Reclining Thunderbolt Poseसुप्त वज्रासन
Supta Vajrāsana — an advanced seated pose that works the quadriceps, hip flexors, abdominals.
15–30SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Reclining Thunderbolt Pose is held 15–30 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 Reclining Thunderbolt Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Begin kneeling in Vajrasana with the shins padded and the seat resting between or on the heels.
Walk the hands back behind the hips and lean onto the forearms one at a time.
Stop here if the thighs or knees are already loaded; this is the working depth for most people.
If the knees stay quiet, lower the back towards the floor and rest the crown or the back of the head down.
Keep the knees as close together as they will stay, hold briefly, then press back up through the forearms.
Hold: 15–30 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 Reclining Thunderbolt 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.
- Lengthens the quadriceps and hip flexors with the knees already fully bent, which is their longest available range.
- Extends the thoracic spine and opens the front of the chest.
- Loads the abdominal wall eccentrically on the way down and concentrically on the way up.
Reclining Thunderbolt Pose is one of 29 seated poses in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses taken on the floor, where the pelvis is the base and the spine works above it.
Who should skip Reclining Thunderbolt Pose, or change it
- Any knee injury or knee replacement — skip entirely.
- Low back or disc injury, since the lumbar spine takes the arch if the thighs do not give.
- Sacroiliac pain.
- Ankle injury, and pregnancy at any stage.
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 Reclining Thunderbolt Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLetting the knees drift wide apart to get the back down.
FixKeep the knees together and stop at the forearms; a wide-knee version loads the joint sideways.
MistakeSliding the hips forward off the heels while lowering.
FixKeep the seat anchored — if it lifts, you have gone past your range.
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. Reclining Thunderbolt 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 Reclining Thunderbolt Pose?
Begin kneeling in Vajrasana with the shins padded and the seat resting between or on the heels. Walk the hands back behind the hips and lean onto the forearms one at a time. Stop here if the thighs or knees are already loaded; this is the working depth for most people. If the knees stay quiet, lower the back towards the floor and rest the crown or the back of the head down. Keep the knees as close together as they will stay, hold briefly, then press back up through the forearms. Hold for 15–30 seconds.
What does Reclining Thunderbolt Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, hip flexors, abdominals, with the chest, shoulders, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lengthens the quadriceps and hip flexors with the knees already fully bent, which is their longest available range.
Who should not do Reclining Thunderbolt Pose?
Any knee injury or knee replacement — skip entirely. Low back or disc injury, since the lumbar spine takes the arch if the thighs do not give. Sacroiliac pain. Ankle injury, and pregnancy at any stage. 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 Reclining Thunderbolt Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Reclining Thunderbolt Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate seated poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Reclining Thunderbolt 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. Reclining Thunderbolt 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 seated poses on the wall
More seated poses — 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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