Garland Pose
मालासन
Mālāsana — a beginner seated pose that works the hip adductors, glutes, calves.
How to do Garland Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand with the feet a little wider than hips and the toes turned slightly out.
Bend the knees and lower the hips towards the floor, keeping the heels down if they will stay.
If the heels lift, sit on a folded blanket or a block until they can rest.
Bring the hands to the chest and press the elbows lightly against the inner knees.
Lengthen the spine upward, hold, then come up or sit back.
Hold: 45–90 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 Garland 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 the hips, knees and ankles through a deep flexed range at once.
- Stretches the inner thighs when the elbows press the knees wide.
- Loads the ankles into dorsiflexion, a range most footwear quietly takes away.
Garland 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 Garland Pose, or change it
- Knee injury or recent meniscus surgery — do not force the depth.
- Ankle injury.
- Late pregnancy: widen the feet and support the seat; a deep squat is not right for everyone at term.
- Hip replacement, where deep flexion is often restricted.
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 Garland Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeRounding the back hard to get lower.
FixSit on a block and lengthen the spine; height first, depth later.
MistakeHeels lifting so the ankles roll in.
FixSupport the heels on a rolled mat until the range arrives.
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 Garland 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 Garland Pose?
Stand with the feet a little wider than hips and the toes turned slightly out. Bend the knees and lower the hips towards the floor, keeping the heels down if they will stay. If the heels lift, sit on a folded blanket or a block until they can rest. Bring the hands to the chest and press the elbows lightly against the inner knees. Lengthen the spine upward, hold, then come up or sit back. Hold for 45–90 seconds.
What does Garland Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, glutes, calves, with the quadriceps, spinal erectors, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: takes the hips, knees and ankles through a deep flexed range at once.
Who should not do Garland Pose?
Knee injury or recent meniscus surgery — do not force the depth. Ankle injury. Late pregnancy: widen the feet and support the seat; a deep squat is not right for everyone at term. Hip replacement, where deep flexion is often restricted. 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 Garland Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Garland 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 Garland 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. Garland 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 Garland 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.