Scales Pose
तोलासन
Tolāsana — an advanced balance pose that works the shoulders, triceps, abdominals.
How to do Scales Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit in a comfortable full lotus with both knees resting low.
Place a block under each hand if the arms cannot clear the floor.
Set the palms on the mat just beside the hips, fingers pointing forward.
Press down through the whole hand, round the upper back slightly and lift the lotus off the floor.
Hold for a few breaths, lower with control, then rebuild the lotus the other way and repeat.
Hold: 5–10 breaths. 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 Scales 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.
- Lifts a locked lotus straight up on the hands, so the arms and shoulders take everything.
- Loads the abdominals to hold the folded legs up rather than letting them hang.
- Puts a straight-down pressing load through both wrists.
Scales Pose is one of 31 balance poses in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses held on a reduced base — one foot, two hands, or the forearms.
Who should skip Scales Pose, or change it
- Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Knee injury — the pose depends on an easy full lotus.
- Shoulder injury.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
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 Scales Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeShrugging the shoulders up to the ears to get height.
FixPress the hands down and reach the shoulders away from the ears instead.
MistakeLifting from a lotus that is already straining the knees.
FixUse a cross-legged version on blocks until the lotus is comfortable.
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 Scales Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02175, yoga, Power, 4 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 | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
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 Scales Pose?
Sit in a comfortable full lotus with both knees resting low. Place a block under each hand if the arms cannot clear the floor. Set the palms on the mat just beside the hips, fingers pointing forward. Press down through the whole hand, round the upper back slightly and lift the lotus off the floor. Hold for a few breaths, lower with control, then rebuild the lotus the other way and repeat. Hold for 5–10 breaths.
What does Scales Pose work?
Primarily the shoulders, triceps, abdominals, with the wrists, serratus anterior, hip flexors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lifts a locked lotus straight up on the hands, so the arms and shoulders take everything.
Who should not do Scales Pose?
Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome. Knee injury — the pose depends on an easy full lotus. Shoulder injury. Recent abdominal surgery. 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 Scales Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Scales Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate balance poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Scales 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. Scales Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02175, yoga, Power, at 4 MET — about 147 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 balance 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.