Prayer Poseप्रार्थनासन
Prārthanāsana — a beginner standing pose that works the chest, shoulders, spinal erectors.
3–5BREATHS HELD
One line on the timetable. Prayer Pose is held 3–5 breaths, with the breath moving throughout — and it takes its place inside 3 of the practices posted on this site.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Prayer Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand at the front of the mat with the feet together or hip-width apart.
Press the palms together in front of the sternum with the thumbs touching the breastbone.
Press the hands into each other firmly enough that the chest broadens rather than collapses.
Let the shoulders drop away from the ears and the elbows hang below the wrists.
Take a few even breaths here before the first movement of the sequence.
Hold: 3–5 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 Prayer 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.
- Sets an even, symmetrical standing position before a sequence begins.
- Broadens the chest by pressing the palms together against each other.
- Gives a fixed starting point so the rounds of a sequence can be compared to each other.
Prayer Pose is one of 18 standing poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses built on the feet, where the legs carry the work and the floor is the reference point.
Who should skip Prayer Pose, or change it
- Shoulder injury that makes the palms-together position painful — rest the hands on the chest instead.
- Wrist or thumb joint pain: press the backs of the fingers together rather than the palms.
- Balance difficulty — take the feet hip-width apart.
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 Prayer Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHands pressed so high that the shoulders hitch up.
FixBring the thumbs to the level of the breastbone and let the shoulders drop.
MistakeRibs pushed forward so the low back arches.
FixSoften the front ribs and stand tall through the crown instead.
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. Prayer Pose sits at code 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 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
= 2.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 3.06 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 | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 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 Prayer Pose?
Stand at the front of the mat with the feet together or hip-width apart. Press the palms together in front of the sternum with the thumbs touching the breastbone. Press the hands into each other firmly enough that the chest broadens rather than collapses. Let the shoulders drop away from the ears and the elbows hang below the wrists. Take a few even breaths here before the first movement of the sequence. Hold for 3–5 breaths.
What does Prayer Pose work?
Primarily the chest, shoulders, spinal erectors, with the abdominals, calves, rhomboids assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: sets an even, symmetrical standing position before a sequence begins.
Who should not do Prayer Pose?
Shoulder injury that makes the palms-together position painful — rest the hands on the chest instead. Wrist or thumb joint pain: press the backs of the fingers together rather than the palms. Balance difficulty — take the feet hip-width apart. 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 Prayer Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Prayer 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 Prayer 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. Prayer Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02150, yoga, Hatha, at 2.5 MET — about 92 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 standing poses on the wall
More standing 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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