Sleeping Tortoise Poseसुप्त कूर्मासन
Supta Kūrmāsana — an advanced forward bend that works the hip adductors, glutes, spinal erectors.
20–45SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Sleeping Tortoise Pose is held 20–45 seconds, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
ਸਰੋਤ·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
How to do Sleeping Tortoise Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Begin in Tortoise Pose with both arms threaded under the thighs and the legs wide.
Bend the knees slightly and walk both hands round behind the back, clasping one wrist with the other hand.
Cross the right ankle over the left in front of the head, or as close to the head as they reach.
Let the head rest down and the shoulders stay under the thighs.
Hold for a few slow breaths, then release the ankles first and the hands second.
Hold: 20–45 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 Sleeping Tortoise 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.
- Takes both hips through extreme flexion combined with external rotation.
- Holds the spine in full flexion with the arms bound behind the back.
- Lengthens the outer hips and glutes strongly under the weight of the crossed legs.
Sleeping Tortoise Pose is one of 22 forward bends in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses that fold the torso towards the legs, lengthening the whole back line of the body.
Who should skip Sleeping Tortoise Pose, or change it
- Neck or cervical disc injury — the legs cross over the head; skip entirely.
- Low back or disc injury, and any spinal fusion.
- Shoulder injury, since the bind pulls the arms behind under load.
- Pregnancy, recent abdominal surgery, and recent hip replacement.
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 Sleeping Tortoise Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeCrossing the ankles before the hands are bound.
FixBind the hands first while the legs are still wide; the ankles come last.
MistakeHolding the breath because the chest is compressed.
FixBreathe into the back ribs and shorten the hold rather than forcing the shape.
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. Sleeping Tortoise 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 ਮਿੰਟ | 20 ਮਿੰਟ | 30 ਮਿੰਟ | 45 ਮਿੰਟ | 60 ਮਿੰਟ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
ਸਰੋਤ·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02175 · 4 MET · 70 kg reference adult·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Sleeping Tortoise Pose?
Begin in Tortoise Pose with both arms threaded under the thighs and the legs wide. Bend the knees slightly and walk both hands round behind the back, clasping one wrist with the other hand. Cross the right ankle over the left in front of the head, or as close to the head as they reach. Let the head rest down and the shoulders stay under the thighs. Hold for a few slow breaths, then release the ankles first and the hands second. Hold for 20–45 seconds.
What does Sleeping Tortoise Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, glutes, spinal erectors, with the hamstrings, shoulders, neck assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: takes both hips through extreme flexion combined with external rotation.
Who should not do Sleeping Tortoise Pose?
Neck or cervical disc injury — the legs cross over the head; skip entirely. Low back or disc injury, and any spinal fusion. Shoulder injury, since the bind pulls the arms behind under load. Pregnancy, recent abdominal surgery, and recent hip replacement. 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 Sleeping Tortoise Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Sleeping Tortoise Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate forward bends poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Sleeping Tortoise 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. Sleeping Tortoise 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 forward bends on the wall
More forward bends — 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 ਅਤੇ 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.
ਸਰੋਤ·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
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