Reclining Hero Pose
सुप्त वीरासन
Supta Vīrāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the quadriceps, hip flexors, chest.
How to do Reclining Hero Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Kneel with the knees together and the feet just outside the hips, shins flat and toes pointing back.
Sit down between the heels, using a block or folded blanket under the seat if the hips do not reach the floor.
Lean back onto the hands, then the forearms, checking that the knees stay together and quiet.
If the knees stay comfortable, lower onto a bolster placed lengthwise behind you, or all the way to the mat.
Take the arms overhead or out to the sides, hold, then press onto the forearms and rise the way you came.
Hold: 1–3 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 Hero 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.
- Stretches the quadriceps and hip flexors with the knees fully flexed.
- Extends the thoracic spine passively over the floor or a bolster.
- Lengthens the front of the ankles and shins as the feet rest turned back.
Reclining Hero Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Reclining Hero Pose, or change it
- Knee injury or meniscus damage — this pose loads the knee joint at end-range, so sit up on blocks or leave it out.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis: keep a bolster under the spine so the arch stays shallow.
- Ankle injury, since the fronts of the ankles are pressed flat.
- Sacroiliac irritation when the knees drift apart.
- Later pregnancy, where extended time lying back is not advised.
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 Hero Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeKnees lifting and drifting apart as the torso goes back.
FixRaise the seat on blocks and stop leaning back at the point the knees stay down and together.
MistakeRibs flaring and the arch pooling in the low back.
FixSupport the spine on a bolster and draw the front ribs in until the curve spreads through the mid-back.
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 Reclining Hero 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 Reclining Hero Pose?
Kneel with the knees together and the feet just outside the hips, shins flat and toes pointing back. Sit down between the heels, using a block or folded blanket under the seat if the hips do not reach the floor. Lean back onto the hands, then the forearms, checking that the knees stay together and quiet. If the knees stay comfortable, lower onto a bolster placed lengthwise behind you, or all the way to the mat. Take the arms overhead or out to the sides, hold, then press onto the forearms and rise the way you came. Hold for 1–3 minutes.
What does Reclining Hero Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, hip flexors, chest, with the spinal erectors, shoulders, abdominals assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: stretches the quadriceps and hip flexors with the knees fully flexed.
Who should not do Reclining Hero Pose?
Knee injury or meniscus damage — this pose loads the knee joint at end-range, so sit up on blocks or leave it out. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis: keep a bolster under the spine so the arch stays shallow. Ankle injury, since the fronts of the ankles are pressed flat. Sacroiliac irritation when the knees drift apart. Later pregnancy, where extended time lying back is not advised. 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 Hero Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Reclining Hero 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 backbends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Reclining Hero 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 Hero 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 backbends — 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.