Melting Heart Pose
अनाहतासन
Anāhatāsana — a beginner backbend that works the latissimus dorsi, chest, shoulders.
How to do Melting Heart Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Start on all fours with the hips stacked over the knees and a blanket under the shins.
Walk the hands forward, keeping the hips exactly where they are.
Lower the chest and forehead towards the mat, letting the armpits sink.
Rest the forehead or the chin on the floor, or on a block if neither reaches comfortably.
Press the hands down, hold for a long stretch, then walk the hands back and sit onto the heels.
Hold: 1–2 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 Melting Heart 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.
- Extends the thoracic spine while the hips stay fixed, so the low back is left out of it.
- Lengthens the latissimus dorsi and the underside of the shoulders through the overhead reach.
- Broadens the chest passively without needing any back strength.
Melting Heart Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Melting Heart Pose, or change it
- Shoulder impingement — widen the hands and lower the chest less.
- Knee injury, since the shape is kneeling: pad well or take the same stretch with the hands on a chair seat.
- Pregnancy from the second trimester, where the chest cannot lower far — use a chair or a bolster under the torso.
- Neck injury: rest the forehead on a block rather than the chin on the floor.
- Wrist pain — press through the fingertips and keep the elbows lifted.
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 Melting Heart Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHips sliding back over the heels, which turns the pose into a plain forward fold.
FixKeep the hips directly over the knees the whole time — that is the whole mechanism.
MistakeChin planted and the neck cranked so the extension happens at the throat, not the mid-back.
FixRest the forehead down instead and let the sternum sink towards the mat.
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 Melting Heart 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 Melting Heart Pose?
Start on all fours with the hips stacked over the knees and a blanket under the shins. Walk the hands forward, keeping the hips exactly where they are. Lower the chest and forehead towards the mat, letting the armpits sink. Rest the forehead or the chin on the floor, or on a block if neither reaches comfortably. Press the hands down, hold for a long stretch, then walk the hands back and sit onto the heels. Hold for 1–2 minutes.
What does Melting Heart Pose work?
Primarily the latissimus dorsi, chest, shoulders, with the spinal erectors, triceps, upper back assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: extends the thoracic spine while the hips stay fixed, so the low back is left out of it.
Who should not do Melting Heart Pose?
Shoulder impingement — widen the hands and lower the chest less. Knee injury, since the shape is kneeling: pad well or take the same stretch with the hands on a chair seat. Pregnancy from the second trimester, where the chest cannot lower far — use a chair or a bolster under the torso. Neck injury: rest the forehead on a block rather than the chin on the floor. Wrist pain — press through the fingertips and keep the elbows lifted. 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 Melting Heart Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Melting Heart 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 Melting Heart 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. Melting Heart 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 Melting Heart Pose
Related poses
More backbends — 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.