Ear Pressure Poseकर्णपीडासन
Karṇapīḍāsana — an advanced inversion that works the spinal erectors, glutes, shoulders.
20–45SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Ear Pressure Pose is held 20–45 seconds, 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 Ear Pressure Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Come into Plough Pose on folded blankets with the shoulders supported and the neck free.
Bend both knees and lower them towards the floor either side of the head.
Rest the knees on the floor, a bolster or blocks, whichever they reach without strain.
Keep the hands supporting the back, or interlace the fingers and press the arms down.
Breathe slowly, then straighten the legs back to Plough and roll down with control.
Hold: 20–45 seconds. 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 Ear Pressure 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.
- Takes the spine into its fullest flexed range with the body inverted.
- Compresses the shape so the shoulders and upper arms carry the weight rather than the neck.
- Requires a slow, controlled exit that the abdominals have to govern.
Ear Pressure Pose is one of 20 inversions in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses where the head sits below the heart. The group that needs the most care and the most teaching.
Who should skip Ear Pressure Pose, or change it
- Glaucoma or raised pressure in the eye, and uncontrolled high blood pressure.
- Neck or cervical spine injury — this is the most deeply flexed position the neck meets in any asana.
- Pregnancy — do not practise; and this is not a shape to begin then, with any continuation of inversions a matter for you and your doctor.
- Menstruation: many traditions leave inversions out at that time, a personal choice rather than a medical rule.
- Recent ear infection, any disc injury, and asthma or breathing difficulty — the shape strongly restricts the ribcage.
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 Ear Pressure Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeDropping the knees to the floor before Plough is comfortable.
FixRest the knees on a bolster and stay in Plough until it is easy for a full minute.
MistakeHolding the breath because the ribs are compressed.
FixIf the breath cannot flow, raise the knees onto support or come out.
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. Ear Pressure Pose sits at code 02175, yoga, Power, 4 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
= 4 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 4.90 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 | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02175 · 4 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 Ear Pressure Pose?
Come into Plough Pose on folded blankets with the shoulders supported and the neck free. Bend both knees and lower them towards the floor either side of the head. Rest the knees on the floor, a bolster or blocks, whichever they reach without strain. Keep the hands supporting the back, or interlace the fingers and press the arms down. Breathe slowly, then straighten the legs back to Plough and roll down with control. Hold for 20–45 seconds.
What does Ear Pressure Pose work?
Primarily the spinal erectors, glutes, shoulders, with the abdominals, hamstrings, upper back assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: takes the spine into its fullest flexed range with the body inverted.
Who should not do Ear Pressure Pose?
Glaucoma or raised pressure in the eye, and uncontrolled high blood pressure. Neck or cervical spine injury — this is the most deeply flexed position the neck meets in any asana. Pregnancy — do not practise; and this is not a shape to begin then, with any continuation of inversions a matter for you and your doctor. Menstruation: many traditions leave inversions out at that time, a personal choice rather than a medical rule. Recent ear infection, any disc injury, and asthma or breathing difficulty — the shape strongly restricts the ribcage. 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 Ear Pressure Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Ear Pressure Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate inversions poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Ear Pressure 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. Ear Pressure 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.
The rest of the inversions on the wall
More inversions — 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
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