King Pigeon Poseराजकपोतासन
Rājakapotāsana — an advanced backbend that works the hip flexors, chest, spinal erectors.
5–10SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. King Pigeon Pose is held 5–10 seconds, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
ஆதாரம்·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·மறுபரிசீலனை ஜூலை 2026
How to do King Pigeon Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie face down and bend both knees so the shins come vertical, feet towards the ceiling.
Place the hands beside the ribs and press up, lifting the chest high while the thighs stay down.
Walk the hands slightly back and keep raising the sternum until the head drops back towards the feet.
Continue only if the feet and head are genuinely close; work with a wall behind you when learning.
Hold for a breath or two, then lower the chest slowly and rest face down.
Hold: 5–10 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 King Pigeon 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.
- Produces the deepest prone spinal extension in the standard repertoire.
- Stretches the hip flexors and abdominal wall with the thighs pinned to the floor.
- Loads the shoulders and arms while the back muscles hold a maximal arch.
King Pigeon 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 King Pigeon Pose, or change it
- Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion — not appropriate.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Neck injury, since the head travels into full extension under load.
- Shoulder impingement and wrist injury, both loaded heavily in this shape.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- High blood pressure or glaucoma.
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 King Pigeon Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeForcing the head towards the feet by hinging hard at one segment of the low back.
FixWork the shape against a wall so the arch is distributed, and stop far short of contact.
MistakeAttempting it cold as a party trick.
FixBuild with Bhujangasana, Ushtrasana and Urdhva Dhanurasana over months before the full shape is even reasonable.
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. King Pigeon 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 நிமிடம் | 20 நிமிடம் | 30 நிமிடம் | 45 நிமிடம் | 60 நிமிடம் |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| கலோரிகள் | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
ஆதாரம்·2024 பெரியவர்களுக்கான உடற்செயல்பாடுகளின் தொகுப்பு·code 02175 · 4 MET · 70 kg reference adult·மறுபரிசீலனை ஜூலை 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do King Pigeon Pose?
Lie face down and bend both knees so the shins come vertical, feet towards the ceiling. Place the hands beside the ribs and press up, lifting the chest high while the thighs stay down. Walk the hands slightly back and keep raising the sternum until the head drops back towards the feet. Continue only if the feet and head are genuinely close; work with a wall behind you when learning. Hold for a breath or two, then lower the chest slowly and rest face down. Hold for 5–10 seconds.
What does King Pigeon Pose work?
Primarily the hip flexors, chest, spinal erectors, with the quadriceps, shoulders, glutes assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: produces the deepest prone spinal extension in the standard repertoire.
Who should not do King Pigeon Pose?
Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion — not appropriate. Pregnancy at any stage. Neck injury, since the head travels into full extension under load. Shoulder impingement and wrist injury, both loaded heavily in this shape. Recent abdominal surgery. High blood pressure or glaucoma. 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 King Pigeon Pose suitable for beginners?
No. King Pigeon 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 King Pigeon 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. King Pigeon 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 மற்றும் 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.
ஆதாரம்·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·மறுபரிசீலனை ஜூலை 2026
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