अर्ध मत्स्येंद्र आसनअर्ध मत्स्येन्द्रासन
Ardha Matsyendrāsana — an intermediate twist that works the obliques, spinal erectors, glutes.
30–60SECONDS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Half Lord of the Fishes Pose is held 30–60 seconds each side, with the breath moving throughout — and it takes its place inside 2 of the practices posted on this site.
स्रोत·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
How to do Half Lord of the Fishes Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit tall, bend the left knee and slide the left heel beside the right hip, or keep that leg straight instead.
Cross the right foot over the left thigh and plant it flat on the floor outside the left knee.
Place the right hand on the floor behind you and hug the right knee with the left arm or hook the left elbow outside it.
Inhale to lengthen the spine, exhale to rotate the ribs to the right.
Turn the head last and only as far as it goes comfortably, hold, then change sides.
Hold: 30–60 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 Half Lord of the Fishes 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 whole spine with the pelvis pinned by the crossed leg.
- Stretches the outer hip and glute of the crossed leg while the trunk turns away from it.
- Loads the obliques through a long, held rotation rather than a swing.
Half Lord of the Fishes Pose is one of 25 twists in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that rotate the spine around its long axis with the pelvis anchored.
Who should skip Half Lord of the Fishes Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy — avoid this closed shape entirely.
- Disc injury, spinal fusion or unexplained back pain.
- Sacroiliac instability, which the folded bottom leg readily aggravates.
- Recent abdominal or hernia surgery.
- Knee injury on the folded leg — keep that leg straight along the floor.
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 Half Lord of the Fishes Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeRounding the whole back to get the elbow outside the knee.
FixHug the knee with the arm instead and keep the spine tall — height first, depth later.
MistakeTurning the head hard while the ribs stay still.
FixRotate the sternum first and let the neck follow the last few degrees.
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. Half Lord of the Fishes Pose sits at code 02150, योग, हठ, 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 मिनिटे | 20 मिनिटे | 30 मिनिटे | 45 मिनिटे | 60 मिनिटे |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
स्रोत·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Half Lord of the Fishes Pose?
Sit tall, bend the left knee and slide the left heel beside the right hip, or keep that leg straight instead. Cross the right foot over the left thigh and plant it flat on the floor outside the left knee. Place the right hand on the floor behind you and hug the right knee with the left arm or hook the left elbow outside it. Inhale to lengthen the spine, exhale to rotate the ribs to the right. Turn the head last and only as far as it goes comfortably, hold, then change sides. Hold for 30–60 seconds each side.
What does Half Lord of the Fishes Pose work?
Primarily the obliques, spinal erectors, glutes, with the shoulders, abdominals, hip abductors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: rotates the whole spine with the pelvis pinned by the crossed leg.
Who should not do Half Lord of the Fishes Pose?
Pregnancy — avoid this closed shape entirely. Disc injury, spinal fusion or unexplained back pain. Sacroiliac instability, which the folded bottom leg readily aggravates. Recent abdominal or hernia surgery. Knee injury on the folded leg — keep that leg straight along the floor. 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 Half Lord of the Fishes Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Half Lord of the Fishes 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 twists poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Half Lord of the Fishes 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. Half Lord of the Fishes 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.
Sequences that use Half Lord of the Fishes Pose
भिंतीवरील उरलेली पिळण्याची आसने
आणखी पिळण्याची आसने — आधी त्याच स्तरावरील, मग उरलेल्या गटातील.
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 आणि 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.
स्रोत·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
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