Wheel Pose (Upward Bow Pose)
Benefits
- Considered energizing and invigorating in many yoga traditions
- Improves overall spinal flexibility
- Builds significant strength in the arms, legs, and back
- Expands the chest and lungs
- Stretches the front of the shoulders and hip flexors
How to practice — step by step
- Lie on the back with the knees bent, feet hip-width apart and close to the sitting bones, and the hands planted beside the ears with fingers pointing toward the shoulders.
- Press evenly into the hands and feet to lift the hips and chest off the floor, coming onto the crown of the head as a brief, optional stage.
- Press through the arms to straighten them, lifting the head off the floor last, once the shoulders and back feel supported — the shoulder joints are the ones under the most strain here, so ease in rather than forcing full extension.
- Draw the shoulder blades toward each other and keep the elbows from splaying outward, rather than letting them point away from the body; the hands and feet stay roughly parallel, not turned out.
- Keep pressing the feet down and lengthening through the front of the hips, distributing the backbend evenly through the whole spine rather than concentrating it in the lower back alone.
Contraindications — when to avoid or modify this pose
- Recent or unhealed injury to the wrists, shoulders, back, or neck
- Chronic low back pain, disc herniation, or spondylolisthesis
- High or low blood pressure
- Headache or migraine
- Heart conditions
- Pregnancy
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Osteoporosis or osteopenia (avoid deep backbending under load)
Muscles worked
Contract / work (engaged)
- Triceps
- Quadriceps
- Glutes
- Lower back (erector spinae)
Stretch / lengthen (released)
- Shoulders (deltoids)
- Chest (pectorals)
- Hip flexors
Chakra
Traditional association, based on common hatha yoga teaching — not a medical or scientific claim.
This pose requires significant shoulder flexibility and arm/leg strength together — building toward it gradually with poses like Bridge and Camel is safer than attempting the full expression too early.
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.