Swaying Palm Tree Pose
तिर्यक ताड़ासन
Tiryaka Tāḍāsana — a beginner standing pose that works the obliques, intercostals, latissimus dorsi.
How to do Swaying Palm Tree Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand with the feet hip-width apart and interlace the fingers.
Turn the palms up and raise the arms overhead until the elbows are straight.
Inhale to lengthen; exhale and bend to the right from the waist without twisting.
Keep both feet flat and both hips level.
Inhale back to centre and repeat on the left; continue slowly for several rounds.
Hold: 5–8 slow rounds each side. 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 Swaying Palm Tree 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 side waist and the muscles between the ribs.
- Mobilises the spine in lateral flexion, a direction most days never use.
- Takes the shoulders overhead with the fingers interlaced, which increases the stretch across the chest.
Swaying Palm Tree Pose is one of 18 standing poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses built on the feet, where the legs carry the work and the floor is the reference point.
Who should skip Swaying Palm Tree Pose, or change it
- Low back injury — reduce the range considerably.
- Shoulder impingement: keep the arms lower or separate the hands.
- Vertigo, since the head moves through space.
- High blood pressure with long arms-up holds.
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 Swaying Palm Tree Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLeaning forward or back instead of directly sideways.
FixImagine standing between two panes of glass and bend within them.
MistakeHips sliding out to the opposite side.
FixKeep the weight even in both feet and the pelvis still.
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 Swaying Palm Tree 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 Swaying Palm Tree Pose?
Stand with the feet hip-width apart and interlace the fingers. Turn the palms up and raise the arms overhead until the elbows are straight. Inhale to lengthen; exhale and bend to the right from the waist without twisting. Keep both feet flat and both hips level. Inhale back to centre and repeat on the left; continue slowly for several rounds. Hold for 5–8 slow rounds each side.
What does Swaying Palm Tree Pose work?
Primarily the obliques, intercostals, latissimus dorsi, with the shoulders, spinal erectors, calves assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens the side waist and the muscles between the ribs.
Who should not do Swaying Palm Tree Pose?
Low back injury — reduce the range considerably. Shoulder impingement: keep the arms lower or separate the hands. Vertigo, since the head moves through space. High blood pressure with long arms-up holds. 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 Swaying Palm Tree Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Swaying Palm Tree 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 Swaying Palm Tree 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. Swaying Palm Tree 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.
Sequences that use Swaying Palm Tree Pose
Related poses
More standing 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.