Boat Poseनावासन
Nāvāsana — an intermediate seated pose that works the abdominals, hip flexors, quadriceps.
20–40सेकंद धरून ठेवले
One line on the timetable. Boat Pose is held 20–40 seconds, 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 Boat Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with the knees bent, feet on the floor and the hands behind the thighs.
Lean back until you find the point just behind the sitting bones where the feet get light.
Lift the shins parallel to the floor, keeping the chest broad and the spine long.
Straighten the legs towards a V shape only if the low back can stay long.
Release the hands and reach the arms forward beside the shins, then hold.
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 Boat 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 the abdominals and hip flexors isometrically to hold the legs against gravity.
- Trains the spinal erectors to keep the trunk long while the body balances on the sitting bones.
- Builds quadriceps engagement to hold the knees straight in an unsupported position.
Boat 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 Boat Pose, or change it
- Low back or disc injury — keep the knees bent and the hands behind the thighs.
- Recent abdominal surgery, hernia or diastasis recti.
- Pregnancy, where strong abdominal loading in this position is not appropriate.
- Sacroiliac pain, which balancing on the sitting bones can aggravate.
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 Boat Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeRounding the low back and collapsing the chest to get the legs up.
FixBend the knees more and hold behind the thighs until the spine can stay long.
MistakeHolding the breath through the whole pose.
FixShorten the hold to the length you can breathe evenly through.
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. Boat 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 Boat Pose?
Sit with the knees bent, feet on the floor and the hands behind the thighs. Lean back until you find the point just behind the sitting bones where the feet get light. Lift the shins parallel to the floor, keeping the chest broad and the spine long. Straighten the legs towards a V shape only if the low back can stay long. Release the hands and reach the arms forward beside the shins, then hold. Hold for 20–40 seconds.
What does Boat Pose work?
Primarily the abdominals, hip flexors, quadriceps, with the spinal erectors, transverse abdominis, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the abdominals and hip flexors isometrically to hold the legs against gravity.
Who should not do Boat Pose?
Low back or disc injury — keep the knees bent and the hands behind the thighs. Recent abdominal surgery, hernia or diastasis recti. Pregnancy, where strong abdominal loading in this position is not appropriate. Sacroiliac pain, which balancing on the sitting bones can aggravate. 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 Boat Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Boat 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 Boat 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. Boat 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 Boat Pose
भिंतीवरील उरलेली बैठी आसने
आणखी बैठी आसने — प्रथम त्याच पातळीवरची, नंतर 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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