Rabbit Pose
शशांगासन
Śaśāṅgāsana — an intermediate forward bend that works the spinal erectors, upper back, trapezius.
How to do Rabbit Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Kneel with the hips resting back on the heels and pad the shins with a blanket.
Reach back and take hold of the heels with both hands, thumbs on the outside.
Tuck the chin to the chest and place the crown of the head on the floor close to the knees.
Keep almost all the weight in the hips and hands — the head is only lightly touching.
Lift the hips a little to round the upper back, hold for a few breaths, then lower and rest.
Hold: 15–30 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 Rabbit 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.
- Flexes the upper back and separates the shoulder blades in a range that sitting rarely reaches.
- Lengthens the muscles along the back of the neck under carefully limited load.
- Holds the quadriceps and ankles in deep flexion from the kneeling base.
Rabbit Pose is one of 22 forward bends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that fold the torso towards the legs, lengthening the whole back line of the body.
Who should skip Rabbit Pose, or change it
- Any neck or cervical disc injury, or a history of neck surgery — skip entirely.
- High blood pressure or glaucoma, where holding the head below the heart is not advised.
- Knee injury, since the base is a full kneel.
- Vertigo, and pregnancy at any stage.
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 Rabbit Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakePutting real weight onto the crown of the head.
FixPull firmly on the heels so the arms carry the load and the head stays light.
MistakePlacing the head far from the knees so the neck extends.
FixBring the crown close to the knees and keep the chin tucked to the chest.
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 Rabbit 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 Rabbit Pose?
Kneel with the hips resting back on the heels and pad the shins with a blanket. Reach back and take hold of the heels with both hands, thumbs on the outside. Tuck the chin to the chest and place the crown of the head on the floor close to the knees. Keep almost all the weight in the hips and hands — the head is only lightly touching. Lift the hips a little to round the upper back, hold for a few breaths, then lower and rest. Hold for 15–30 seconds.
What does Rabbit Pose work?
Primarily the spinal erectors, upper back, trapezius, with the neck, quadriceps, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: flexes the upper back and separates the shoulder blades in a range that sitting rarely reaches.
Who should not do Rabbit Pose?
Any neck or cervical disc injury, or a history of neck surgery — skip entirely. High blood pressure or glaucoma, where holding the head below the heart is not advised. Knee injury, since the base is a full kneel. Vertigo, and pregnancy at any stage. 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 Rabbit Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Rabbit 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 forward bends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Rabbit 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. Rabbit 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 forward bends — 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.