Easy Poseसुखासन
Sukhāsana — a beginner seated pose that works the hip adductors, spinal erectors, hip flexors.
1–5MINUTES HELD
One line on the timetable. Easy Pose is held 1–5 minutes, breathing as follows: slow, even nasal breathing — 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 Easy Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit on the front edge of a folded blanket or a firm cushion so the hips are higher than the knees.
Cross the shins loosely, each foot resting under the opposite knee rather than under the thigh.
Let the knees settle wherever they land; support them on blocks if they hang high and the hips complain.
Stack the ribs over the pelvis and lengthen up through the crown without hardening the belly.
Rest the hands on the thighs, soften the jaw, and hold, swapping which shin is in front halfway through.
Hold: 1–5 minutes. Breath: Slow, even nasal breathing.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Easy 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.
- Holds the hips in gentle external rotation for a long, low-load stretch of the outer hip.
- Trains the spinal erectors to hold an upright column without a backrest.
- Loads the small postural muscles of the trunk in a still position the body can sustain for minutes.
Easy Pose is one of 29 seated poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses taken on the floor, where the pelvis is the base and the spine works above it.
Who should skip Easy Pose, or change it
- Knee injury or meniscus repair — sit on a chair or extend one leg forward instead.
- Recent hip replacement, where deep external rotation is often restricted.
- Any numbness or pins and needles in the feet: uncross, straighten the legs, and sit higher next time.
- Late pregnancy, where sitting very upright for long is often more comfortable against a wall.
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 Easy Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeSitting flat on the floor so the pelvis rolls back and the spine slumps.
FixRaise the seat on a folded blanket until the pelvis can tip slightly forward on its own.
MistakeAlways crossing the same shin in front.
FixChange the front leg every session, and swap sides halfway through long holds.
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. Easy 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 Easy Pose?
Sit on the front edge of a folded blanket or a firm cushion so the hips are higher than the knees. Cross the shins loosely, each foot resting under the opposite knee rather than under the thigh. Let the knees settle wherever they land; support them on blocks if they hang high and the hips complain. Stack the ribs over the pelvis and lengthen up through the crown without hardening the belly. Rest the hands on the thighs, soften the jaw, and hold, swapping which shin is in front halfway through. Hold for 1–5 minutes.
What does Easy Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, spinal erectors, hip flexors, with the abdominals, lower back, pelvic floor assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: holds the hips in gentle external rotation for a long, low-load stretch of the outer hip.
Who should not do Easy Pose?
Knee injury or meniscus repair — sit on a chair or extend one leg forward instead. Recent hip replacement, where deep external rotation is often restricted. Any numbness or pins and needles in the feet: uncross, straighten the legs, and sit higher next time. Late pregnancy, where sitting very upright for long is often more comfortable against a wall. 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 Easy Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Easy 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 Easy 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. Easy 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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