Easy Seated Twist
परिवृत्त सुखासन
Parivṛtta Sukhāsana — a beginner twist that works the obliques, spinal erectors.
How to do Easy Seated Twist
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit cross-legged on a folded blanket high enough that both knees rest below the hips.
Set the left hand on the right knee and the right hand lightly on the floor behind you.
Inhale and lengthen from the sitting bones to the crown.
Exhale and turn the ribs to the right, keeping both shoulders level.
Hold for several breaths, return to centre, and repeat to the left.
Hold: 5–8 breaths 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 Easy Seated Twist 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.
- Rotates the spine from the simplest stable seat, so nothing distracts from the turn itself.
- Trains the thoracic spine, the region built to rotate, to move independently of the neck.
- Loads the obliques lightly through a repeatable, low-demand hold.
Easy Seated Twist is one of 25 twists in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that rotate the spine around its long axis with the pelvis anchored.
Who should skip Easy Seated Twist, or change it
- Pregnancy — keep the rotation gentle and open, turning the ribs without pressing the belly.
- Disc injury: stay well within a pain-free range.
- Sacroiliac irritation from sitting cross-legged — raise the seat higher.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- Knee or hip pain in the crossed position; sit on a chair and twist there instead.
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 Easy Seated Twist
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeSitting flat on the floor so the pelvis rolls back and the spine slumps.
FixRaise the seat until the pelvis is upright — then the twist has somewhere to go.
MistakePulling on the knee to turn further.
FixLet the hand rest and turn from the ribs; the arms are guides, not levers.
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 Easy Seated Twist 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 Easy Seated Twist?
Sit cross-legged on a folded blanket high enough that both knees rest below the hips. Set the left hand on the right knee and the right hand lightly on the floor behind you. Inhale and lengthen from the sitting bones to the crown. Exhale and turn the ribs to the right, keeping both shoulders level. Hold for several breaths, return to centre, and repeat to the left. Hold for 5–8 breaths each side.
What does Easy Seated Twist work?
Primarily the obliques, spinal erectors, with the shoulders, abdominals, glutes assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: rotates the spine from the simplest stable seat, so nothing distracts from the turn itself.
Who should not do Easy Seated Twist?
Pregnancy — keep the rotation gentle and open, turning the ribs without pressing the belly. Disc injury: stay well within a pain-free range. Sacroiliac irritation from sitting cross-legged — raise the seat higher. Recent abdominal surgery. Knee or hip pain in the crossed position; sit on a chair and twist there instead. 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 Easy Seated Twist suitable for beginners?
Yes. Easy Seated Twist 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 Easy Seated Twist 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. Easy Seated Twist 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 Easy Seated Twist
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.