Four-Footed Pose
चतुष्पादासन
Catuṣpādāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the glutes, hamstrings, chest.
How to do Four-Footed Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie on your back with the knees bent and the feet flat, close to the buttocks and hip-width apart.
Reach down and take hold of each ankle with the same-side hand; if they do not reach, walk the feet a little closer.
Press the feet down and lift the hips, rolling the shoulders underneath you.
Pull lightly on the ankles to draw the chest towards the chin and open the collarbones.
Hold with steady breathing, then release the ankles and lower the spine down slowly.
Hold: 20–40 seconds, 2 rounds. 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-Footed 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.
- Adds an arm pull to a bridge, which opens the chest further than the plain version.
- Strengthens the glutes and hamstrings while the shoulders bear part of the load.
- Extends the upper spine strongly with the neck supported by the floor.
Four-Footed Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Four-Footed Pose, or change it
- Neck injury — keep a folded blanket under the shoulders and never turn the head while lifted.
- Shoulder impingement, since the arms are pinned back and internally rotated.
- Disc injury: take plain Bridge with the arms free instead.
- Knee pain when the heels sit very close to the buttocks.
- Later pregnancy, where lying flat on the back for long is not recommended.
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-Footed Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHauling on the ankles so the shoulders roll forward instead of open.
FixPull only lightly and press the upper arms into the mat to lift the chest.
MistakeThe arch collecting in the low back because the feet are too far away.
FixBring the heels close, drive them down, and let the glutes rather than the lumbar spine create the height.
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-Footed 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 Four-Footed Pose?
Lie on your back with the knees bent and the feet flat, close to the buttocks and hip-width apart. Reach down and take hold of each ankle with the same-side hand; if they do not reach, walk the feet a little closer. Press the feet down and lift the hips, rolling the shoulders underneath you. Pull lightly on the ankles to draw the chest towards the chin and open the collarbones. Hold with steady breathing, then release the ankles and lower the spine down slowly. Hold for 20–40 seconds, 2 rounds.
What does Four-Footed Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, hamstrings, chest, with the spinal erectors, shoulders, quadriceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: adds an arm pull to a bridge, which opens the chest further than the plain version.
Who should not do Four-Footed Pose?
Neck injury — keep a folded blanket under the shoulders and never turn the head while lifted. Shoulder impingement, since the arms are pinned back and internally rotated. Disc injury: take plain Bridge with the arms free instead. Knee pain when the heels sit very close to the buttocks. Later pregnancy, where lying flat on the back for long is not recommended. 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-Footed Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Four-Footed 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 backbends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Four-Footed 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-Footed 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 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.