Four-Limbed Staff Pose
चतुरङ्ग दण्डासन
Caturaṅga Daṇḍāsana — an intermediate balance pose that works the triceps, chest, abdominals.
How to do Four-Limbed Staff Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Start in Plank with the hands under the shoulders and the whole body in one line.
Shift the whole body forward until the shoulders are slightly ahead of the wrists.
Bend the elbows straight back along the ribs and lower until the upper arms are parallel to the floor.
Stop there — keep the elbows at roughly ninety degrees and the shoulders no lower than the elbows.
Hold for a breath with the thighs firm, then lower all the way down or press back up.
Hold: 1–3 breaths. 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 Four-Limbed Staff 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 triceps and chest through a narrow, elbows-in lowering under body weight.
- Requires the abdominals to hold the pelvis level while the body moves as one piece.
- Trains the muscles that hold the shoulder blade against the ribs under load.
Four-Limbed Staff Pose is one of 31 balance poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses held on a reduced base — one foot, two hands, or the forearms.
Who should skip Four-Limbed Staff Pose, or change it
- Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome — the wrists are in deep extension under load.
- Rotator cuff injury or shoulder impingement: lower the knees or skip.
- Elbow tendon pain.
- Pregnancy after the first trimester, where the abdominal wall cannot hold the line.
- Low back pain that appears when the hips sag.
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 Four-Limbed Staff Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeShoulders dropping below elbow height at the bottom.
FixStop at ninety degrees; drop the knees so you can hold that depth honestly.
MistakeElbows winging out to the sides.
FixHug the elbows in so they brush past the ribs.
MistakeHips dropping first so the body bends in the middle.
FixLower the whole body as one plank, leading with the chest.
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 Four-Limbed Staff Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02175, yoga, Power, 4 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 | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
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 Four-Limbed Staff Pose?
Start in Plank with the hands under the shoulders and the whole body in one line. Shift the whole body forward until the shoulders are slightly ahead of the wrists. Bend the elbows straight back along the ribs and lower until the upper arms are parallel to the floor. Stop there — keep the elbows at roughly ninety degrees and the shoulders no lower than the elbows. Hold for a breath with the thighs firm, then lower all the way down or press back up. Hold for 1–3 breaths.
What does Four-Limbed Staff Pose work?
Primarily the triceps, chest, abdominals, with the shoulders, serratus anterior, wrists assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the triceps and chest through a narrow, elbows-in lowering under body weight.
Who should not do Four-Limbed Staff Pose?
Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome — the wrists are in deep extension under load. Rotator cuff injury or shoulder impingement: lower the knees or skip. Elbow tendon pain. Pregnancy after the first trimester, where the abdominal wall cannot hold the line. Low back pain that appears when the hips sag. 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 Four-Limbed Staff Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Four-Limbed Staff 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 balance poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Four-Limbed Staff 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. Four-Limbed Staff Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02175, yoga, Power, at 4 MET — about 147 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 balance 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.