Boat Pose (Navasana)

Pronunciation and meaning

Navasana: nah-VAHS-uh-nuh. Say it evenly, leaning slightly on the middle syllable, VAHS.

Nava means boat and asana means posture. Your body forms a V, balancing on the sit bones like a small hull with the legs and the chest as its two ends.

How to do Boat Pose

1. Sit on your mat with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, hands resting behind your thighs.
2. Lean back a little, lengthening from your sit bones to the crown of your head, until you balance just behind the sit bones rather than on your tailbone.
3. Lift your feet off the floor so your shins are parallel to it, knees still bent. Keep holding the backs of your thighs if you need to.
4. When the spine stays long, let go and reach your arms forward alongside your legs, palms facing each other.
5. If there is room, straighten the legs so your body makes a V, without letting the chest drop or the lower back round.
6. Stay for three to five breaths, lower your feet, rest, and repeat once or twice.

Make it easier

• Keep your hands on the floor behind you, or around the backs of your thighs, for support.
• Keep one foot on the floor and lift only the other, then switch sides.
• Loop a strap around the soles of your feet and hold it with both hands to help the chest stay lifted.
• Sit on a folded blanket if the sit bones feel bony on a thin mat.

Pregnancy and after birth

Pregnancy. Avoid. Boat Pose loads the front of the abdomen strongly, which is not a good fit during pregnancy. Choose gentle seated work instead, and ask your OB or midwife which kinds of core exercise suit you.

After birth. Avoid. Leave Boat Pose out in the early months after birth, whether you gave birth vaginally or by caesarean. Bring it back only once your OB or midwife has cleared you and you can breathe and lift without the belly doming or bulging along the midline, starting with the feet on the floor.

Read Joahnna Lee's notes on yoga in pregnancy and after birth.

Common mistakes

• Rolling back onto the tailbone and rounding the lower back to keep the legs up.
• Straightening the legs too soon, which usually pulls the chest down with them.
• Holding the breath and gripping the belly hard.
• Tensing the neck and pushing the chin forward. Keep the back of the neck long.

Boat Pose is a balance and a strength pose at the same time, which is why it sits well beside balance exercises for steadier feet. In a Vinyasa class it often shows up near the end, before the seated forward folds. It rewards patience far more than force.

Build it slowly: bent knees and a long spine first, straight legs much later. A patient Vinyasa yoga practice gives the pose that time, and a strap around the feet helps on the way.

For the sides of the waist rather than the front, Side Plank, which works the obliques on one hand is the natural next shape to try.

Boat starts from Staff Pose, sitting tall with the legs straight. The core lift learned here also helps in Firefly Pose, an arm balance with the legs out wide. For trunk work with reps, Boat toe taps are one of the core exercises built on yoga poses.