High Crescent Lunge
उत्थित अश्व संचालनासन
Utthita Aśva Sañcālanāsana — an intermediate standing pose that works the quadriceps, glutes, hip flexors.
How to do High Crescent Lunge
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
From a forward fold, step the right foot back and keep the back knee lifted with the heel high.
Bend the front knee towards a right angle, stacked over the ankle.
Draw the back thigh up and lengthen the tailbone towards the back heel.
Sweep the arms overhead alongside the ears with the front ribs drawn in.
Hold with steady breathing, 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 High Crescent Lunge 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.
- Loads the front quadriceps and glute deeply on an unstable narrow base.
- Stretches the hip flexors of the lifted back leg under tension.
- Trains the trunk to stay stacked with the arms overhead.
High Crescent Lunge is one of 18 standing poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses built on the feet, where the legs carry the work and the floor is the reference point.
Who should skip High Crescent Lunge, or change it
- Knee injury on the front leg.
- Ankle injury on the back foot, which is on the ball of the foot throughout.
- Shoulder injury — keep the hands at the chest.
- Low back pain if the ribs flare.
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 High Crescent Lunge
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeBack hip sinking so the pelvis tips forward.
FixLift the back thigh and lengthen the tailbone down.
MistakeHips too wide apart or too narrow, wobbling side to side.
FixStep the back foot slightly wider than the front for a stable base.
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 High Crescent Lunge 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 High Crescent Lunge?
From a forward fold, step the right foot back and keep the back knee lifted with the heel high. Bend the front knee towards a right angle, stacked over the ankle. Draw the back thigh up and lengthen the tailbone towards the back heel. Sweep the arms overhead alongside the ears with the front ribs drawn in. Hold with steady breathing, then change sides. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does High Crescent Lunge work?
Primarily the quadriceps, glutes, hip flexors, with the calves, spinal erectors, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the front quadriceps and glute deeply on an unstable narrow base.
Who should not do High Crescent Lunge?
Knee injury on the front leg. Ankle injury on the back foot, which is on the ball of the foot throughout. Shoulder injury — keep the hands at the chest. Low back pain if the ribs flare. 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 High Crescent Lunge suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. High Crescent Lunge 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 standing poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does High Crescent Lunge 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. High Crescent Lunge 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 High Crescent Lunge
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.