towards the legs, lengthening the whole back line of the body.
Who should skip Bound Angle Forward Fold, or change it
- Groin or adductor strain — move the feet further away and fold less.
- Knee injury: support both knees on blocks throughout.
- Low back or disc injury, where a rounded seated fold is not appropriate.
- Later pregnancy, where folding over a closed leg position compresses the belly — sit upright instead.
General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts. If you are pregnant, recovering from surgery or managing any health condition, ask your doctor before starting a practice, and learn the pose itself from a qualified teacher who can see you move.
Common mistakes in Bound Angle Forward Fold
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakePushing the head down towards the feet and rounding the neck.
FixSupport the forehead on a bolster and let the chest lead the fold.
MistakeDrawing the heels in tight so the pelvis cannot tip.
FixSlide the feet forward until the hip crease can hinge freely.
How the energy figure on a yoga timetable is reached
- Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart, so no per-pose figure is published here — not by this site and not by anyone.
- The pose is matched to the nearest style of practice in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Bound Angle Forward Fold sits at code 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET.
- That MET value is put through the standard ACSM relationship for a stated reference adult of 70 kg.
- The result is the cost of a practice of that kind for as long as you practise — not the cost of holding this one shape.
- Scale it to yourself: the relationship is linear in body mass, so multiply by your own weight in kilograms and divide by 70.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200
= 2.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 3.06 kcal per minute
The same practice, hour by hour
Read it the way you would read a timetable: pick the length of session you actually sit down for, and that is the figure.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Bound Angle Forward Fold?
Sit on a folded blanket with the soles of the feet together and the knees out to the sides. Move the heels a hand's width away from the body so there is room to hinge. Hold the ankles or the outer feet and lengthen the spine on an inhale. Exhale and fold forward from the hip crease, letting the chest travel towards the feet. Rest the forehead on a bolster or stacked blocks, hold, then rise slowly. Hold for 1–3 minutes.
What does Bound Angle Forward Fold work?
Primarily the hip adductors, spinal erectors, glutes, with the lower back, hip flexors, hamstrings assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: deepens the inner-thigh stretch of Bound Angle by adding hip flexion on top of the rotation.
Who should not do Bound Angle Forward Fold?
Groin or adductor strain — move the feet further away and fold less. Knee injury: support both knees on blocks throughout. Low back or disc injury, where a rounded seated fold is not appropriate. Later pregnancy, where folding over a closed leg position compresses the belly — sit upright instead. This is general information, not medical advice — if any of these apply to you, ask your doctor and learn the pose with a qualified teacher rather than from a page.
Is Bound Angle Forward Fold suitable for beginners?
Yes. Bound Angle Forward Fold is a beginner-level pose on this site, which means it is learnable in a first class and has a version that works for most bodies. The cautions above still apply.
How many calories does Bound Angle Forward Fold burn?
The honest answer is that nobody has measured a single asana. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values for styles of yoga, not for individual poses. Bound Angle Forward Fold sits closest to Compendium code 02150, yoga, Hatha, at 2.5 MET — about 92 kcal for 30 minutes of that kind of practice for a 70 kg adult. Holding one pose for a minute is a rounding error either way.
The rest of the forward bends on the wall
More forward bends — first at the same level, then the rest of the family.
Asana names are traditional. Every step, benefit and caution on this page is written for YogaPath rather than reproduced from any book, studio or other library — see how this site is written and what it is written from. General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts.
SOURCE·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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