Staff Pose
दण्डासन
Daṇḍāsana — a beginner seated pose that works the quadriceps, spinal erectors, hip flexors.
How to do Staff Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with both legs straight out in front, feet hip-width apart or together.
Roll the flesh of the buttocks out sideways so you are sitting directly on the sitting bones.
Sit on a folded blanket if the low back rounds the moment the legs straighten.
Flex the feet, press the backs of the thighs down, and firm the quadriceps.
Place the hands beside the hips, lengthen the spine upwards, and hold.
Hold: 30–60 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 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.
- Trains the quadriceps to hold the knees straight while the hips are at ninety degrees.
- Loads the spinal erectors to keep the trunk vertical with no leg support behind.
- Establishes the pelvic position every seated forward bend is built from.
Staff 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 Staff Pose, or change it
- Hamstring strain, which straight legs load immediately — bend the knees slightly.
- Low back injury: sit on a higher folded blanket or against a wall.
- Wrist pain if pressing hard into the hands beside the hips.
- Sacroiliac pain, where a very upright seated position can be aggravating.
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 Staff Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeSitting flat on the floor with the pelvis rolled back and the chest collapsed.
FixSit up on a blanket and let the pelvis tip slightly forward.
MistakeLocking the knees hard so the joint takes the load.
FixKeep a hair of bend and hold the legs straight with the thigh muscle instead.
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 Staff 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 Staff Pose?
Sit with both legs straight out in front, feet hip-width apart or together. Roll the flesh of the buttocks out sideways so you are sitting directly on the sitting bones. Sit on a folded blanket if the low back rounds the moment the legs straighten. Flex the feet, press the backs of the thighs down, and firm the quadriceps. Place the hands beside the hips, lengthen the spine upwards, and hold. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does Staff Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, spinal erectors, hip flexors, with the abdominals, ankles, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: trains the quadriceps to hold the knees straight while the hips are at ninety degrees.
Who should not do Staff Pose?
Hamstring strain, which straight legs load immediately — bend the knees slightly. Low back injury: sit on a higher folded blanket or against a wall. Wrist pain if pressing hard into the hands beside the hips. Sacroiliac pain, where a very upright seated position can be aggravating. 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 Staff Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Staff 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 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. Staff 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 Staff 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.