Extended Side Angle Pose

The Extended Side Angle, or Prasarita Padottanasana, is an extension yoga pose that works your legs, arms, and stance. This posture is slightly challenging but can also feel extremely invigorating.

Extended Side Angle will help you improve your balance, bring flexibility to your shoulders and legs, stretch your side body, and boost your energy, as it is a standing balance pose that works your core muscles and engages your abdominal organs. 

Extended Side Angle Pose Basics

This standing balance yoga pose is all about extension and engages your entire body. You should feel it from the outer heel of your foot to your fingertips.

The posture will also engage your arms, oblique muscles, side body, and rib cage.

If you’re new to yoga, you should make sure you keep pressing the floor with both feet to give your spine lightness and protect your body. 

Benefits of the Extended Side Angle Pose

Utthita Parsvakonasana teaches you to align your body vertically and stand upright. It’s an excellent deep stretch and bound angle pose for presence and engagement and to expand your sense of self.

If you spend a lot of time sitting and doing computer work, the Extended Side Angle pose will boost your energy and help you fight fatigue.

Additionally, it can aid you with high blood pressure and menstrual discomfort, and make you feel more empowered and confident in yourself. 

Extended Side Angle Pose: Step-by-step Instructions

1. You should begin this yoga pose in Tadasana or Mountain Pose.
2. From standing, step your left leg back 3 ½ to 4 feet and bring your right and left feet parallel. 
3. Turn your right foot out at a 90-degree angle. Your toes should be facing the short end of your mat.
4. Your back left foot should be at a 90-degree angle to the front foot. The front heels should bisect the front of the arch of the back foot. 
5. Inhale, bring your arms up to shoulder height, energized, and parallel to the floor in a straight line.
6. Bend your front knee at 90 degrees over the ankle. Your front right thigh should be parallel to the floor, your outer right knee facing forward. Your hips should be squared to the sidewall. 
7. Exhale and bend to the right, bringing your right-hand fingertips to the floor just outside your front foot. Inhale and reach your top (left) arm straight up to the ceiling, then lower your arm alongside your ear, palms facing down. 
8. Gaze up to the ceiling or down to the floor.
9. Hold the pose and breathe for five slow full breaths. 
10. Inhale as you come up, exhale and step your feet together. Come back to Tadasana or Mountain Pose.

Common Mistakes of Extended Side Angle Pose

There are some common mistakes you should try to avoid when practicing the Extended Side Angle bound extended yoga pose.

The first is to try not to crunch your side waist as you bend. If you have trouble doing the posture, you can rest your arm on your thigh to keep your side waist elongated. 

Pay special attention to your bent knee (your right knee, if you followed our step-by-step instructions).

It should be stacked above the right ankle, pointing in the same direction your toes are pointing.

Make sure you check the angle of both parts of your body when you do the Extended Side Angle pose and watch also for the position of your pinky toe and front toes. 

If you’ve suffered from a shoulder injury before, place your top hand on your hip instead of lifting the arm up. You can also use a yoga block to aid you. 

Variations of Extended Side Angle Pose

There are some variations you can try for the Extended Side Angle or Utthita Parsvakonasanain your yoga practice. 

If you can’t easily touch your lower hand fingertips to the floor, you can use a yoga block or rest your forearm on the top of your bent knee’s thigh.

Then, press down with your forearm, so your bottom shoulder doesn’t crowd your neck. 

You can combine the Extended Side Angle pose with Reversed Warrior. Flow from Extended Side Angle to Reversed Warrior on exhale, and from Reversed Warrior to Extended Side Angle when you inhale. 

Your body weight will try to shift the ball of your front foot on Utthita Parsvakonasana. You can counteract this by lifting it and feeling the anchor of your back foot.

Make sure you resist the floor with your back foot, but also allow the top of your back thigh bone to sink into the hip deeper. Then let the ball of the front foot to rest back on the floor again. 

How To Teach Extended Side Angle Pose

To protect your yoga students from injury and help them achieve the best Extended Side Angle or Utthita Parsvakonasana pose, make sure the knees are held firmly in place.

Bending one leg and extending the other is a dual-action that lengthens your inner thighs and gluteal muscles, strengthening, in turn, your outer leg muscles. In addition, the hips should always remain stable.

Utthita Parsvakonasana is about extension and space. For example, students should lengthen along both sides of the body so the torso has room to open.

One way to aid in this is to place the supporting hand on the floor or a yoga block so they can fully extend the upper arm.

The way to tell if the Extended Side Angle is working is to feel an opening across the chest and collarbones. 

Accessories for Utthita Parsvakonasana or Extended Side Angle Pose

You can use the following accessories to help you in your Extended Side Angle pose:

• Yoga bolsters
• Yoga blocks
• Yoga mats

Conclusion

The Extended Side Angle pose or Utthita Parsvakonasana is a perfect yoga pose for practicing engagement and presence.

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This posture can stretch:

• Your legs (right leg, left leg, right knee, left knee, right ankle, left ankle, and toes)
• Arms (right arm and left arm)
• Hips (right hip and left hip)
• Shoulders (right shoulder and left shoulder)
• Armpits (right armpit and left armpit)
• Elbows (right elbow and left elbow)
• Abdominal muscles, and torso and make you feel more invigorated. 

You should practice the Extended Side Angle pose to fight fatigue and boost energy, especially if you spend long periods of time sitting in front of a computer.

If you do this pose correctly, you will feel your lower and upper body stretch and also feel more confident and empowered.