Upward Plank Poseपूर्वोत्तानासन
Pūrvottānāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the glutes, hamstrings, shoulders.
15–30SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Upward Plank Pose is held 15–30 seconds, 2 rounds, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
ਸਰੋਤ·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
How to do Upward Plank Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with the legs straight forward and the hands about a hand's width behind the hips, fingers pointing towards the feet.
Press the heels down and firm the legs together.
Push through the hands and heels and lift the hips until the body makes one straight line from shoulders to feet.
Point the toes towards the mat and open the chest by rolling the shoulders back.
Let the head drop back only if the neck is easy, hold, then lower the hips with control.
Hold: 15–30 seconds, 2 rounds. 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 Upward Plank 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.
- Strengthens the glutes and hamstrings in full hip extension with the body horizontal.
- Loads the shoulders and wrists in extension behind the body.
- Opens the entire front line from the ankles to the collarbones.
Upward Plank Pose 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 Upward Plank Pose, or change it
- Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome, since the wrists are loaded in extension — use fists or take the reverse tabletop version.
- Shoulder impingement, which the arms-behind position readily aggravates.
- Neck injury: keep the head upright rather than dropping it back.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, where the sustained hip extension can pinch — bend the knees instead.
- Pregnancy from the second trimester, where the shape is impractical and the abdominal wall is under stretch.
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 Upward Plank Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHips sagging so the pose becomes a hang from the shoulders.
FixSqueeze the glutes hard and drive the pubic bone towards the ceiling before checking anything else.
MistakeHead thrown back the moment the hips lift.
FixLift the sternum first and keep the neck long; the head goes last, or not at all.
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. Upward Plank Pose sits at code 02150, ਯੋਗਾ, ਹਠ, 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 ਮਿੰਟ | 20 ਮਿੰਟ | 30 ਮਿੰਟ | 45 ਮਿੰਟ | 60 ਮਿੰਟ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
ਸਰੋਤ·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Upward Plank Pose?
Sit with the legs straight forward and the hands about a hand's width behind the hips, fingers pointing towards the feet. Press the heels down and firm the legs together. Push through the hands and heels and lift the hips until the body makes one straight line from shoulders to feet. Point the toes towards the mat and open the chest by rolling the shoulders back. Let the head drop back only if the neck is easy, hold, then lower the hips with control. Hold for 15–30 seconds, 2 rounds.
What does Upward Plank Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, hamstrings, shoulders, with the spinal erectors, chest, triceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: strengthens the glutes and hamstrings in full hip extension with the body horizontal.
Who should not do Upward Plank Pose?
Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome, since the wrists are loaded in extension — use fists or take the reverse tabletop version. Shoulder impingement, which the arms-behind position readily aggravates. Neck injury: keep the head upright rather than dropping it back. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, where the sustained hip extension can pinch — bend the knees instead. Pregnancy from the second trimester, where the shape is impractical and the abdominal wall is under stretch. 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 Upward Plank Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Upward Plank Pose 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 Upward Plank 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. Upward Plank 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 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 ਅਤੇ 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.
ਸਰੋਤ·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
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