Half Lotus Pose
अर्ध पद्मासन
Ardha Padmāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the hip adductors, hip flexors, spinal erectors.
How to do Half Lotus Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit on a folded blanket with both legs extended forward.
Bend the left knee and tuck the left foot in towards the right groin, sole facing up or in.
Bend the right knee, cradle the shin, and lift the right foot onto the left thigh close to the hip crease.
Support the right knee on a block or cushion if it floats well above the floor.
Sit tall with the hands on the knees, hold, then rebuild with the legs reversed.
Hold: 1–3 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 Half Lotus 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.
- Opens one hip into deep external rotation while the other stays in a gentler position.
- Builds the hip range that full lotus requires, without loading both knees at once.
- Sets the pelvis in a stable tripod that lets the spine stack vertically.
Half Lotus 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 Lotus Pose, or change it
- Knee injury on the folded-up leg — skip and sit cross-legged instead.
- Recent hip replacement.
- Ankle pain in the raised foot: place the foot on the calf rather than the thigh.
- Any tingling or numbness below the knee — come out.
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 Lotus Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakePulling the foot up by the toes and twisting the ankle.
FixCradle the shin and lift the whole lower leg as one unit, foot flexed.
MistakeLeaving the raised knee hanging in mid-air for a long hold.
FixSlide a block or folded blanket under it so the hip can release instead of grip.
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 Lotus 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 Lotus Pose?
Sit on a folded blanket with both legs extended forward. Bend the left knee and tuck the left foot in towards the right groin, sole facing up or in. Bend the right knee, cradle the shin, and lift the right foot onto the left thigh close to the hip crease. Support the right knee on a block or cushion if it floats well above the floor. Sit tall with the hands on the knees, hold, then rebuild with the legs reversed. Hold for 1–3 minutes each side.
What does Half Lotus Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, hip flexors, spinal erectors, with the abdominals, ankles, lower back assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: opens one hip into deep external rotation while the other stays in a gentler position.
Who should not do Half Lotus Pose?
Knee injury on the folded-up leg — skip and sit cross-legged instead. Recent hip replacement. Ankle pain in the raised foot: place the foot on the calf rather than the thigh. Any tingling or numbness below the knee — come out. 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 Lotus Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Half Lotus 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 Lotus 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 Lotus 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.