Corpse Pose
शवासन
Śavāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the none — full release.
How to do Corpse Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie on your back and place a rolled blanket or a bolster under the knees so the lower back can settle.
Add a thinly folded blanket under the head so the chin sits slightly lower than the forehead.
Let the feet fall out to the sides and rest the arms a hand's width from the body, palms up.
Cover yourself with a blanket, since the body cools quickly when nothing is working.
Let the breath find its own rhythm and stay still for the whole hold.
Hold: 5–15 minutes. Breath: Uncontrolled — let the breath do whatever it does.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Corpse 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.
- Supports the whole skeleton on the floor so no muscle has to hold any joint in place.
- Removes the postural work of standing and sitting for a long, uninterrupted stretch of time.
- Gives a long supported hold with no muscular effort required of any part of the body.
Corpse Pose is one of 21 restorative poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Supported, low-effort poses held long, where the point is to stop working rather than to work.
Who should skip Corpse Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy after the first trimester — lie on the left side with a pillow between the knees instead.
- Reflux or breathlessness lying flat: raise the whole upper body on a slanted stack of blankets.
- Low back discomfort that appears with the legs straight — keep the knees supported.
- A long flat-supine hold is simply not comfortable for everyone; a side-lying rest counts just as much.
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 Corpse Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeStraight legs on a hard floor so the lower back stays arched and busy.
FixPut a bolster under the knees; the back settles immediately.
MistakeCutting the hold to two minutes because nothing seems to be happening.
FixSet a timer and stay; the settling happens in the second half.
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 Corpse Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02170, yoga, Nadisodhana (seated, quiet practice), 2 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 | 25 | 49 | 74 | 110 | 147 |
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 Corpse Pose?
Lie on your back and place a rolled blanket or a bolster under the knees so the lower back can settle. Add a thinly folded blanket under the head so the chin sits slightly lower than the forehead. Let the feet fall out to the sides and rest the arms a hand's width from the body, palms up. Cover yourself with a blanket, since the body cools quickly when nothing is working. Let the breath find its own rhythm and stay still for the whole hold. Hold for 5–15 minutes.
What does Corpse Pose work?
Primarily the none — full release, with the none — full release assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: supports the whole skeleton on the floor so no muscle has to hold any joint in place.
Who should not do Corpse Pose?
Pregnancy after the first trimester — lie on the left side with a pillow between the knees instead. Reflux or breathlessness lying flat: raise the whole upper body on a slanted stack of blankets. Low back discomfort that appears with the legs straight — keep the knees supported. A long flat-supine hold is simply not comfortable for everyone; a side-lying rest counts just as much. 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 Corpse Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Corpse 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 Corpse 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. Corpse Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02170, yoga, Nadisodhana (seated, quiet practice), at 2 MET — about 74 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 restorative poses — 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.