Hare Pose
शशांकासन
Śaśāṅkāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the lower back, glutes.
How to do Hare Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Kneel with the knees together and the hips resting back on the heels, on a folded blanket if needed.
Inhale and raise both arms overhead, keeping the sitting bones down.
Exhale and fold forward from the hips, lowering the arms and torso together towards the mat.
Rest the forehead on the floor or on a block, and let the arms stretch forward with the palms down.
Stay and breathe into the back of the ribs, then come up slowly on an inhale.
Hold: 2–5 minutes. 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 Hare 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.
- Lengthens the whole back of the body from the hips to the fingertips in a supported fold.
- Keeps the knees together, so the fold happens through the spine rather than between the thighs.
- Lets the shoulders extend overhead with the floor taking the weight of the arms.
Hare 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 Hare Pose, or change it
- Knee injury — the deep kneeling fold is the limiting factor.
- Pregnancy: knees together compresses the belly, so take the knees wide or skip.
- Shoulder injury, which the long overhead arm position loads.
- Any position with the head below the heart can be uncomfortable with sinus pressure or a headache.
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 Hare Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHips lifting off the heels to get the forehead down.
FixRest the forehead on a block instead and let the hips stay back.
MistakeShoulders shrugging up around the ears in the fold.
FixWiden the hands and let the elbows soften onto the floor.
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 Hare 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 Hare Pose?
Kneel with the knees together and the hips resting back on the heels, on a folded blanket if needed. Inhale and raise both arms overhead, keeping the sitting bones down. Exhale and fold forward from the hips, lowering the arms and torso together towards the mat. Rest the forehead on the floor or on a block, and let the arms stretch forward with the palms down. Stay and breathe into the back of the ribs, then come up slowly on an inhale. Hold for 2–5 minutes.
What does Hare Pose work?
Primarily the lower back, glutes, with the shoulders, spinal erectors, quadriceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens the whole back of the body from the hips to the fingertips in a supported fold.
Who should not do Hare Pose?
Knee injury — the deep kneeling fold is the limiting factor. Pregnancy: knees together compresses the belly, so take the knees wide or skip. Shoulder injury, which the long overhead arm position loads. Any position with the head below the heart can be uncomfortable with sinus pressure or a headache. 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 Hare Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Hare 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 Hare 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. Hare 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.