Pigeon Poseएक पाद कपोतासन
Eka Pāda Kapotāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the glutes, hip abductors, hip flexors.
1–2MINUTES HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Pigeon Pose is held 1–2 minutes each side, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Pigeon Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
From all fours, bring the right knee forward towards the right wrist and angle the right shin across the mat.
Slide the left leg straight back with the kneecap and the top of the foot facing the floor.
Place a folded blanket or block under the right hip so the pelvis stays level, not tipped.
Keep the hips square to the front and lengthen the spine on an inhale.
Stay upright on the hands, or fold forward onto the forearms, hold, then change sides.
Hold: 1–2 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 Pigeon 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.
- Stretches the glute and outer hip of the front leg through flexion with external rotation.
- Lengthens the hip flexor and front thigh of the extended back leg at the same time.
- Loads the spinal erectors when the trunk is held upright over an uneven base.
Pigeon 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 Pigeon Pose, or change it
- Knee injury on the front leg — the shin position torques the joint; use a reclined figure-four instead.
- Sacroiliac pain, which an unlevel pelvis in this pose readily aggravates.
- Recent hip replacement or labral repair.
- Ankle injury on the back foot, and any sharp groin pain.
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 Pigeon Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLetting the whole pelvis roll onto the front hip.
FixProp the front hip up on a blanket until both hip points face forward.
MistakeDragging the front shin parallel to the mat before the hip has opened.
FixKeep the front heel closer to the groin; the shin angle follows the hip, not the other way around.
How the energy figure on a yoga timetable is reached
- Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart, so no per-pose figure is published here — not by this site and not by anyone.
- The pose is matched to the nearest style of practice in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Pigeon Pose sits at code 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET.
- That MET value is put through the standard ACSM relationship for a stated reference adult of 70 kg.
- The result is the cost of a practice of that kind for as long as you practise — not the cost of holding this one shape.
- Scale it to yourself: the relationship is linear in body mass, so multiply by your own weight in kilograms and divide by 70.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200
= 2.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 3.06 kcal per minute
The same practice, hour by hour
Read it the way you would read a timetable: pick the length of session you actually sit down for, and that is the figure.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Pigeon Pose?
From all fours, bring the right knee forward towards the right wrist and angle the right shin across the mat. Slide the left leg straight back with the kneecap and the top of the foot facing the floor. Place a folded blanket or block under the right hip so the pelvis stays level, not tipped. Keep the hips square to the front and lengthen the spine on an inhale. Stay upright on the hands, or fold forward onto the forearms, hold, then change sides. Hold for 1–2 minutes each side.
What does Pigeon Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, hip abductors, hip flexors, with the spinal erectors, quadriceps, lower back assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: stretches the glute and outer hip of the front leg through flexion with external rotation.
Who should not do Pigeon Pose?
Knee injury on the front leg — the shin position torques the joint; use a reclined figure-four instead. Sacroiliac pain, which an unlevel pelvis in this pose readily aggravates. Recent hip replacement or labral repair. Ankle injury on the back foot, and any sharp groin pain. 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 Pigeon Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Pigeon 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 Pigeon 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. Pigeon 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.
The rest of the seated poses on the wall
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 and what it is written from. 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.
SOURCE·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The people behind these sites
Follow the build
This site and nine others like it are built and photographed by two people: Amit Sharma — behind the build; Geeta Patel — the poses, demonstrated. New work goes up on Instagram and Facebook before it reaches a page here.
Amit Sharma
@amitsharmaofficial
Instagram
Geeta Patel
@geetapatelnz
Instagram
Geeta Patel
GeetaPatelYoga
Facebook
Following changes nothing here — every page stays open, with no account and no wall.
