Fire Log Pose
अग्निस्तम्भासन
Agnistambhāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the glutes, hip abductors, hip adductors.
How to do Fire Log Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit on a folded blanket with the legs crossed loosely in front.
Slide the bottom shin so it lies parallel with the front edge of the mat, ankle flexed.
Stack the top shin directly above it, top ankle over the bottom knee and top knee over the bottom ankle.
Support the top knee on a block or cushion if a gap is left underneath.
Sit tall with the hands beside the hips, hold, then unstack and change sides.
Hold: 1–2 minutes each side. 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 Fire Log 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.
- Takes both hips into deep external rotation at the same time, stacking one on top of the other.
- Stretches the outer hip and glute of the top leg strongly.
- Loads the spinal erectors to hold an upright trunk over a demanding hip position.
Fire Log Pose is one of 29 seated poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses taken on the floor, where the pelvis is the base and the spine works above it.
Who should skip Fire Log Pose, or change it
- Knee injury — never stack with the top ankle sitting on the bottom thigh, and skip if the knee speaks.
- Recent hip replacement or labral repair.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which a strongly rotated seat can aggravate.
- Ankle injury, since both ankles are held flexed under load.
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 Fire Log Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLetting the top ankle collapse and the foot sickle inwards.
FixFlex both feet hard and keep the ankle in line with the shin.
MistakeForcing the top knee down when the hip has not opened.
FixProp the knee and simply sit; the hip opens over months, not minutes.
What a practice like this costs in energy
Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values per style of practice, so Fire Log Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET — and the figures below are for a practice of that kind, not for holding this one pose.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
Calculated as MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 kcal per minute — the standard ACSM relationship, shown in full on the method page. Scale it to your own weight by multiplying by your weight in kilograms and dividing by 70. The whole activity dataset, including every non-yoga activity, is at BurnLab.
Questions
How do you do Fire Log Pose?
Sit on a folded blanket with the legs crossed loosely in front. Slide the bottom shin so it lies parallel with the front edge of the mat, ankle flexed. Stack the top shin directly above it, top ankle over the bottom knee and top knee over the bottom ankle. Support the top knee on a block or cushion if a gap is left underneath. Sit tall with the hands beside the hips, hold, then unstack and change sides. Hold for 1–2 minutes each side.
What does Fire Log Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, hip abductors, hip adductors, with the spinal erectors, lower back, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: takes both hips into deep external rotation at the same time, stacking one on top of the other.
Who should not do Fire Log Pose?
Knee injury — never stack with the top ankle sitting on the bottom thigh, and skip if the knee speaks. Recent hip replacement or labral repair. Sacroiliac irritation, which a strongly rotated seat can aggravate. Ankle injury, since both ankles are held flexed under load. 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 Fire Log Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Fire Log Pose is rated intermediate here: it assumes a working base of strength and range, and a teacher who has watched you move. Build up through the seated poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Fire Log 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. Fire Log 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.
Sequences that use Fire Log Pose
Related poses
More seated poses — 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. Energy figures derive from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. 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.