Inverted Staff Poseविपरीत दण्डासन
Viparīta Daṇḍāsana — an advanced backbend that works the spinal erectors, chest, shoulders.
20–40SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Inverted Staff Pose is held 20–40 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 Inverted Staff Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Come into Upward Bow with the arms straight and the feet parallel.
Bend the elbows slowly and lower onto the crown of the head, keeping the elbows shoulder-width.
Set the forearms down one at a time and interlace the fingers behind the head, as in a headstand grip.
Press the forearms down and lift the shoulders away from the floor so the head carries almost nothing.
Walk the feet out and straighten the legs if the arch allows, then hold before reversing the same path.
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 Inverted Staff 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.
- Sustains a deep spinal extension for far longer than the arm-supported wheel permits.
- Loads the shoulders and upper back in a headstand-like arm position under an arch.
- Lengthens the front of the chest and the hip flexors over a long hold.
Inverted Staff Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Inverted Staff Pose, or change it
- Neck injury or cervical disc problems — the head is on the floor under load, so leave this out.
- Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion.
- Shoulder impingement or instability, since the forearms carry the bodyweight.
- High blood pressure and glaucoma with a long inverted hold.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
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 Inverted Staff Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeResting real weight on the crown of the head.
FixPress the forearms and elbows hard into the mat and lift the shoulders so the head is only a light reference point.
MistakeStraightening the legs before the upper back can hold the arch, so the bend sinks into the waist.
FixKeep the knees bent and the feet close until the chest can stay lifted with straight legs.
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. Inverted Staff 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 Inverted Staff Pose?
Come into Upward Bow with the arms straight and the feet parallel. Bend the elbows slowly and lower onto the crown of the head, keeping the elbows shoulder-width. Set the forearms down one at a time and interlace the fingers behind the head, as in a headstand grip. Press the forearms down and lift the shoulders away from the floor so the head carries almost nothing. Walk the feet out and straighten the legs if the arch allows, then hold before reversing the same path. Hold for 20–40 seconds.
What does Inverted Staff Pose work?
Primarily the spinal erectors, chest, shoulders, with the glutes, quadriceps, triceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: sustains a deep spinal extension for far longer than the arm-supported wheel permits.
Who should not do Inverted Staff Pose?
Neck injury or cervical disc problems — the head is on the floor under load, so leave this out. Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion. Shoulder impingement or instability, since the forearms carry the bodyweight. High blood pressure and glaucoma with a long inverted hold. Pregnancy at any stage. Recent abdominal surgery. 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 Inverted Staff Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Inverted Staff Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate backbends poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Inverted Staff 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. Inverted Staff 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 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 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
The people behind these sites
Follow the build
This site and nine others like it are built and photographed by two people: Amit Sharma — behind the build; Geeta Patel — the poses, demonstrated. New work goes up on Instagram and Facebook before it reaches a page here.
Amit Sharma
@amitsharmaofficial
Instagram
Geeta Patel
@geetapatelnz
Instagram
Geeta Patel
GeetaPatelYoga
Facebook
Following changes nothing here — every page stays open, with no account and no wall.
