Half Frog Pose
अर्ध मण्डूकासन
Ardha Maṇḍūkāsana — a beginner seated pose that works the hip adductors, quadriceps, spinal erectors.
How to do Half Frog Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Kneel in Vajrasana with a blanket under the shins and the seat back on the heels.
Make a fist with the right hand and place it just below the navel on the right side.
Cover the right fist with the left palm and lengthen the spine on an inhale.
Exhale and fold forward, letting the pressure sit on one side of the abdomen only.
Hold for a few breaths, come up slowly, and repeat with the other fist.
Hold: 20–40 seconds 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 Half Frog 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 one side of the back body more than the other through an asymmetric fold.
- Keeps the quadriceps and ankles loaded in a deep kneeling seat.
- Works the obliques isometrically as the trunk folds slightly off-centre.
Half Frog Pose is one of 29 seated poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses taken on the floor, where the pelvis is the base and the spine works above it.
Who should skip Half Frog Pose, or change it
- Recent abdominal surgery or hernia — skip.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Knee or ankle injury, since the base is a full kneel.
- Low back injury: reduce the fold considerably.
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 Half Frog Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeTwisting the trunk instead of folding forward over the fist.
FixKeep the chest square and hinge straight forward from the hip.
MistakePressing hard enough that the breath stops.
FixEase the pressure until you can breathe evenly through the hold.
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 Half Frog 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 Half Frog Pose?
Kneel in Vajrasana with a blanket under the shins and the seat back on the heels. Make a fist with the right hand and place it just below the navel on the right side. Cover the right fist with the left palm and lengthen the spine on an inhale. Exhale and fold forward, letting the pressure sit on one side of the abdomen only. Hold for a few breaths, come up slowly, and repeat with the other fist. Hold for 20–40 seconds each side.
What does Half Frog Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, quadriceps, spinal erectors, with the abdominals, obliques, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens one side of the back body more than the other through an asymmetric fold.
Who should not do Half Frog Pose?
Recent abdominal surgery or hernia — skip. Pregnancy at any stage. Knee or ankle injury, since the base is a full kneel. Low back injury: reduce the fold considerably. 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 Half Frog Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Half Frog 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 Half Frog 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. Half Frog 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.
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.