Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose) is a balancing posture in which you raise one leg at hip level and hold onto its big toe with your hand. It’s a pose that can make you feel powerful—and build on your strength and flexibility, particularly in the back of your legs and your ankles.

If you have tight hamstrings and can’t straighten your leg while keeping your spine straight, use a strap, practice with a bent lifted knee, or hold your knee instead of your toe. Find the variation that works best for you—and your body’s needs.

If you fall out of this pose, don’t be harsh on yourself. Falling out of postures is ok, says yoga teacher Noah Mazé, founder of The Mazé Method. “That’s why we call it yoga practice: Your practice on the mat is training you for your practice off the mat.”

Sanskrit

Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana

utthita = extended

hasta = hand

pada = foot

angusta = big toe

asana = pose

Extended Hand-To-Big-Toe Pose I Basics

Pose Type: Standing balance

Targets: Lower body

Benefits: Extended Hand-to-Big Toe Pose improves balance, postural and body awareness, and can boost energy and fight fatigue. It can help build confidence and empowerment, improves posture, and counteracts the effects of prolonged sitting and doing computer work. On the lifted leg, the back of your thigh (hamstring), calf, and inner thigh (adductor) get stretched. On the standing leg, your thigh, buttock (glute), and around your ankle get strengthened.

How to

1. From Tadasana, press into the big toe mounds, and observe the natural curve of the low back (pelvis is neither spilling forward nor backward) and the evenness on the two sides of the torso.
2. Firm the left leg, without hyperextending the left knee, then bend the right leg and clasp the big toe with the first two fingers of the right hand.
3. Press the right foot forward and notice the effect throughout the rest of the body.
4. Lift the sternum up and restore some of the curve of the lower back.
5. Find an anterior tilt of the pelvis to deepen the work in the hamstrings.
6. Notice if the right hip is hiked up higher than the left hip.
7. Descend the right hip down and in toward the left foot in order to bring symmetry back to the torso; do this without compromising the straightness or neutrality of the left leg.
8. Hold for anywhere from a few breaths to a couple of minutes.
9. Take a complete cycle of breath, using the exhale to root down firmly with the left foot.
10. Hold for anywhere from a few breaths to a couple of minutes, then, use an exhale to recommit to the rootedness of the left foot.
11. Release and repeat on the other side.

Beginner’s Tip

You can hold this pose longer by supporting the raised-leg foot on the top edge of a chair back (padded with a blanket). Set the chair an inch or two from a wall and press your raised heel firmly to the wall.

Teaching Utthita Hasta Padangustasana

These tips will help protect your students from injury and help them have the best experience of the pose:

• Don’t allow your pelvis to overly lift on the outstretched-leg side. Instead, keep your pelvis parallel to the floor as best you can. If it lifts, the elevated leg internally rotates and can contribute to instability in the hamstrings, hips, and pelvis.
• Don’t sink or slump your weight into the hip of your standing leg, causing it to move away from the midline. If this happens, it means that the glutes are not engaged, creating instability in the outer hip and pelvis.

Variations

Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose I with lateral leg position

The pose can be practiced with the lifted leg in a lateral position. From the original pose, maintain the lift and extension of your leg as you slowly sweep it out and away from the midline of your body. Bring it out to the side or as far as your hip flexibility will allow.

Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose I with bent knee

If your hamstrings are tight, you can practice the pose by keeping your lifted leg bent. Shift your weight into your standing leg, lift the opposite knee up high and hold it with one or both hands.

Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose I with a strap

From Tasasana, loop a strap under the arch of your left foot, and hold both ends in your left hand. Shift your weight into your right leg and, finding balance, lift your left leg straight out and up, using the strap for support. Press your foot into the strap, rather than pulling the strap toward you.

Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose I on a chair

Sit toward the front of a sturdy chair. (Place it on a mat and/or against the wall to make sure it does not slide.) Straighten and extend your right leg and flex your foot, keeping your heel on the ground. Fold forward at your hip and reach your right hand toward your foot. Grasp your big toe with your first two fingers.

Reclining Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose I

Try this pose on your back so you can focus on your raised leg instead of balancing, and it prevents rounding forward of the spine (spinal flexion).

Preparatory and Counter Poses

Preparatory Poses

• Virabhadrasana I (Warrior Pose I)
• Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
• Supta Padangusthasana I (Reclining Hand-to-Big Toe Pose I)
• Vrksasana (Tree Pose)

Counter Poses

• Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend)
• Tadasana (Mountain Pose)