Quads exercise
Extended Side Angle (Utthita Parsvakonasana)How to do it, with form in numbers
- Also works
- Adductors, Glutes
- Equipment
- Yoga mat
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
How do you do the Extended Side Angle?
- Start in Warrior II with your left knee bent over your ankle.
- Lower your body to the side and rest your left forearm on your left thigh.
- Reach your right arm over your ear, in one line with your back leg.
- Turn your chest open and look up under your top arm.
- Hold for 5 breaths, come up on a breath in and repeat on the other side.
Cues
- One long line from the back heel to the top fingertips.
- Front knee over the ankle.
- Chest open; don't sink onto the bottom arm.
Common mistakes
- Collapsing onto the thigh: press lightly and lift through the bottom side of your waist.
- Top arm drifting forward: reach it over your ear.
- Back foot rolling in: press the outer edge down.
Form in detail
What does good form look like?
The version in our demo
The forearm-on-thigh version Yoga Journal gives as the first option: Warrior II legs, the bottom forearm resting on the front thigh, the top arm reaching over the ear in one line with the back leg. Shown with the left leg forward; repeat on the right.
Starting position
Warrior II (warrior2).
The position
Keep the front knee bent straight over the ankle and the back leg straight with the outer edge of the back foot down. Lower the trunk sideways over the front thigh and rest the bottom forearm along it, lightly (no slumping onto it). Sweep the top arm over the ear so it continues the line of the back leg, palm facing down. Turn the chest open to the long side of the mat and look up under the top arm.
Breathing
Lengthen from the back heel to the top fingertips on the in-breath.
Tempo
A held pose through one slow breath, 6 s: in-breath 2.5 s, the top arm reaches about 1.5 cm longer and the head lifts a little; out-breath 3.5 s, back. Legs, hips and the bottom arm stay put. Real practice: 5 breaths each side.
Form in numbers
What are the angles and distances?
- Front knee flexion about 88° (shin within 3° of vertical); back knee straight (under 7°).
- Pelvis tipped about 10° over the front leg and the spine bent sideways about 32°: the shoulder line about 32° from vertical (the forearm version sits higher than the hand-to-floor version).
- Bottom elbow resting on top of the thigh just behind the knee (within 1 cm), elbow bent about 110–120°, palm down, the hand towards the hip.
- Top arm in one line with the back leg (within 1°), elbow straight (about 12°).
- Head turned about 40° to look up.
The targets our 3D demo was built to, from the references below. Bodies differ, so treat the ranges as a guide for your own build.
For coaches
Use this demo in your clients’ programs
The Extended Side Angle is in Trainaq’s exercise library. Add it to a workout, and your client sees this demo in the free Trainaq app above the sets they log.
Sources
Sources
- Yoga Journal pose library, "Extended Side Angle Pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana)"
- B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga (1966), Utthita Parsvakonasana.
- American Council on Exercise (ACE) exercise library, "Extended Side Angle".
