Foot Behind the Head Poseएक पाद शीर्षासन
Eka Pāda Śīrṣāsana — an advanced seated pose that works the hip adductors, glutes, hamstrings.
15–30SECONDS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Foot Behind the Head Pose is held 15–30 seconds 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 Foot Behind the Head Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit in Dandasana on a folded blanket and bend the right knee, holding the right foot with both hands.
Draw the right shin across the body and rock it side to side until the hip feels open rather than pinched.
Lift the right leg high, bring the outer right thigh behind the right shoulder, and slide the calf behind the neck.
Press the back of the head into the shin so the leg stays put and the spine can lift.
Bring the hands to the chest, hold briefly, then unhook carefully and change sides.
Hold: 15–30 seconds 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 Foot Behind the Head 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.
- Takes one hip through extreme flexion combined with external rotation.
- Lengthens the glute and outer hip of the raised leg to their end range.
- Requires the spinal erectors to keep the trunk upright against the weight of a leg on the shoulders.
Foot Behind the Head Pose is one of 29 seated poses in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses taken on the floor, where the pelvis is the base and the spine works above it.
Who should skip Foot Behind the Head Pose, or change it
- Any neck or cervical disc injury — skip entirely; the leg loads the neck directly.
- Hamstring, groin or hip flexor strain.
- Recent hip replacement or labral repair.
- Low back or disc injury, and pregnancy.
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 Foot Behind the Head Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeForcing the foot behind the neck by pulling the head forward.
FixPress the head back into the leg instead; if the leg will not stay, it is not ready.
MistakeLetting the spine round hard so the chest collapses.
FixLift the sternum and hold a shorter version with the leg on the shoulder only.
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. Foot Behind the Head Pose sits at code 02175, yoga, Power, 4 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
= 4 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 4.90 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 | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02175 · 4 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 Foot Behind the Head Pose?
Sit in Dandasana on a folded blanket and bend the right knee, holding the right foot with both hands. Draw the right shin across the body and rock it side to side until the hip feels open rather than pinched. Lift the right leg high, bring the outer right thigh behind the right shoulder, and slide the calf behind the neck. Press the back of the head into the shin so the leg stays put and the spine can lift. Bring the hands to the chest, hold briefly, then unhook carefully and change sides. Hold for 15–30 seconds each side.
What does Foot Behind the Head Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, glutes, hamstrings, with the spinal erectors, neck, abdominals assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: takes one hip through extreme flexion combined with external rotation.
Who should not do Foot Behind the Head Pose?
Any neck or cervical disc injury — skip entirely; the leg loads the neck directly. Hamstring, groin or hip flexor strain. Recent hip replacement or labral repair. Low back or disc injury, and pregnancy. 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 Foot Behind the Head Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Foot Behind the Head Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate seated poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Foot Behind the Head 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. Foot Behind the Head 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.
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
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