Extended Side Angle Pose
उत्थित पार्श्वकोणासन
Utthita Pārśvakoṇāsana — a beginner standing pose that works the quadriceps, obliques, hip adductors.
How to do Extended Side Angle Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Set up as for Warrior II with the front knee bent over the ankle.
Lower the front forearm onto the front thigh, or take the hand to a block outside the front foot.
Reach the top arm over the ear so the whole top side makes one long diagonal from the back heel.
Keep the chest turning upward rather than rolling towards the floor.
Hold, then press through the back foot to come up, and 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 Side Angle 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 entire side body from the back heel to the top fingertips.
- Loads the front quadriceps under a deep bend for the length of the hold.
- Opens the front hip into external rotation while the back leg stays straight.
Extended Side Angle 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 Side Angle Pose, or change it
- Knee injury on the bent leg.
- Shoulder injury — keep the top arm on the hip.
- Neck injury: look forward or down instead of up.
- High blood pressure or headache, where the extended overhead arm is uncomfortable.
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 Side Angle Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLeaning the whole weight into the forearm on the thigh.
FixUse it as a light rest, not a prop — hold the chest with the side waist.
MistakeBack heel lifting off the floor.
FixShorten the stance until the outer back foot stays grounded.
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 Side Angle 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 Side Angle Pose?
Set up as for Warrior II with the front knee bent over the ankle. Lower the front forearm onto the front thigh, or take the hand to a block outside the front foot. Reach the top arm over the ear so the whole top side makes one long diagonal from the back heel. Keep the chest turning upward rather than rolling towards the floor. Hold, then press through the back foot to come up, and change sides. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does Extended Side Angle Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, obliques, hip adductors, with the glutes, shoulders, latissimus dorsi assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens the entire side body from the back heel to the top fingertips.
Who should not do Extended Side Angle Pose?
Knee injury on the bent leg. Shoulder injury — keep the top arm on the hip. Neck injury: look forward or down instead of up. High blood pressure or headache, where the extended overhead arm is uncomfortable. 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 Side Angle Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Extended Side Angle 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 Side Angle 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 Side Angle 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 Side Angle 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.