Tree Poseवृक्षासन
Vṛkṣāsana — a beginner balance pose that works the gluteus medius, calves, quadriceps.
20–45SECONDS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Tree Pose is held 20–45 seconds each side, with the breath moving throughout — and it takes its place inside 4 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
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How to do Tree Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand tall and shift your weight onto the left foot until the right foot is light.
Turn the right knee out and place the sole of the right foot on the inner ankle, calf or inner thigh — never on the side of the knee.
Press foot and leg into each other so the standing leg has something to work against.
Bring the hands to the chest, or overhead once the shape is steady.
Fix your gaze on a still point ahead, hold, then repeat on the second side.
Hold: 20–45 seconds 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 Tree 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.
- Loads one leg at a time, which trains the hip abductors that keep the pelvis level.
- Builds ankle and foot stability through constant small corrections.
- Opens the raised hip outward while the standing leg holds a vertical line.
Tree Pose is one of 31 balance poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses held on a reduced base — one foot, two hands, or the forearms.
Who should skip Tree Pose, or change it
- Recent ankle, knee or hip injury on the standing side.
- Vertigo or balance loss — practise with a hand on a wall.
- Pregnancy: widen the base and use a wall, since the centre of mass has moved.
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 Tree Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakePressing the foot into the side of the standing knee.
FixMove the foot below the knee to the calf, or above it to the inner thigh — never onto the joint.
MistakeStanding hip pushing out to the side.
FixDraw the standing hip back under the ribs and press the raised foot inwards to hold it there.
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. Tree 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 Tree Pose?
Stand tall and shift your weight onto the left foot until the right foot is light. Turn the right knee out and place the sole of the right foot on the inner ankle, calf or inner thigh — never on the side of the knee. Press foot and leg into each other so the standing leg has something to work against. Bring the hands to the chest, or overhead once the shape is steady. Fix your gaze on a still point ahead, hold, then repeat on the second side. Hold for 20–45 seconds each side.
What does Tree Pose work?
Primarily the gluteus medius, calves, quadriceps, with the hip adductors, abdominals, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads one leg at a time, which trains the hip abductors that keep the pelvis level.
Who should not do Tree Pose?
Recent ankle, knee or hip injury on the standing side. Vertigo or balance loss — practise with a hand on a wall. Pregnancy: widen the base and use a wall, since the centre of mass has moved. 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 Tree Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Tree 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 Tree 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. Tree 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 balance poses on the wall
More balance poses — first at the same level, then the rest of the family.
The pose photograph on this page is an AI-generated illustration of Amit Sharma. Amit Sharma is real, but did not hold this pose for a camera — the image is generated from photographs of him, and he is not a yoga instructor. It was checked against the alignment steps on this page before publishing, and it is not a record of anyone’s practice.
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
