Boat Pose
नावासन
Nāvāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the abdominals, hip flexors, quadriceps.
How to do Boat Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with the knees bent, feet on the floor and the hands behind the thighs.
Lean back until you find the point just behind the sitting bones where the feet get light.
Lift the shins parallel to the floor, keeping the chest broad and the spine long.
Straighten the legs towards a V shape only if the low back can stay long.
Release the hands and reach the arms forward beside the shins, then hold.
Hold: 20–40 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 Boat 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.
- Loads the abdominals and hip flexors isometrically to hold the legs against gravity.
- Trains the spinal erectors to keep the trunk long while the body balances on the sitting bones.
- Builds quadriceps engagement to hold the knees straight in an unsupported position.
Boat 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 Boat Pose, or change it
- Low back or disc injury — keep the knees bent and the hands behind the thighs.
- Recent abdominal surgery, hernia or diastasis recti.
- Pregnancy, where strong abdominal loading in this position is not appropriate.
- Sacroiliac pain, which balancing on the sitting bones can aggravate.
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 Boat Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeRounding the low back and collapsing the chest to get the legs up.
FixBend the knees more and hold behind the thighs until the spine can stay long.
MistakeHolding the breath through the whole pose.
FixShorten the hold to the length you can breathe evenly through.
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 Boat 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 Boat Pose?
Sit with the knees bent, feet on the floor and the hands behind the thighs. Lean back until you find the point just behind the sitting bones where the feet get light. Lift the shins parallel to the floor, keeping the chest broad and the spine long. Straighten the legs towards a V shape only if the low back can stay long. Release the hands and reach the arms forward beside the shins, then hold. Hold for 20–40 seconds.
What does Boat Pose work?
Primarily the abdominals, hip flexors, quadriceps, with the spinal erectors, transverse abdominis, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the abdominals and hip flexors isometrically to hold the legs against gravity.
Who should not do Boat Pose?
Low back or disc injury — keep the knees bent and the hands behind the thighs. Recent abdominal surgery, hernia or diastasis recti. Pregnancy, where strong abdominal loading in this position is not appropriate. Sacroiliac pain, which balancing on the sitting bones can aggravate. 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 Boat Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Boat 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 Boat 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. Boat 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 Boat 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.