Chair Pose (Utkatasana)

Pronunciation and meaning

Utkatasana: oot-kah-TAHS-uh-nuh. Four beats, with the weight of the word landing on TAHS.

Utkata can be read as powerful, fierce or uneven, and asana means posture. In English it is Chair Pose, because you sit back as if lowering onto a seat that is not there.

How to do Chair Pose

1. Stand with your feet together or hip-width apart, big toes pointing straight ahead and arms by your sides.
2. Breathing in, lift your arms forward and up, shoulder-width apart, palms facing each other.
3. Breathing out, bend your knees and send your hips back and down, as though you were about to sit on the edge of a stool behind you.
4. Glance down: you should still see your toes past your knees, and your weight should rest more in your heels than in the balls of your feet.
5. Draw the low belly gently in, lengthen your tailbone toward the floor so the lower back does not over-arch, and let your chest lift between your arms.
6. Hold for three to six breaths, then press through your feet to straighten your legs and lower your arms.

Make it easier

• Take the feet hip-width apart if keeping them together makes the knees knock or the balance tip.
• Squeeze a yoga block between your thighs to wake up the inner legs and keep the knees tracking forward.
• Rest your back against a wall and slide down only as far as feels steady, with your hands on your thighs.

Pregnancy and after birth

Pregnancy. Adapt. Take your feet wider than your hips so there is room for the belly, bend the knees only a little, and keep a hand on a wall or chair. Come out if you feel short of breath or light-headed, and check with your OB or midwife before starting any new practice.

After birth. Adapt. Once your OB or midwife has cleared you to exercise, keep the bend shallow and the breath easy, and skip any twisting version for now. If you notice pressure low in the pelvis or bulging along the middle of your belly, ease out and mention it to your doctor or midwife.

Wondering about yoga safety in pregnancy? Joahnna Lee covers it trimester by trimester.

Common mistakes

• Letting the knees drift far past the toes, which moves the weight onto the front of the foot and the knee joint.
• Sticking the bottom out and arching hard through the lower back. Lengthen the tailbone down a little instead.
• Knees falling in toward each other. Keep them pointing the same way as the second toe.

Chair Pose looks simple and feels strong within a few breaths. It turns up in many Vinyasa sequences, often between forward folds, and it is a good place to learn how the hips, knees and feet line up whenever you bend your legs.

It comes up again and again in a Vinyasa flow, so the alignment is worth learning early.

It is not the same thing as chair yoga, where you practise sitting on a real chair or holding its back for balance. That gentler practice has its own page: chair yoga and gentle practice for older adults.

From this low seat it is a short step to Eagle Pose, which wraps one leg around the other.

Step the feet wide and turn them out, and the same bend becomes the wide squat pose, Utkata Konasana.