Revolved Chair Pose
परिवृत्त उत्कटासन
Parivṛtta Utkaṭāsana — an intermediate twist that works the obliques, quadriceps, glutes.
How to do Revolved Chair Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand with the feet together or hip-width apart and sit the hips back into a chair shape.
Bring the palms together at the chest and check that both knees are level with each other.
Exhale and rotate the ribs to the right, hooking the left elbow outside the right thigh.
Press elbow and thigh together to open the chest, keeping the hips square and level.
Hold with the knees still tracking over the toes, then return to centre 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 Chair 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.
- Holds a deep quadriceps and glute load while the trunk rotates on top of it.
- Rotates the thoracic spine with the pelvis fixed by both feet.
- Trains the obliques to turn the ribcage against the resistance of the thigh.
Revolved Chair 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 Chair Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy — the elbow presses directly across the abdomen; skip it.
- Disc injury, especially with the spine loaded in flexion and rotation together.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which the uneven knee position can provoke.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- Knee injury under a deep bend.
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 Chair Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeOne knee sliding forward of the other as the twist deepens.
FixLevel the knees first; if they will not stay level, twist less.
MistakeRounding the back to hook the elbow lower.
FixKeep the spine long, place the lower hand on a block outside the foot instead.
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 Chair 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 Chair Pose?
Stand with the feet together or hip-width apart and sit the hips back into a chair shape. Bring the palms together at the chest and check that both knees are level with each other. Exhale and rotate the ribs to the right, hooking the left elbow outside the right thigh. Press elbow and thigh together to open the chest, keeping the hips square and level. Hold with the knees still tracking over the toes, then return to centre and change sides. Hold for 30–60 seconds each side.
What does Revolved Chair Pose work?
Primarily the obliques, quadriceps, glutes, with the spinal erectors, shoulders, calves assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: holds a deep quadriceps and glute load while the trunk rotates on top of it.
Who should not do Revolved Chair Pose?
Pregnancy — the elbow presses directly across the abdomen; skip it. Disc injury, especially with the spine loaded in flexion and rotation together. Sacroiliac irritation, which the uneven knee position can provoke. Recent abdominal surgery. Knee injury under a deep bend. 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 Chair Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Revolved Chair 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 Chair 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 Chair 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.