Tiger Poseव्याघ्रासन
Vyāghrāsana — a beginner backbend that works the glutes, spinal erectors, hip flexors.
6–10ROUNDS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Tiger Pose is held 6–10 rounds each side, breathing as follows: exhale to round in, inhale to extend back — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
स्रोत·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
How to do Tiger Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Start on all fours with the wrists under the shoulders and the knees under the hips, shins padded.
Exhale, round the back and draw the right knee in towards the nose.
Inhale, sweep the right leg back and up, bending the knee so the foot reaches towards the head.
Lift the chest and look forward without cranking the neck, keeping both hips level.
Move slowly between the two shapes with the breath, then change sides.
Hold: 6–10 rounds each side. Breath: Exhale to round in, inhale to extend back.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Tiger 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.
- Alternates spinal flexion and extension with the pelvis supported on all fours.
- Loads the glute of the lifting leg in hip extension through a full range.
- Stretches the hip flexors and quadriceps of the lifting leg at the top of the movement.
Tiger Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Tiger Pose, or change it
- Knee injury — pad the shins well, or take the movement standing with a hand on a wall.
- Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome: come onto the fists or forearms.
- Disc injury, where the swing between flexion and extension can be provocative — reduce the range.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which the single-leg lift can aggravate if the hips do not stay level.
- Late pregnancy: keep the round small and the leg lift low.
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 Tiger Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeThe lifting hip rolling open so the low back hinges at one point.
FixKeep both hip bones facing the floor and lift the leg only to the height that allows.
MistakeNeck flung back to look up at the top of the movement.
FixLengthen the crown forward and lift the gaze no higher than the front of the mat.
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. Tiger 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 Tiger Pose?
Start on all fours with the wrists under the shoulders and the knees under the hips, shins padded. Exhale, round the back and draw the right knee in towards the nose. Inhale, sweep the right leg back and up, bending the knee so the foot reaches towards the head. Lift the chest and look forward without cranking the neck, keeping both hips level. Move slowly between the two shapes with the breath, then change sides. Hold for 6–10 rounds each side.
What does Tiger Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, spinal erectors, hip flexors, with the quadriceps, abdominals, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: alternates spinal flexion and extension with the pelvis supported on all fours.
Who should not do Tiger Pose?
Knee injury — pad the shins well, or take the movement standing with a hand on a wall. Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome: come onto the fists or forearms. Disc injury, where the swing between flexion and extension can be provocative — reduce the range. Sacroiliac irritation, which the single-leg lift can aggravate if the hips do not stay level. Late pregnancy: keep the round small and the leg lift low. 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 Tiger Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Tiger 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 Tiger 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. Tiger 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 backbends on the wall
More backbends — 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 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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