Reclining Bound Angle Poseसुप्त बद्धकोणासन
Supta Baddha Koṇāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the hip adductors, hip flexors.
5–10MINUTES HELD
One line on the timetable. Reclining Bound Angle Pose is held 5–10 minutes, with the breath moving throughout — and it takes its place inside one of the practices posted on this site.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Reclining Bound Angle Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Place a bolster lengthways on the mat with one short end where your sacrum will sit, and set a block under its far end.
Sit just in front of the bolster, bring the soles of the feet together and let the knees fall open.
Slide a rolled blanket or a block under each outer thigh so the knees are held rather than hanging.
Lie back along the bolster with a folded blanket under the head so the chin is level or slightly low.
Rest the hands on the belly or out to the sides and stay for the full hold.
Hold: 5–10 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 Reclining Bound Angle 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.
- Opens the hips outward while every part of the leg is propped, so nothing has to be held.
- Supports the upper back on an incline, which lets the front of the chest lengthen passively.
- Provides a long supported hold with no muscular effort required at the hips.
Reclining Bound Angle 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 Reclining Bound Angle Pose, or change it
- Groin or inner-thigh strain — raise the thigh supports much higher.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which the open hips can aggravate.
- Pregnancy: keep the torso well inclined on the bolster rather than flat, and skip it if it feels wrong.
- Recent hip replacement, where wide external rotation may be restricted.
- Reflux or breathlessness lying low — raise the far end of the bolster higher.
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 Reclining Bound Angle Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeKnees hanging unsupported so the inner thighs stay gripped the whole time.
FixWedge blocks or rolled blankets under both thighs; the stretch should feel like nothing.
MistakeSacrum sitting up on the bolster, which compresses the lower back.
FixStart with the sitting bones on the floor and only the back on the bolster.
How the energy figure on a yoga timetable is reached
- Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart, so no per-pose figure is published here — not by this site and not by anyone.
- The pose is matched to the nearest style of practice in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Reclining Bound Angle Pose sits at code 02170, yoga, Nadisodhana (seated, quiet practice), 2 MET.
- That MET value is put through the standard ACSM relationship for a stated reference adult of 70 kg.
- The result is the cost of a practice of that kind for as long as you practise — not the cost of holding this one shape.
- Scale it to yourself: the relationship is linear in body mass, so multiply by your own weight in kilograms and divide by 70.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200
= 2 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 2.45 kcal per minute
The same practice, hour by hour
Read it the way you would read a timetable: pick the length of session you actually sit down for, and that is the figure.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 25 | 49 | 74 | 110 | 147 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02170 · 2 MET · 70 kg reference adult·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Reclining Bound Angle Pose?
Place a bolster lengthways on the mat with one short end where your sacrum will sit, and set a block under its far end. Sit just in front of the bolster, bring the soles of the feet together and let the knees fall open. Slide a rolled blanket or a block under each outer thigh so the knees are held rather than hanging. Lie back along the bolster with a folded blanket under the head so the chin is level or slightly low. Rest the hands on the belly or out to the sides and stay for the full hold. Hold for 5–10 minutes.
What does Reclining Bound Angle Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, hip flexors, with the chest, lower back, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: opens the hips outward while every part of the leg is propped, so nothing has to be held.
Who should not do Reclining Bound Angle Pose?
Groin or inner-thigh strain — raise the thigh supports much higher. Sacroiliac irritation, which the open hips can aggravate. Pregnancy: keep the torso well inclined on the bolster rather than flat, and skip it if it feels wrong. Recent hip replacement, where wide external rotation may be restricted. Reflux or breathlessness lying low — raise the far end of the bolster higher. 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 Reclining Bound Angle Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Reclining Bound Angle 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 Reclining Bound Angle 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. Reclining Bound Angle 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.
Sequences that use Reclining Bound Angle Pose
The rest of the restorative poses on the wall
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 and what it is written from. 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.
SOURCE·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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