Snake Pose
सर्पासन
Sarpāsana — a beginner backbend that works the spinal erectors, rhomboids, glutes.
How to do Snake Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie face down with the legs together and the chin resting on the mat.
Interlace the fingers behind your back, low down near the sacrum.
Straighten the arms and draw the knuckles towards the heels so the shoulder blades slide together.
Inhale and lift the head and chest, letting the arms rise a little behind you.
Hold for a few breaths, then lower the chest and release the hands.
Hold: 10–20 seconds, 3 rounds. 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 Snake 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.
- Works the muscles between the shoulder blades hard, because the arms have nothing to push against.
- Extends the thoracic spine and broadens the collarbones at the same time.
- Strengthens the spinal erectors in a purely muscular lift.
Snake Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Snake Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy from the second trimester — prone poses are not suitable.
- Shoulder impingement or a rotator cuff injury: hold a strap between the hands instead of interlacing.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis — keep the lift very low, or take Sphinx instead.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- Elbow or wrist pain when the arms straighten behind the back — keep the elbows softly bent.
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 Snake Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeYanking the arms up so high that the neck compresses to compensate.
FixLift the sternum first and let the arms follow only as far as the shoulders allow.
MistakeThe lift showing up as a sharp crease in the low back.
FixFirm the glutes, lengthen the tailbone towards the heels, and spread the arch upward into the mid-back.
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 Snake 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 Snake Pose?
Lie face down with the legs together and the chin resting on the mat. Interlace the fingers behind your back, low down near the sacrum. Straighten the arms and draw the knuckles towards the heels so the shoulder blades slide together. Inhale and lift the head and chest, letting the arms rise a little behind you. Hold for a few breaths, then lower the chest and release the hands. Hold for 10–20 seconds, 3 rounds.
What does Snake Pose work?
Primarily the spinal erectors, rhomboids, glutes, with the chest, shoulders, hamstrings assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: works the muscles between the shoulder blades hard, because the arms have nothing to push against.
Who should not do Snake Pose?
Pregnancy from the second trimester — prone poses are not suitable. Shoulder impingement or a rotator cuff injury: hold a strap between the hands instead of interlacing. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis — keep the lift very low, or take Sphinx instead. Recent abdominal surgery. Elbow or wrist pain when the arms straighten behind the back — keep the elbows softly bent. 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 Snake Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Snake Pose 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 Snake 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. Snake 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 backbends — 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.