Stick Poseयष्टिकासन
Yaṣṭikāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the latissimus dorsi, abdominals.
5–8ROUNDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Stick Pose is held 5–8 rounds of stretch and release, 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 Stick Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie on your back with a thin folded blanket under the head and the legs together.
Stretch both arms overhead along the floor with the palms facing up.
Point the toes away and lengthen the whole body from the fingertips to the heels.
Hold the long stretch for a few breaths, then release the arms and legs completely and rest.
Repeat several rounds, and place a rolled blanket under the knees if the lower back arches.
Hold: 5–8 rounds of stretch and release. 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 Stick 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 whole front line of the body with the floor supporting the spine.
- Takes the shoulders into full overhead reach without any body weight going through them.
- Alternates a deliberate whole-body stretch with a complete release, which makes the release easy to feel.
Stick 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 Stick Pose, or change it
- Shoulder injury or impingement — keep the arms wider or lower.
- Low back discomfort as the arms go overhead: bend the knees or put a bolster under them.
- Pregnancy after the first trimester, where flat-supine holds are usually swapped for side-lying.
- Reflux, which lying flat can aggravate.
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 Stick Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeRibs lifting off the floor as the arms reach back.
FixLet the arms stop where the ribs stay down, even if that is well short of the floor.
MistakeHolding the stretch for minutes on end.
FixStretch for a few breaths, then fully let go; the letting go is the point.
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. Stick 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 Stick Pose?
Lie on your back with a thin folded blanket under the head and the legs together. Stretch both arms overhead along the floor with the palms facing up. Point the toes away and lengthen the whole body from the fingertips to the heels. Hold the long stretch for a few breaths, then release the arms and legs completely and rest. Repeat several rounds, and place a rolled blanket under the knees if the lower back arches. Hold for 5–8 rounds of stretch and release.
What does Stick Pose work?
Primarily the latissimus dorsi, abdominals, with the shoulders, hip flexors, spinal erectors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens the whole front line of the body with the floor supporting the spine.
Who should not do Stick Pose?
Shoulder injury or impingement — keep the arms wider or lower. Low back discomfort as the arms go overhead: bend the knees or put a bolster under them. Pregnancy after the first trimester, where flat-supine holds are usually swapped for side-lying. Reflux, which lying flat can aggravate. 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 Stick Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Stick 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 Stick 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. Stick 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.
