Forearm Standपिञ्छ मयूरासन
Piñcha Mayūrāsana — an advanced inversion that works the shoulders, upper back, abdominals.
15–45SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Forearm Stand is held 15–45 seconds, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Forearm Stand
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Set the forearms on the mat a wall's length away, elbows shoulder-width and directly under the shoulders.
Loop a strap around the upper arms at shoulder width so the elbows cannot splay.
Lift the hips into Dolphin and walk the feet in until the shoulders stack over the elbows.
Float one leg up and press through the standing foot to lift the second leg towards the wall.
Stack the ribs over the shoulders, hold, and lower one leg at a time with control.
Hold: 15–45 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 Forearm Stand 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 the entire body weight on the forearms with the shoulders in full overhead flexion.
- Builds sustained shoulder and upper-back strength under a vertical load.
- Trains the trunk to resist arching, since the low back will otherwise take the whole line.
Forearm Stand is one of 20 inversions in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses where the head sits below the heart. The group that needs the most care and the most teaching.
Who should skip Forearm Stand, or change it
- Glaucoma or raised pressure in the eye, and uncontrolled high blood pressure.
- Neck or cervical spine injury — the head hangs unsupported and the neck works to hold it.
- Pregnancy — not a pose to take up in pregnancy; continuing an established practice is a decision for you and your doctor.
- Menstruation: many traditions omit inversions then; that is a personal choice rather than a medical rule.
- Recent ear infection, shoulder impingement or elbow injury — and learn forearm stand with a qualified teacher spotting rather than from a page.
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 Forearm Stand
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeElbows sliding wide the moment the second leg lifts.
FixUse the strap and press the forearms out into it throughout the hold.
MistakeKicking hard and arching the back to find the wall.
FixWalk the feet in far closer first, then float up with the ribs already drawn in.
How the energy figure on a yoga timetable is reached
- Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart, so no per-pose figure is published here — not by this site and not by anyone.
- The pose is matched to the nearest style of practice in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Forearm Stand sits at code 02175, yoga, Power, 4 MET.
- That MET value is put through the standard ACSM relationship for a stated reference adult of 70 kg.
- The result is the cost of a practice of that kind for as long as you practise — not the cost of holding this one shape.
- Scale it to yourself: the relationship is linear in body mass, so multiply by your own weight in kilograms and divide by 70.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200
= 4 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 4.90 kcal per minute
The same practice, hour by hour
Read it the way you would read a timetable: pick the length of session you actually sit down for, and that is the figure.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02175 · 4 MET · 70 kg reference adult·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Forearm Stand?
Set the forearms on the mat a wall's length away, elbows shoulder-width and directly under the shoulders. Loop a strap around the upper arms at shoulder width so the elbows cannot splay. Lift the hips into Dolphin and walk the feet in until the shoulders stack over the elbows. Float one leg up and press through the standing foot to lift the second leg towards the wall. Stack the ribs over the shoulders, hold, and lower one leg at a time with control. Hold for 15–45 seconds.
What does Forearm Stand work?
Primarily the shoulders, upper back, abdominals, with the triceps, glutes, spinal erectors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: holds the entire body weight on the forearms with the shoulders in full overhead flexion.
Who should not do Forearm Stand?
Glaucoma or raised pressure in the eye, and uncontrolled high blood pressure. Neck or cervical spine injury — the head hangs unsupported and the neck works to hold it. Pregnancy — not a pose to take up in pregnancy; continuing an established practice is a decision for you and your doctor. Menstruation: many traditions omit inversions then; that is a personal choice rather than a medical rule. Recent ear infection, shoulder impingement or elbow injury — and learn forearm stand with a qualified teacher spotting rather than from a page. 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 Forearm Stand suitable for beginners?
No. Forearm Stand is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate inversions poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Forearm Stand 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. Forearm Stand sits closest to Compendium code 02175, yoga, Power, at 4 MET — about 147 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.
The rest of the inversions on the wall
More inversions — 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 and what it is written from. 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.
SOURCE·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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