Pigeon Pose
एक पाद कपोतासन
Eka Pāda Kapotāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the glutes, hip abductors, hip flexors.
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.
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 Pigeon 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 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.
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.