Revolved Wide-Angle Seated Pose
परिवृत्त उपविष्ट कोणासन
Parivṛtta Upaviṣṭa Koṇāsana — an intermediate twist that works the obliques, hip adductors, hamstrings.
How to do Revolved Wide-Angle Seated Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with the legs wide apart on a folded blanket, kneecaps and toes pointing straight up.
Turn the trunk towards the right leg until the chest faces along it.
Walk both hands down either side of the right leg, keeping the spine long.
Fold forward over that leg only as far as the back stays flat, using blocks under the hands.
Hold, come up on an inhale, return to centre, and repeat towards the left leg.
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 Wide-Angle Seated 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.
- Rotates the pelvis and trunk together towards one leg, loading that hamstring directly.
- Stretches both inner thighs through the whole hold.
- Trains the spine to fold forward from a rotated starting position.
Revolved Wide-Angle Seated 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 Wide-Angle Seated Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy — keep the legs wide, stay upright, and skip the deep fold.
- Disc injury, since rotation plus forward flexion loads the lumbar spine heavily.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which a very wide seated straddle can aggravate.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- Groin or hamstring strain.
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 Wide-Angle Seated Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeTaking the legs so wide the pelvis rolls backwards.
FixNarrow the legs and raise the seat until the pelvis stands up.
MistakeRounding the spine to bring the head towards the shin.
FixStack the hands on blocks and stop where the back is still long.
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 Wide-Angle Seated 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 Wide-Angle Seated Pose?
Sit with the legs wide apart on a folded blanket, kneecaps and toes pointing straight up. Turn the trunk towards the right leg until the chest faces along it. Walk both hands down either side of the right leg, keeping the spine long. Fold forward over that leg only as far as the back stays flat, using blocks under the hands. Hold, come up on an inhale, return to centre, and repeat towards the left leg. Hold for 30–60 seconds each side.
What does Revolved Wide-Angle Seated Pose work?
Primarily the obliques, hip adductors, hamstrings, with the spinal erectors, shoulders, intercostals assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: rotates the pelvis and trunk together towards one leg, loading that hamstring directly.
Who should not do Revolved Wide-Angle Seated Pose?
Pregnancy — keep the legs wide, stay upright, and skip the deep fold. Disc injury, since rotation plus forward flexion loads the lumbar spine heavily. Sacroiliac irritation, which a very wide seated straddle can aggravate. Recent abdominal surgery. Groin or hamstring strain. 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 Wide-Angle Seated Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Revolved Wide-Angle Seated 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 Wide-Angle Seated 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 Wide-Angle Seated 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.