Standing Straddle
समकोणासन
Samakoṇāsana — an intermediate standing pose that works the hamstrings, hip adductors.
How to do Standing Straddle
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand with the feet very wide, outer edges parallel and both legs straight.
Place the hands on the hips and lengthen the spine upward.
Hinge forward from the hip creases until the torso is horizontal.
Rest the hands on a chair seat or two blocks so the back can stay flat.
Hold with the chest broad, then come up with a long spine.
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 Standing Straddle 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 both hamstrings and both inner thighs with the spine held long.
- Trains a horizontal hip hinge, which protects the back when lifting.
- Requires the spinal erectors to hold extension for the whole hold.
Standing Straddle 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 Standing Straddle, or change it
- Hamstring or adductor strain.
- Low back injury — raise the hands higher.
- High blood pressure with the torso low.
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 Standing Straddle
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLetting the back round once the hamstrings stop giving.
FixRaise the hands and reduce the fold; a flat back is the whole point.
MistakeWeight sitting back into the heels.
FixShift the hips slightly forward so the shins stay vertical.
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 Standing Straddle 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 Standing Straddle?
Stand with the feet very wide, outer edges parallel and both legs straight. Place the hands on the hips and lengthen the spine upward. Hinge forward from the hip creases until the torso is horizontal. Rest the hands on a chair seat or two blocks so the back can stay flat. Hold with the chest broad, then come up with a long spine. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does Standing Straddle work?
Primarily the hamstrings, hip adductors, with the spinal erectors, shoulders, calves assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads both hamstrings and both inner thighs with the spine held long.
Who should not do Standing Straddle?
Hamstring or adductor strain. Low back injury — raise the hands higher. High blood pressure with the torso low. 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 Standing Straddle suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Standing Straddle 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 Standing Straddle 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. Standing Straddle 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.
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.