Legs · Bodyweight
Wheel Pose Urdhva Dhanurasana
How to do the wheel pose urdhva dhanurasana, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Logged as
- time
- Movement
- Extension
- Mechanic
- Compound
How to do it
Lie on your back, bend your knees with feet flat, and place your hands by your ears with fingers pointing toward your shoulders. Press through your hands and feet to lift your hips and chest into a full backbend, straightening your arms. Hold while breathing, then lower with control.
- 1A deep stretch across the chest, abs, and hip flexors
- 2Glutes and back driving the hips up
- 3Even press through hands and feet
Common mistakes
- Dumping into the low back instead of opening the whole front
- Letting the knees flare wide
- Forcing the position past your shoulder mobility
Muscles worked
The wheel pose urdhva dhanurasana mainly works the hip flexors and glutes, with the upper chest, lower back, triceps, lower traps, upper abs, lower abs, quads, hamstrings, and front delts assisting.
- Hip FlexorsPrimary
- GlutesPrimary
- Upper ChestSupport
- Lower BackSupport
- TricepsSupport
- Lower TrapsSupport
- Upper AbsSupport
- Lower AbsSupport
- QuadsSupport
- HamstringsSupport
- Front DeltsSupport
- ForearmsMinor
- LatsMinor
- Upper TrapsMinor
- Mid TrapsMinor
- ObliquesMinor
- CalvesMinor
Kovo programs the wheel pose urdhva dhanurasana for you and tracks it every session.
We build your whole program, drop the right lifts into each workout, and adjust your weights as you get stronger. Free on iOS and Android.
More hips & adductors exercises
- How to do the butterfly stretch
- How to do the external rotation
- How to do the cable hip adduction
- How to do the internal rotation
- How to do the cobra pose
- How to do the core scrunch
Last reviewed June 2026.