Frog Poseभेकासन
Bhekāsana — an advanced backbend that works the quadriceps, hip flexors, chest.
10–20SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Frog Pose is held 10–20 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 Frog Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie face down and bend both knees so the heels come towards the buttocks.
Reach back and take the top of each foot, then rotate each hand so the fingers point forward like the toes.
Lift the chest and elbows and press both feet down towards the outside of the hips.
Keep the knees roughly hip-width and the elbows drawing in rather than flaring wide.
Hold for a short time, release one foot at a time, and rest face down.
Hold: 10–20 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 Frog 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.
- Delivers one of the deepest available quadriceps stretches, with the heels pressed towards the floor.
- Extends the thoracic spine while the arms rotate fully overhead in an unusual position.
- Lengthens the front of the ankles and shins under pressure.
Frog Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Frog Pose, or change it
- Knee injury or meniscus damage — the knee is fully flexed and compressed, so avoid this shape entirely.
- Pregnancy from the second trimester, as this is a prone pose.
- Shoulder impingement, which the flipped-grip rotation loads heavily.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis.
- Wrist injury and ankle injury, both under direct pressure here.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
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 Frog Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakePressing the heels straight down onto the buttocks so the knee joint takes the whole load.
FixAim the heels to the outside of the hips and back off the instant the knee speaks.
MistakeThe chest staying low so the arch lands entirely in the lumbar spine.
FixLift the sternum and the elbows first; the foot press comes after the chest has opened.
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. Frog 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 Frog Pose?
Lie face down and bend both knees so the heels come towards the buttocks. Reach back and take the top of each foot, then rotate each hand so the fingers point forward like the toes. Lift the chest and elbows and press both feet down towards the outside of the hips. Keep the knees roughly hip-width and the elbows drawing in rather than flaring wide. Hold for a short time, release one foot at a time, and rest face down. Hold for 10–20 seconds.
What does Frog Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, hip flexors, chest, with the spinal erectors, shoulders, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: delivers one of the deepest available quadriceps stretches, with the heels pressed towards the floor.
Who should not do Frog Pose?
Knee injury or meniscus damage — the knee is fully flexed and compressed, so avoid this shape entirely. Pregnancy from the second trimester, as this is a prone pose. Shoulder impingement, which the flipped-grip rotation loads heavily. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis. Wrist injury and ankle injury, both under direct pressure here. Recent abdominal surgery. 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 Frog Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Frog Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate backbends poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Frog 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. Frog 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 backbends on the wall
More backbends — 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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