Monkey King Pose with Rotation to Right Leg, Hands Up

How to do Monkey King Pose with Rotation to Right Leg, Hands Up

1. 1Begin in a low lunge with your right foot forward and your hands framing the front foot.
2. 2Slowly slide your right heel forward and left foot back until you establish a stable, square Hanumanasana.
3. 3Engage your pelvic floor and scissor your inner thighs toward the midline to stabilize the pelvis.
4. 4Inhale deeply and sweep both arms overhead, extending through your fingertips while drawing your shoulder blades gently down.
5. 5Exhale and initiate a rotation from your thoracic spine, turning your chest and torso toward your right front leg.
6. 6Maintain an upward reach through both arms, keeping the sternum lifted and avoiding collapsing into the lower back.
7. 7Gaze softly past your right side while sustaining 3 to 5 steady, diaphragmatic breaths.
8. 8Inhale to rotate back to center, lower your hands to the mat, and carefully slide your legs back to a neutral kneeling position.

Benefits

• Deeply stretches the front-leg hamstrings and the back-leg hip flexors.
• Strengthens the obliques, erector spinae, and deep core stabilizers.
• Enhances thoracic spine rotational mobility while maintaining hip extension.
• Opens the chest, axilla, and latissimus dorsi through the overhead reach.
• Improves proprioception, pelvic stability, and full-body spatial awareness.
• Stimulates abdominal organs to support healthy digestion and circulation.

Common mistakes and cues

• Tilting the pelvis

  Keep both hip points squared forward rather than letting the left hip drop back to force the twist.

• Twisting from the lower back

  Initiate the rotation from your rib cage and mid-back rather than torquing the lumbar spine.

• Collapsing into the shoulders

  Reach actively through the crown of your head and fingertips without hiking the shoulders up toward the ears.

• Dumping weight into the rear knee

  Keep the back leg actively engaged and internally rotated instead of passively loading the patella.

• Holding the breath

  Maintain smooth, continuous breathing to prevent muscle tension and autonomic guarding in deep hip extension.

Modifications and props

• Block under the front thigh

  Place a yoga block beneath the right hamstring or sit bone to support the pelvis and maintain square alignment.

• Half-split base

  Practice the twist in Ardha Hanumanasana with the back knee stacked directly under the hip rather than in a full split.

• Hands at heart center

  Bring your palms into prayer at the chest to stabilize your center of gravity before attempting to raise the arms overhead.

• Wall support

  Set up alongside a wall so your right hand can make light contact to help stabilize balance during the rotation.

Cautions

• Hamstring tears or tendinopathy

  Avoid deep splits if you have acute proximal hamstring strains or inflammation near the ischial tuberosity.

• Sacroiliac joint instability

  Do not force pelvic rotation across an open split if you experience sharp or radiating pain in the lower back or pelvis.

• Shoulder impingement

  Keep the arms in a wider 'V' shape or lower them to cactus position if overhead elevation causes shoulder pinching.

• Groin and hip flexor strains

  Back out of the pose immediately if there is sharp pulling or pinching in the anterior hip capsule of the rear leg.

If you are working with an injury, pregnancy or a medical condition, check with a qualified professional before practising this pose.

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