Frog Poseमण्डूकासन
Maṇḍūkāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the hip adductors, quadriceps, abdominals.
20–40SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Frog Pose is held 20–40 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.
Kneel in Vajrasana with the knees together and the seat resting back on the heels.
Make a fist with each hand and place the thumb inside the fingers.
Press the fists into the front of the abdomen, just below the navel, one either side of the midline.
Inhale to lengthen the spine, then exhale and fold the chest forward over the fists.
Look forward or down as the neck prefers, hold for a few slow breaths, then rise on an inhale.
Hold: 20–40 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.
- Compresses the front of the trunk while lengthening the whole back line of the spine.
- Holds the quadriceps and ankles in the deep flexion of a kneeling seat throughout.
- Loads the abdominal wall isometrically against the pressure of the fists.
Frog Pose is one of 29 seated poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses taken on the floor, where the pelvis is the base and the spine works above it.
Who should skip Frog Pose, or change it
- Recent abdominal surgery, hernia or any abdominal wall repair — skip entirely.
- Pregnancy at any stage, since the pose presses directly into the abdomen.
- Knee injury or knee replacement, because the base is a deep kneel.
- Low back or disc injury: fold far less and keep the spine long.
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".
MistakeDriving the fists in hard and holding the breath.
FixUse firm but comfortable pressure and keep breathing throughout.
MistakeRounding from the mid-back so the chest collapses.
FixLengthen forward from the sternum and fold from the hip crease.
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 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 Frog Pose?
Kneel in Vajrasana with the knees together and the seat resting back on the heels. Make a fist with each hand and place the thumb inside the fingers. Press the fists into the front of the abdomen, just below the navel, one either side of the midline. Inhale to lengthen the spine, then exhale and fold the chest forward over the fists. Look forward or down as the neck prefers, hold for a few slow breaths, then rise on an inhale. Hold for 20–40 seconds.
What does Frog Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, quadriceps, abdominals, with the spinal erectors, ankles, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: compresses the front of the trunk while lengthening the whole back line of the spine.
Who should not do Frog Pose?
Recent abdominal surgery, hernia or any abdominal wall repair — skip entirely. Pregnancy at any stage, since the pose presses directly into the abdomen. Knee injury or knee replacement, because the base is a deep kneel. Low back or disc injury: fold far less and keep the spine long. 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?
Not as a first pose. Frog Pose is rated intermediate here: it assumes a working base of strength and range, and a teacher who has watched you move. Build up through the seated poses marked beginner first.
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 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 seated poses on the wall
More seated 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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