Accomplished Pose
सिद्धासन
Siddhāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the hip adductors, spinal erectors, hip flexors.
How to do Accomplished Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit on a firm cushion high enough that both knees rest lower than the hip crease.
Bend the left knee and draw the left heel in close to the body, sole against the right inner thigh.
Bend the right knee and place the right ankle directly in front of the left, not on top of it.
Tuck the toes of the top foot into the gap between the bottom calf and thigh if that is comfortable.
Lengthen the spine, rest the hands on the knees, and hold; change which foot is in front halfway.
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 Accomplished 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.
- Stacks the ankles in a narrow line, which keeps the base compact and the spine easy to hold vertical.
- Holds both hips in sustained external rotation with less knee load than lotus.
- Works the deep trunk stabilisers to keep an upright column for long, still holds.
Accomplished Pose is one of 29 seated poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses taken on the floor, where the pelvis is the base and the spine works above it.
Who should skip Accomplished Pose, or change it
- Knee injury — the front ankle presses into the opposite leg and can torque the knee.
- Sciatic irritation, where a narrow seated base concentrates pressure under the sitting bones.
- Recent hip replacement.
- Numbness in the feet: uncross and shake the legs out.
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 Accomplished Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeSitting on the floor so the pelvis tips backwards and the low back rounds.
FixRaise the seat until the pelvis is upright and the knees drop below the hips.
MistakeStacking one ankle directly on the other, which grinds the bones.
FixPlace the top ankle just in front of the bottom one, with a folded cloth between if needed.
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 Accomplished 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 Accomplished Pose?
Sit on a firm cushion high enough that both knees rest lower than the hip crease. Bend the left knee and draw the left heel in close to the body, sole against the right inner thigh. Bend the right knee and place the right ankle directly in front of the left, not on top of it. Tuck the toes of the top foot into the gap between the bottom calf and thigh if that is comfortable. Lengthen the spine, rest the hands on the knees, and hold; change which foot is in front halfway. Hold for 2–5 minutes.
What does Accomplished Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, spinal erectors, hip flexors, with the pelvic floor, abdominals, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: stacks the ankles in a narrow line, which keeps the base compact and the spine easy to hold vertical.
Who should not do Accomplished Pose?
Knee injury — the front ankle presses into the opposite leg and can torque the knee. Sciatic irritation, where a narrow seated base concentrates pressure under the sitting bones. Recent hip replacement. Numbness in the feet: uncross and shake the legs out. 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 Accomplished Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Accomplished 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 seated poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Accomplished 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. Accomplished 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 seated 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.