Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose

Instructions

1. 1Stand in Tadasana, shift your weight onto your left foot, and bend your right knee toward your chest.
2. 2Loop your right index and middle fingers around your right big toe, or hold the inner arch of the foot.
3. 3Straighten your standing leg fully and engage the standing hip to stabilize the pelvis.
4. 4Begin to extend the right leg forward, straightening it as fully as your hamstring flexibility allows.
5. 5Keep the torso upright — avoid collapsing the chest or hiking the shoulder of the raised arm.
6. 6Once stable, open the right leg out to the right side if you wish to deepen the pose.
7. 7Hold for five breaths, release the foot with control, and repeat on the left side.

Contraindications & precautions

• ⚠Hamstring tear or acute sciatic nerve irritation — the intense hip flexion and knee extension directly load the sciatic pathway and hamstring origin.
• ⚠Ankle instability or recent sprain — the standing foot bears the entire body weight on a single joint without support.
• ⚠Inner ear disorders affecting balance — the prolonged single-leg stance amplifies any existing difficulty with equilibrium.