Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose
परिवृत्त जानु शीर्षासन
Parivṛtta Jānu Śīrṣāsana — an intermediate twist that works the obliques, hip adductors, intercostals.
How to do Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with the right leg stretched out to the side and the left knee bent, left sole against the inner right thigh.
Sit up on a folded blanket so the pelvis can stay upright rather than rolling back.
Side bend towards the right leg, resting the right forearm on the floor or on a block inside the leg.
Turn the chest up towards the ceiling and sweep the left arm over the ear towards the right foot.
Keep both sitting bones down, hold, then come up on an inhale and change sides.
Hold: 30–60 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 Revolved Head-to-Knee 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.
- Lengthens the entire top side from the hip to the fingertips while the trunk rotates upward.
- Stretches the inner thigh and hamstring of the extended leg.
- Opens the ribcage on the top side, which widens the breath into the upper ribs.
Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose is one of 25 twists in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that rotate the spine around its long axis with the pelvis anchored.
Who should skip Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy — keep the rotation open and shallow, or leave the pose out.
- Disc injury, since side bending plus rotation is a demanding combination for the lumbar spine.
- Sacroiliac irritation from the wide, uneven leg position.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- Shoulder injury on the overhead arm — keep that hand on the hip.
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 Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeCollapsing forward over the leg so the pose becomes a forward bend.
FixRoll the top shoulder back and keep the chest turning towards the ceiling.
MistakeThe bottom hip lifting off the floor to reach further.
FixProp the seat higher and shorten the reach until both sitting bones stay down.
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 Revolved Head-to-Knee 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 Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose?
Sit with the right leg stretched out to the side and the left knee bent, left sole against the inner right thigh. Sit up on a folded blanket so the pelvis can stay upright rather than rolling back. Side bend towards the right leg, resting the right forearm on the floor or on a block inside the leg. Turn the chest up towards the ceiling and sweep the left arm over the ear towards the right foot. Keep both sitting bones down, hold, then come up on an inhale and change sides. Hold for 30–60 seconds each side.
What does Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose work?
Primarily the obliques, hip adductors, intercostals, with the hamstrings, shoulders, latissimus dorsi assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens the entire top side from the hip to the fingertips while the trunk rotates upward.
Who should not do Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose?
Pregnancy — keep the rotation open and shallow, or leave the pose out. Disc injury, since side bending plus rotation is a demanding combination for the lumbar spine. Sacroiliac irritation from the wide, uneven leg position. Recent abdominal surgery. Shoulder injury on the overhead arm — keep that hand on the hip. 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 Revolved Head-to-Knee Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Revolved Head-to-Knee 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 twists poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Revolved Head-to-Knee 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. Revolved Head-to-Knee 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 twists — 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.