Supine Abdominal Stretchसुप्त उदराकर्षणासन
Supta Udarākarṣaṇāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the obliques, lower back.
2–4MINUTES HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Supine Abdominal Stretch is held 2–4 minutes each side, with the breath moving throughout — and it takes its place inside 2 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 Supine Abdominal Stretch
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 arms out wide at shoulder height.
Bend both knees and place the feet flat on the mat, close together.
Let both knees drop slowly to the right and turn the head to the left if the neck is comfortable.
Slide a bolster or a folded blanket under the lowered knees so they rest instead of hanging.
Stay and breathe, then bring the knees back to centre and repeat to the left.
Hold: 2–4 minutes each side. 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 Supine Abdominal Stretch 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.
- Rotates the spine gently with the whole body supported by the floor and a prop.
- Lengthens the side waist of the upper side without any effort from the practitioner.
- Opens the front of the top shoulder, since the arm stays wide on the floor throughout.
Supine Abdominal Stretch 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 Supine Abdominal Stretch, or change it
- Pregnancy after the first trimester — take a supported side-lying rest instead of a supine twist.
- Disc injury or recent spinal surgery, where a passive rotation may be inadvisable.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which a long-held twist can aggravate — reduce the drop or skip.
- Neck problems: keep the head facing the ceiling rather than turning it.
- Reflux or breathlessness lying flat, where a propped incline suits better.
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 Supine Abdominal Stretch
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeKnees hanging in mid-air so the side waist grips for the whole hold.
FixBuild a bolster or blankets up until the knees rest completely.
MistakeForcing the top shoulder to the floor.
FixLeave the shoulder where it lands and support it with a folded blanket if it stays high.
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. Supine Abdominal Stretch 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 Supine Abdominal Stretch?
Lie on your back with a thin folded blanket under the head and the arms out wide at shoulder height. Bend both knees and place the feet flat on the mat, close together. Let both knees drop slowly to the right and turn the head to the left if the neck is comfortable. Slide a bolster or a folded blanket under the lowered knees so they rest instead of hanging. Stay and breathe, then bring the knees back to centre and repeat to the left. Hold for 2–4 minutes each side.
What does Supine Abdominal Stretch work?
Primarily the obliques, lower back, with the glutes, chest, spinal erectors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: rotates the spine gently with the whole body supported by the floor and a prop.
Who should not do Supine Abdominal Stretch?
Pregnancy after the first trimester — take a supported side-lying rest instead of a supine twist. Disc injury or recent spinal surgery, where a passive rotation may be inadvisable. Sacroiliac irritation, which a long-held twist can aggravate — reduce the drop or skip. Neck problems: keep the head facing the ceiling rather than turning it. Reflux or breathlessness lying flat, where a propped incline suits better. 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 Supine Abdominal Stretch suitable for beginners?
Yes. Supine Abdominal Stretch 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 Supine Abdominal Stretch 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. Supine Abdominal Stretch 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.
Sequences that use Supine Abdominal Stretch
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.
