Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose
उत्थित हस्त पादांगुष्ठासन
Utthita Hasta Pādāṅguṣṭhāsana — an advanced balance pose that works the hamstrings, hip flexors, gluteus medius.
How to do Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand tall and shift your weight fully onto one leg.
Draw the other knee up towards the chest and hold the big toe, the outer foot, or a strap around the arch.
Extend the lifted leg forward as far as it goes with the standing leg straight.
Once steady, open the lifted leg out to the side, keeping both hips level.
Return to centre, lower with control, and change sides.
Hold: 5–15 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 Hand-to-Big-Toe 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.
- Combines an active hamstring stretch with single-leg balance.
- Loads the hip flexors of the lifted leg to hold it up without help.
- Trains the outer hip of the standing leg to keep the pelvis level.
Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose is one of 31 balance poses in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses held on a reduced base — one foot, two hands, or the forearms.
Who should skip Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose, or change it
- Hamstring strain on either leg.
- Ankle or knee injury on the standing side.
- Vertigo or balance loss — use a wall.
- Sacroiliac irritation when the leg opens to the side.
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 Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeCollapsing the standing side and hiking the lifted hip.
FixLevel the hips first and lower the lifted leg until they stay level.
MistakeRounding the back to reach the toe.
FixUse a strap around the foot and keep the spine tall.
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 Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02175, yoga, Power, 4 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 | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
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 Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose?
Stand tall and shift your weight fully onto one leg. Draw the other knee up towards the chest and hold the big toe, the outer foot, or a strap around the arch. Extend the lifted leg forward as far as it goes with the standing leg straight. Once steady, open the lifted leg out to the side, keeping both hips level. Return to centre, lower with control, and change sides. Hold for 5–15 seconds.
What does Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose work?
Primarily the hamstrings, hip flexors, gluteus medius, with the quadriceps, abdominals, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: combines an active hamstring stretch with single-leg balance.
Who should not do Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose?
Hamstring strain on either leg. Ankle or knee injury on the standing side. Vertigo or balance loss — use a wall. Sacroiliac irritation when the leg opens to the side. 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 Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate balance poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe 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 Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02175, yoga, Power, at 4 MET — about 147 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 Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose
Related poses
More balance 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.