Wild Thing
चमत्कारासन
Camatkārāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the glutes, chest, shoulders.
How to do Wild Thing
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
From Downward Dog, lift the right leg high and bend the right knee, opening the right hip.
Roll onto the outer edge of the left foot and take some weight into the left hand.
Step the right foot down behind you with the knee bent and the toes reaching for the mat.
Press the left hand down, lift the hips and sweep the right arm overhead past the ear.
Look towards the raised hand if the neck allows, hold briefly, then step back to Downward Dog and change sides.
Hold: 10–20 seconds each side. 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 Wild Thing 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.
- Extends the spine with the bodyweight balanced on one hand and two feet.
- Loads the glute of the stepped-back leg to hold the hips high.
- Opens the chest and the front of the shoulder through a wide overhead reach.
Wild Thing is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Wild Thing, or change it
- Wrist injury, since one hand takes most of the upper-body weight.
- Shoulder instability or a rotator cuff injury on the supporting side.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, where a one-armed arch is not advisable.
- Neck injury — keep the gaze down or forward rather than turning to the hand.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which the twisted hip position can provoke.
- Pregnancy from the second trimester onward.
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 Wild Thing
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHips sinking so the arch drops into the lower back and the shoulder collapses.
FixPress the supporting hand down firmly and squeeze the back glute to drive the hips up.
MistakeFlinging into the shape from Downward Dog with no control.
FixMove through it slowly and step the back foot down deliberately, keeping weight in both feet.
What a practice like this costs in energy
Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values per style of practice, so Wild Thing is mapped to the nearest published code — 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET — and the figures below are for a practice of that kind, not for holding this one pose.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
Calculated as MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 kcal per minute — the standard ACSM relationship, shown in full on the method page. Scale it to your own weight by multiplying by your weight in kilograms and dividing by 70. The whole activity dataset, including every non-yoga activity, is at BurnLab.
Questions
How do you do Wild Thing?
From Downward Dog, lift the right leg high and bend the right knee, opening the right hip. Roll onto the outer edge of the left foot and take some weight into the left hand. Step the right foot down behind you with the knee bent and the toes reaching for the mat. Press the left hand down, lift the hips and sweep the right arm overhead past the ear. Look towards the raised hand if the neck allows, hold briefly, then step back to Downward Dog and change sides. Hold for 10–20 seconds each side.
What does Wild Thing work?
Primarily the glutes, chest, shoulders, with the quadriceps, spinal erectors, obliques assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: extends the spine with the bodyweight balanced on one hand and two feet.
Who should not do Wild Thing?
Wrist injury, since one hand takes most of the upper-body weight. Shoulder instability or a rotator cuff injury on the supporting side. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, where a one-armed arch is not advisable. Neck injury — keep the gaze down or forward rather than turning to the hand. Sacroiliac irritation, which the twisted hip position can provoke. Pregnancy from the second trimester onward. 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 Wild Thing suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Wild Thing is rated intermediate here: it assumes a working base of strength and range, and a teacher who has watched you move. Build up through the backbends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Wild Thing 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. Wild Thing 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.
Related poses
More backbends — 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. Energy figures derive from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. 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.