Peacock Poseमयूरासन
Mayūrāsana — an advanced balance pose that works the forearms, abdominals, shoulders.
3–8BREATHS HELD
One line on the timetable. Peacock Pose is held 3–8 breaths, 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 Peacock Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Kneel with the knees wide and place both palms on the mat with the fingers pointing back towards the feet.
Draw the elbows together and set them against the abdomen, just below the navel.
Lean the chest forward over the hands and stretch both legs straight back, toes on the floor.
Keep leaning forward until the feet grow light, then lift them and hold the body parallel to the floor.
Hold for a few breaths, lower the feet first, and release the wrists slowly.
Hold: 3–8 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 Peacock 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.
- Balances the whole body on the elbows pressed into the abdominal wall, a load no other pose repeats.
- Puts the wrists into extreme extension with the fingers turned backwards.
- Requires the spinal erectors and glutes to hold the legs horizontal without any support.
Peacock 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 Peacock Pose, or change it
- Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome — the reversed hand position is the most demanding in the practice.
- Elbow tendon pain.
- Recent abdominal surgery, a hernia, or any abdominal tenderness — the elbows press directly into the belly.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Practise over a folded blanket: a forward tip lands squarely on the face.
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 Peacock Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeElbows sliding apart so the platform disappears.
FixSqueeze the elbows together and keep them pinned against each other throughout.
MistakeTrying to lift the legs before the chest has travelled forward.
FixKeep leaning forward until the toes feel light; the legs then rise on their own.
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. Peacock 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 Peacock Pose?
Kneel with the knees wide and place both palms on the mat with the fingers pointing back towards the feet. Draw the elbows together and set them against the abdomen, just below the navel. Lean the chest forward over the hands and stretch both legs straight back, toes on the floor. Keep leaning forward until the feet grow light, then lift them and hold the body parallel to the floor. Hold for a few breaths, lower the feet first, and release the wrists slowly. Hold for 3–8 breaths.
What does Peacock Pose work?
Primarily the forearms, abdominals, shoulders, with the wrists, triceps, spinal erectors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: balances the whole body on the elbows pressed into the abdominal wall, a load no other pose repeats.
Who should not do Peacock Pose?
Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome — the reversed hand position is the most demanding in the practice. Elbow tendon pain. Recent abdominal surgery, a hernia, or any abdominal tenderness — the elbows press directly into the belly. Pregnancy at any stage. Practise over a folded blanket: a forward tip lands squarely on the face. 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 Peacock Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Peacock 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 Peacock 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. Peacock 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 balance poses on the wall
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 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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