Half Boat Pose
अर्ध नावासन
Ardha Nāvāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the abdominals, transverse abdominis, hip flexors.
How to do Half Boat Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with the knees bent and interlace the fingers behind the head, elbows wide.
Lean the trunk back and lower it towards, but not onto, the floor.
Extend the legs out at a low angle so the feet stay roughly level with the top of the head.
Keep the low back in contact with the floor or lightly hovering, never arched away from it.
Hold with steady breathing, then bend the knees and sit up.
Hold: 15–30 seconds. 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 Boat 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.
- Loads the abdominal wall at a long lever with both the trunk and the legs low.
- Works the deep transverse abdominis to hold the low back flat against the pull of the legs.
- Trains the hip flexors to hold the legs at a shallow angle, which is much harder than a high V.
Half Boat 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 Half Boat Pose, or change it
- Low back or disc injury — raise the legs higher or skip.
- Recent abdominal surgery, hernia or diastasis recti.
- Pregnancy.
- Neck injury: support the head in the hands and do not pull on it.
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 Boat Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeThe low back arching away from the floor as the legs lower.
FixRaise the legs until the back stays down; that angle is your working range.
MistakePulling the head forward with the interlaced hands.
FixRest the head in the hands and keep the elbows wide; the neck stays long.
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 Boat 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 Boat Pose?
Sit with the knees bent and interlace the fingers behind the head, elbows wide. Lean the trunk back and lower it towards, but not onto, the floor. Extend the legs out at a low angle so the feet stay roughly level with the top of the head. Keep the low back in contact with the floor or lightly hovering, never arched away from it. Hold with steady breathing, then bend the knees and sit up. Hold for 15–30 seconds.
What does Half Boat Pose work?
Primarily the abdominals, transverse abdominis, hip flexors, with the quadriceps, neck, spinal erectors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the abdominal wall at a long lever with both the trunk and the legs low.
Who should not do Half Boat Pose?
Low back or disc injury — raise the legs higher or skip. Recent abdominal surgery, hernia or diastasis recti. Pregnancy. Neck injury: support the head in the hands and do not pull on it. 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 Boat Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Half Boat 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 Half Boat 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 Boat 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 Half Boat 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.