Wheel PosePose Reference
Camera angles
Wheel Pose lifts the wooden figure into a full back bend on straight arms and bent legs, hands planted under the shoulders and hips at the top of the arch.
Tags: yogawheelback bendhands and feetfull body
How to draw the Wheel Pose pose
three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
Four contacts carry the body: two hands with the fingers turned toward the feet, and two feet flat on the floor about hip-width apart. The arms are straight and nearly vertical, the shins lean slightly back, and the trunk bows upward between them in a deep arch, hips highest and chest close behind. The head hangs freely between the arms, upside down, with the face looking back toward the floor between the hands. Because both ends push up, the arch is active spinal extension, not a body draped over something.
Seen from the figure's left, wheel pose makes an almost semicircular outline, the best of the six views for checking that the curve spreads across the whole spine instead of folding sharply at the waist. The front view, from beyond the feet, looks between the knees at the hanging head, so the pelvis becomes a broad cap over a tunnel of limbs. The back view, from behind the head, shows the hands, wrists and arms framing the face. The high angle flattens the arch but helps compare hand and foot width.
More on angles and common mistakes
The most common mistake is bending the elbows, which drops the head toward the floor and turns the shape into a struggle. Keep the arms long and stacked over the wrists. Don't turn the fingers away from the feet either; they point toward the heels. Knees drifting wide is another frequent slip, so keep the thighs roughly parallel. Without hair or clothing the mannequin hides nothing, so if you add a ponytail or a loose shirt, let them fall toward the floor, away from the arch.
Wheel pose is useful for yoga and gymnastics illustration, acrobat characters, dance posters and studies of a body holding a span between hands and feet. Edit this pose by lifting one foot and straightening that leg toward the ceiling for a one-legged wheel, then check the side view to keep the hips level.
Free to use (CC0). The pose images on this page are released under CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication). Use them for drawing practice, commercial illustration, reference sheets or AI image generation; no attribution is required. A credit to PoseMaker is appreciated but optional.
Wheel Pose pose prompt
Copy a prompt for your AI image generator. Pair it with the OpenPose skeleton in ControlNet so the generated character matches this exact pose.
General prompt
A person in yoga wheel pose on a plain floor: a full back bend pushed up on straight arms and bent legs, hands planted under the shoulders with fingers toward the feet, feet flat hip-width apart, hips at the top of a deep arch, head hanging between the arms.
Midjourney
full body person in yoga wheel pose, full back bend, straight arms, hands under shoulders, fingers toward feet, feet flat hip width, hips highest point of deep arch, head hanging between arms, side view, plain background --ar 3:2 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, full body, wheel pose, urdhva dhanurasana, yoga, backbend, arched back, straight arms, hands on floor, feet on floor, knees bent, upside down head, hanging head, flexibility, side view, plain background, simple background, athletic wear
Negative prompt
bent elbows, head on floor, fingers pointing away, flat back, sagging hips, knees splayed wide, lying on back, feet lifted, extra arms, extra legs, broken spine, twisted wrists, cropped hands, nsfw
OpenPose skeleton for ControlNet
Load the PNG into a ControlNet OpenPose unit (preprocessor: none), or import the JSON into an OpenPose editor.
Have a photo of the pose you want?
Upload it to Photo to Pose. We detect the pose in your browser and put it on the mannequin, ready to adjust.