Downward-Facing Hero Poseअधो मुख वीरासन
Adho Mukha Vīrāsana — a beginner forward bend that works the spinal erectors, latissimus dorsi, quadriceps.
1–3MINUTES HELD
One line on the timetable. Downward-Facing Hero Pose is held 1–3 minutes, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Downward-Facing Hero Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Kneel with the knees about hip-width apart and the big toes touching behind you.
Sit the hips back towards the heels, using a folded blanket between the seat and the heels if there is a gap.
Walk the hands forward along the floor and stretch the arms out in front, palms down.
Lower the forehead to the floor, a block or a bolster, whichever arrives first.
Press the hands down and lengthen the side ribs away from the hips, then hold and breathe into the back.
Hold: 1–3 minutes. Keep the breath moving throughout — if you are holding it, the pose is too much for today.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Downward-Facing Hero Pose does
Described mechanically — what the movement does to muscle and joint. Not a list of conditions it treats, because a pose does not treat conditions.
- Lengthens the spine and the broad back muscles as the hips travel away from the hands.
- Holds the quadriceps and ankles in the deep flexion of a kneeling seat.
- Takes the shoulders into overhead flexion with the floor giving feedback to the palms.
Downward-Facing Hero Pose is one of 22 forward bends in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that fold the torso towards the legs, lengthening the whole back line of the body.
Who should skip Downward-Facing Hero Pose, or change it
- Knee injury or meniscus repair — place a rolled blanket behind the knees or skip.
- Ankle injury: roll a towel under the ankles.
- Pregnancy, where the knees need to be wide so the belly has room.
- Shoulder impingement — take the arms wider or rest them alongside the body.
General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts. If you are pregnant, recovering from surgery or managing any health condition, ask your doctor before starting a practice, and learn the pose itself from a qualified teacher who can see you move.
Common mistakes in Downward-Facing Hero Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHips floating well above the heels so the fold never settles.
FixPut a bolster on the heels and sit on it; the shape needs a floor to release into.
MistakeShoulders bunching towards the ears with the arms stretched forward.
FixWiden the hands and draw the shoulder blades down the back.
How the energy figure on a yoga timetable is reached
- Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart, so no per-pose figure is published here — not by this site and not by anyone.
- The pose is matched to the nearest style of practice in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Downward-Facing Hero Pose sits at code 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET.
- That MET value is put through the standard ACSM relationship for a stated reference adult of 70 kg.
- The result is the cost of a practice of that kind for as long as you practise — not the cost of holding this one shape.
- Scale it to yourself: the relationship is linear in body mass, so multiply by your own weight in kilograms and divide by 70.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200
= 2.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 3.06 kcal per minute
The same practice, hour by hour
Read it the way you would read a timetable: pick the length of session you actually sit down for, and that is the figure.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Downward-Facing Hero Pose?
Kneel with the knees about hip-width apart and the big toes touching behind you. Sit the hips back towards the heels, using a folded blanket between the seat and the heels if there is a gap. Walk the hands forward along the floor and stretch the arms out in front, palms down. Lower the forehead to the floor, a block or a bolster, whichever arrives first. Press the hands down and lengthen the side ribs away from the hips, then hold and breathe into the back. Hold for 1–3 minutes.
What does Downward-Facing Hero Pose work?
Primarily the spinal erectors, latissimus dorsi, quadriceps, with the shoulders, ankles, lower back assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens the spine and the broad back muscles as the hips travel away from the hands.
Who should not do Downward-Facing Hero Pose?
Knee injury or meniscus repair — place a rolled blanket behind the knees or skip. Ankle injury: roll a towel under the ankles. Pregnancy, where the knees need to be wide so the belly has room. Shoulder impingement — take the arms wider or rest them alongside the body. This is general information, not medical advice — if any of these apply to you, ask your doctor and learn the pose with a qualified teacher rather than from a page.
Is Downward-Facing Hero Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Downward-Facing Hero Pose is a beginner-level pose on this site, which means it is learnable in a first class and has a version that works for most bodies. The cautions above still apply.
How many calories does Downward-Facing Hero Pose burn?
The honest answer is that nobody has measured a single asana. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values for styles of yoga, not for individual poses. Downward-Facing Hero Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02150, yoga, Hatha, at 2.5 MET — about 92 kcal for 30 minutes of that kind of practice for a 70 kg adult. Holding one pose for a minute is a rounding error either way.
The rest of the forward bends on the wall
More forward bends — first at the same level, then the rest of the family.
Asana names are traditional. Every step, benefit and caution on this page is written for YogaPath rather than reproduced from any book, studio or other library — see how this site is written and what it is written from. General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts.
SOURCE·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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