Crow Pose
काकासन
Kākāsana — an intermediate balance pose that works the shoulders, abdominals, triceps.
How to do Crow Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Place a folded blanket on the mat about an arm's length ahead of where the hands will go.
Squat with the feet close together, plant the hands shoulder-width apart and spread the fingers.
Bend the elbows straight back and rest the shins high on the backs of the upper arms.
Lean the chest forward over the hands until the feet grow light, then lift one foot, then the other.
Round the upper back, look at the blanket ahead, and hold for a few breaths before lowering.
Hold: 3–8 breaths. 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 Crow 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.
- Puts the full body weight through both wrists and shoulders in a compact shape.
- Loads the abdominals and hip flexors to keep the knees drawn up onto the arms.
- Trains the forward weight shift that every arm balance in this family depends on.
Crow Pose is one of 31 balance poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses held on a reduced base — one foot, two hands, or the forearms.
Who should skip Crow Pose, or change it
- Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome — this pose loads both wrists fully.
- Shoulder injury, especially at the front of the joint.
- Pregnancy, since the shape compresses the abdomen against the thighs.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- Falling forward onto the face is the real risk here — always set a folded blanket ahead of the hands.
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 Crow Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeKeeping the weight back in the feet and hopping.
FixLean the shoulders further forward past the wrists; the lift is a shift, not a jump.
MistakeKnees sliding down towards the elbows.
FixSet the shins as high on the upper arms as they will go before shifting forward.
MistakeLooking back between the hands.
FixLook forward at the floor ahead — the head follows the gaze and so does the weight.
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 Crow Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02175, yoga, Power, 4 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 | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
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 Crow Pose?
Place a folded blanket on the mat about an arm's length ahead of where the hands will go. Squat with the feet close together, plant the hands shoulder-width apart and spread the fingers. Bend the elbows straight back and rest the shins high on the backs of the upper arms. Lean the chest forward over the hands until the feet grow light, then lift one foot, then the other. Round the upper back, look at the blanket ahead, and hold for a few breaths before lowering. Hold for 3–8 breaths.
What does Crow Pose work?
Primarily the shoulders, abdominals, triceps, with the wrists, hip flexors, serratus anterior assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: puts the full body weight through both wrists and shoulders in a compact shape.
Who should not do Crow Pose?
Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome — this pose loads both wrists fully. Shoulder injury, especially at the front of the joint. Pregnancy, since the shape compresses the abdomen against the thighs. Recent abdominal surgery. Falling forward onto the face is the real risk here — always set a folded blanket ahead of the hands. 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 Crow Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Crow 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 balance poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Crow 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. Crow 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.
Related poses
More balance 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.