Revolved Staff Poseपरिवृत्त दण्डासन
Parivṛtta Daṇḍāsana — a beginner twist that works the obliques, spinal erectors, abdominals.
5–8BREATHS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Revolved Staff Pose is held 5–8 breaths each side, 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 Revolved Staff Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with both legs straight forward, feet flexed, sitting up on a blanket if the low back rounds.
Press the hands down beside the hips and lift tall through the whole spine.
Keep both thighs firm and both heels pressing away as an anchor.
Exhale and rotate the ribs to the right, taking the left hand to the outer right thigh.
Hold with the legs unchanged, return to centre, and repeat to the left.
Hold: 5–8 breaths 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 Revolved Staff 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.
- Rotates the spine with both legs extended, which gives the pelvis no way to help.
- Loads the hip flexors and quadriceps to keep the legs straight and active throughout.
- Trains the obliques while the spine stays vertical rather than folded.
Revolved Staff Pose is one of 25 twists in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that rotate the spine around its long axis with the pelvis anchored.
Who should skip Revolved Staff Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy — keep the turn small and open, without pressing into the belly.
- Disc injury or nerve symptoms down a leg.
- Sacroiliac irritation from the long-leg seated position.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- Tight hamstrings that tip the pelvis back — sit higher or bend the knees.
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 Revolved Staff Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeSlumping back onto the sacrum before the twist even begins.
FixRaise the seat on a blanket until the pelvis stands upright.
MistakeLegs rolling outward as the trunk turns.
FixKeep the kneecaps and toes pointing straight up throughout.
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. Revolved Staff 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 Revolved Staff Pose?
Sit with both legs straight forward, feet flexed, sitting up on a blanket if the low back rounds. Press the hands down beside the hips and lift tall through the whole spine. Keep both thighs firm and both heels pressing away as an anchor. Exhale and rotate the ribs to the right, taking the left hand to the outer right thigh. Hold with the legs unchanged, return to centre, and repeat to the left. Hold for 5–8 breaths each side.
What does Revolved Staff Pose work?
Primarily the obliques, spinal erectors, abdominals, with the hip flexors, shoulders, quadriceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: rotates the spine with both legs extended, which gives the pelvis no way to help.
Who should not do Revolved Staff Pose?
Pregnancy — keep the turn small and open, without pressing into the belly. Disc injury or nerve symptoms down a leg. Sacroiliac irritation from the long-leg seated position. Recent abdominal surgery. Tight hamstrings that tip the pelvis back — sit higher or bend the knees. 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 Revolved Staff Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Revolved Staff 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 Revolved Staff 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. Revolved Staff 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 twists on the wall
More twists — 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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