Five-Pointed Star Poseउत्थित ताड़ासन
Utthita Tāḍāsana — a beginner standing pose that works the hip abductors, shoulders, quadriceps.
30–60SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Five-Pointed Star Pose is held 30–60 seconds, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Five-Pointed Star Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Step the feet wide apart with the outer edges roughly parallel.
Stretch the arms out to the sides at shoulder height, palms down.
Press evenly through both feet and firm both thighs.
Lengthen through the crown and reach actively out through both fingertips.
Hold with slow breathing, then step the feet together.
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 Five-Pointed Star 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.
- Loads the shoulders isometrically at shoulder height.
- Broadens the chest and works the muscles between the shoulder blades.
- Builds a wide, stable stance that most standing poses are built from.
Five-Pointed Star 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 Five-Pointed Star Pose, or change it
- Shoulder injury — lower the arms.
- High blood pressure with long arms-out holds.
- Groin strain, which a very wide stance can aggravate.
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 Five-Pointed Star Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeRibs flaring so the low back arches.
FixSoften the front ribs and firm the lower belly.
MistakeArms drooping below shoulder height.
FixReach out rather than up, and lower the arms when the shoulders fatigue.
How the energy figure on a yoga timetable is reached
- Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart, so no per-pose figure is published here — not by this site and not by anyone.
- The pose is matched to the nearest style of practice in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Five-Pointed Star Pose sits at code 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET.
- That MET value is put through the standard ACSM relationship for a stated reference adult of 70 kg.
- The result is the cost of a practice of that kind for as long as you practise — not the cost of holding this one shape.
- Scale it to yourself: the relationship is linear in body mass, so multiply by your own weight in kilograms and divide by 70.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200
= 2.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 3.06 kcal per minute
The same practice, hour by hour
Read it the way you would read a timetable: pick the length of session you actually sit down for, and that is the figure.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Five-Pointed Star Pose?
Step the feet wide apart with the outer edges roughly parallel. Stretch the arms out to the sides at shoulder height, palms down. Press evenly through both feet and firm both thighs. Lengthen through the crown and reach actively out through both fingertips. Hold with slow breathing, then step the feet together. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does Five-Pointed Star Pose work?
Primarily the hip abductors, shoulders, quadriceps, with the hip adductors, spinal erectors, abdominals assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the shoulders isometrically at shoulder height.
Who should not do Five-Pointed Star Pose?
Shoulder injury — lower the arms. High blood pressure with long arms-out holds. Groin strain, which a very wide stance can aggravate. 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 Five-Pointed Star Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Five-Pointed Star 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 Five-Pointed Star 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. Five-Pointed Star 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.
The rest of the standing poses on the wall
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 and what it is written from. 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.
SOURCE·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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