Hand Under Foot Pose
पादहस्तासन
Pādahastāsana — an intermediate forward bend that works the hamstrings, calves.
How to do Hand Under Foot Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Fold forward from standing with the knees bent as much as needed.
Lift the toes and slide each hand palm-up under the corresponding foot until the toes reach the wrists.
Stand back down onto the hands and lengthen the spine forward on an inhale.
Exhale and fold, drawing the elbows out to the sides.
Hold, then release the hands before coming up.
Hold: 45–90 seconds. 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 Hand Under Foot Pose 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 hamstring stretch by fixing the hands under the feet.
- Puts the wrists into extension under body weight, which most desk-based days never do.
- Lengthens the calves with the heels loaded.
Hand Under Foot Pose is one of 22 forward bends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that fold the torso towards the legs, lengthening the whole back line of the body.
Who should skip Hand Under Foot Pose, or change it
- Carpal tunnel syndrome or any wrist injury.
- Low back or disc injury.
- High blood pressure and glaucoma.
- Hamstring tear.
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 Hand Under Foot Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeSliding the hands under with straight legs and straining the back.
FixBend the knees generously to place the hands, then straighten gradually.
MistakeDumping full weight onto the wrists.
FixKeep the weight in the feet; the hands are a strap, not a platform.
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 Hand Under Foot Pose 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 Hand Under Foot Pose?
Fold forward from standing with the knees bent as much as needed. Lift the toes and slide each hand palm-up under the corresponding foot until the toes reach the wrists. Stand back down onto the hands and lengthen the spine forward on an inhale. Exhale and fold, drawing the elbows out to the sides. Hold, then release the hands before coming up. Hold for 45–90 seconds.
What does Hand Under Foot Pose work?
Primarily the hamstrings, calves, with the wrists, spinal erectors, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: deepens the hamstring stretch by fixing the hands under the feet.
Who should not do Hand Under Foot Pose?
Carpal tunnel syndrome or any wrist injury. Low back or disc injury. High blood pressure and glaucoma. Hamstring tear. 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 Hand Under Foot Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Hand Under Foot Pose 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 forward bends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Hand Under Foot Pose 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. Hand Under Foot Pose 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 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. 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.