Bound Angle Pose
Benefits
- Opens the hips and groin
- Stretches the inner thighs
- Can help ease mild low-back tension when the spine stays long
- Calming and grounding, often used toward the end of a practice
- Stimulates the abdominal organs when folding forward
How to practice — step by step
- Sit tall with a neutral spine and pelvis, and bring the soles of the feet together, letting the knees open out to the sides as the hips rotate outward.
- Let the shoulders settle down and back rather than hunching forward, keeping the collarbones broad.
- Hold the feet, ankles, or shins with the hands — as the elbows bend to draw the feet closer, the forearms do the work, so there's no need to force the knees down.
- Lengthen the spine on an inhale before folding forward from the hips, if folding at all — the fold is optional, not the goal of the pose.
- Let the knees release toward the floor under their own weight; how close they get depends partly on individual hip-socket and pelvis shape, not just on flexibility, so don't force them down with the hands or elbows.
Contraindications — when to avoid or modify this pose
- Groin or knee injury
- Sciatica (may need extra height under the hips)
- Low back injury (avoid rounding forcefully when folding forward)
Muscles worked
Contract / work (engaged)
- Forearms
- Core / abdominals
Stretch / lengthen (released)
- Hip flexors
- Inner thighs (adductors)
- Calves
Chakra
Traditional association, based on common hatha yoga teaching — not a medical or scientific claim.
Sitting on the edge of a folded blanket, so the hips are higher than the knees, makes it much easier to keep the spine long instead of rounding the low back.
This pose was added in the first post-launch catalog-expansion batch (17 sept 2026). While drafting it, the site creator found it is in fact one of the thirty postures profiled in the same professional anatomy book used for many of the original 18 poses (Round 4) — so its alignment cues and muscle notes below were cross-checked against that book's illustrated breakdown and rewritten in this site's own words; no text or diagrams were copied from it.
This page is for general education only and is not a substitute for guidance from a qualified yoga teacher or medical professional. If you have an injury, a chronic condition, or are pregnant, consult a doctor and a certified instructor before practicing this pose.