Wild Thingचमत्कारासन
Camatkārāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the glutes, chest, shoulders.
10–20SECONDS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Wild Thing is held 10–20 seconds each side, 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 Wild Thing
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
From Downward Dog, lift the right leg high and bend the right knee, opening the right hip.
Roll onto the outer edge of the left foot and take some weight into the left hand.
Step the right foot down behind you with the knee bent and the toes reaching for the mat.
Press the left hand down, lift the hips and sweep the right arm overhead past the ear.
Look towards the raised hand if the neck allows, hold briefly, then step back to Downward Dog and change sides.
Hold: 10–20 seconds each side. 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 Wild Thing 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.
- Extends the spine with the bodyweight balanced on one hand and two feet.
- Loads the glute of the stepped-back leg to hold the hips high.
- Opens the chest and the front of the shoulder through a wide overhead reach.
Wild Thing is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Wild Thing, or change it
- Wrist injury, since one hand takes most of the upper-body weight.
- Shoulder instability or a rotator cuff injury on the supporting side.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, where a one-armed arch is not advisable.
- Neck injury — keep the gaze down or forward rather than turning to the hand.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which the twisted hip position can provoke.
- Pregnancy from the second trimester onward.
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 Wild Thing
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHips sinking so the arch drops into the lower back and the shoulder collapses.
FixPress the supporting hand down firmly and squeeze the back glute to drive the hips up.
MistakeFlinging into the shape from Downward Dog with no control.
FixMove through it slowly and step the back foot down deliberately, keeping weight in both feet.
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. Wild Thing 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 Wild Thing?
From Downward Dog, lift the right leg high and bend the right knee, opening the right hip. Roll onto the outer edge of the left foot and take some weight into the left hand. Step the right foot down behind you with the knee bent and the toes reaching for the mat. Press the left hand down, lift the hips and sweep the right arm overhead past the ear. Look towards the raised hand if the neck allows, hold briefly, then step back to Downward Dog and change sides. Hold for 10–20 seconds each side.
What does Wild Thing work?
Primarily the glutes, chest, shoulders, with the quadriceps, spinal erectors, obliques assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: extends the spine with the bodyweight balanced on one hand and two feet.
Who should not do Wild Thing?
Wrist injury, since one hand takes most of the upper-body weight. Shoulder instability or a rotator cuff injury on the supporting side. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, where a one-armed arch is not advisable. Neck injury — keep the gaze down or forward rather than turning to the hand. Sacroiliac irritation, which the twisted hip position can provoke. Pregnancy from the second trimester onward. 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 Wild Thing suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Wild Thing 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 backbends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Wild Thing 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. Wild Thing 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 backbends on the wall
More backbends — 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
The people behind these sites
Follow the build
This site and nine others like it are built and photographed by two people: Amit Sharma — behind the build; Geeta Patel — the poses, demonstrated. New work goes up on Instagram and Facebook before it reaches a page here.
Amit Sharma
@amitsharmaofficial
Instagram
Geeta Patel
@geetapatelnz
Instagram
Geeta Patel
GeetaPatelYoga
Facebook
Following changes nothing here — every page stays open, with no account and no wall.
