Reclining Easy Poseसुप्त सुखासन
Supta Sukhāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the hip adductors, lower back.
5–10MINUTES HELD
One line on the timetable. Reclining Easy Pose is held 5–10 minutes, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Reclining Easy Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lay a bolster lengthways with one short end where the base of your spine will sit, propped on a block if you want more incline.
Sit in front of the bolster and cross the shins loosely, then slide a rolled blanket under each outer knee.
Lie back along the bolster so the spine and head are supported the whole way.
Add a folded blanket under the head so the chin is level with or slightly below the forehead.
Rest the hands on the belly, stay half the hold, then uncross and recross the legs the other way.
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 Easy 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.
- Holds an easy cross-legged hip position with the whole upper body reclined and propped.
- Supports both outer knees so the hips can open with no effort from the inner thighs.
- Provides a long supported hold with no muscular effort required at any joint.
Reclining Easy 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 Easy Pose, or change it
- Knee injury — build the supports under the knees much higher.
- Pregnancy: keep the torso well inclined rather than flat, and stop if it feels uncomfortable.
- Reflux or breathlessness lying low — raise the far end of the bolster higher.
- Recent hip replacement, where crossed legs may be restricted.
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 Easy Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeCrossing the legs tightly so the knees stay high in the air.
FixCross loosely with the shins far from the body and prop under both knees.
MistakeStaying twelve minutes with the same shin in front.
FixChange the cross at the halfway point every session.
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 Easy 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 Easy Pose?
Lay a bolster lengthways with one short end where the base of your spine will sit, propped on a block if you want more incline. Sit in front of the bolster and cross the shins loosely, then slide a rolled blanket under each outer knee. Lie back along the bolster so the spine and head are supported the whole way. Add a folded blanket under the head so the chin is level with or slightly below the forehead. Rest the hands on the belly, stay half the hold, then uncross and recross the legs the other way. Hold for 5–10 minutes.
What does Reclining Easy Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, lower back, with the chest, glutes, hip flexors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: holds an easy cross-legged hip position with the whole upper body reclined and propped.
Who should not do Reclining Easy Pose?
Knee injury — build the supports under the knees much higher. Pregnancy: keep the torso well inclined rather than flat, and stop if it feels uncomfortable. Reflux or breathlessness lying low — raise the far end of the bolster higher. Recent hip replacement, where crossed legs may be restricted. 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 Easy Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Reclining Easy 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 Easy 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 Easy 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.
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
The people behind these sites
Follow the build
This site and nine others like it are built and photographed by two people: Amit Sharma — behind the build; Geeta Patel — the poses, demonstrated. New work goes up on Instagram and Facebook before it reaches a page here.
Amit Sharma
@amitsharmaofficial
Instagram
Geeta Patel
@geetapatelnz
Instagram
Geeta Patel
GeetaPatelYoga
Facebook
Following changes nothing here — every page stays open, with no account and no wall.
