Extended Triangle Pose
त्रिकोणासन
Trikoṇāsana — a beginner standing pose that works the hamstrings, obliques, hip adductors.
How to do Extended Triangle Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Step the feet wide, turn the front foot out 90 degrees and angle the back foot slightly in.
Keep both legs straight but not locked, and reach the front arm forward over the front leg.
Hinge at the front hip — not at the waist — and lower the front hand to the shin, a block or the floor outside the foot.
Stack the top shoulder over the bottom one and reach the top arm to the ceiling.
Look up, forward or down depending on the neck, hold, then change sides.
Hold: 30–60 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 Extended Triangle 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.
- Lengthens the hamstrings and inner thigh of the front leg.
- Loads the side waist of the top side isometrically.
- Trains the shoulders to open into external rotation with the torso on a diagonal.
Extended Triangle Pose is one of 18 standing poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses built on the feet, where the legs carry the work and the floor is the reference point.
Who should skip Extended Triangle Pose, or change it
- Neck injury — do not look up.
- Low blood pressure and dizziness on side-bending.
- Hamstring tear on the front leg.
- Headache or migraine, where the head position often makes it worse.
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 Extended Triangle Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeReaching the bottom hand to the floor by collapsing the chest towards the leg.
FixUse a block under the hand and keep both sides of the waist equally long.
MistakeHyperextending the front knee.
FixKeep a soft micro-bend and grip the thigh muscle instead.
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 Extended Triangle 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 Extended Triangle Pose?
Step the feet wide, turn the front foot out 90 degrees and angle the back foot slightly in. Keep both legs straight but not locked, and reach the front arm forward over the front leg. Hinge at the front hip — not at the waist — and lower the front hand to the shin, a block or the floor outside the foot. Stack the top shoulder over the bottom one and reach the top arm to the ceiling. Look up, forward or down depending on the neck, hold, then change sides. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does Extended Triangle Pose work?
Primarily the hamstrings, obliques, hip adductors, with the quadriceps, shoulders, spinal erectors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens the hamstrings and inner thigh of the front leg.
Who should not do Extended Triangle Pose?
Neck injury — do not look up. Low blood pressure and dizziness on side-bending. Hamstring tear on the front leg. Headache or migraine, where the head position often makes it worse. 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 Extended Triangle Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Extended Triangle Pose 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 Extended Triangle 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. Extended Triangle 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.
Sequences that use Extended Triangle Pose
Related poses
More standing poses — 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.