Stick Pose
यष्टिकासन
Yaṣṭikāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the latissimus dorsi, abdominals.
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.
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 Stick Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02170, yoga, Nadisodhana (seated, quiet practice), 2 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 | 25 | 49 | 74 | 110 | 147 |
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 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.
Related poses
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. 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.