Quads exercise
Chair Pose (Utkatasana)How to do it, with form in numbers
- Also works
- Abs, Front delts
- Equipment
- Yoga mat
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
How do you do the Chair Pose?
- Stand with your feet together (or hip-width apart) and raise your arms overhead, palms facing.
- Breathe out, bend your knees and sit your hips back as if onto a chair.
- Keep your weight in your heels and your knees pointing straight ahead.
- Lean your chest forward over your thighs with a long back; keep your arms beside your ears.
- Hold for 5–8 breaths, then breathe in and straighten your legs.
Cues
- Sit back into your heels.
- Long spine from your tailbone to your fingertips.
- Shoulders down, arms reaching up.
Common mistakes
- Knees pushing far over your toes: send your hips further back.
- Arching your lower back: draw your lower belly in and lengthen your tailbone down.
- Shrugging your shoulders: draw them down; take the hands wider if the shoulders are tight.
Form in detail
What does good form look like?
The version in our demo
Utkatasana with the feet together and the arms overhead, palms facing each other, as Yoga Journal and Iyengar teach it.
Starting position
Mountain pose (mountainpose), then the arms rise overhead on an in-breath.
The position
On an out-breath the knees bend and the hips sit back and down as if onto a chair. Heels stay down with the weight towards them; the knees point straight ahead over the toes. The trunk leans forward over the thighs with the back long (no rounding, no arched lower back), so the front of the trunk and the thighs make roughly a right angle. The arms stay straight beside the ears, in line with the trunk, shoulders drawn down from the ears. The head follows the spine, gaze forward and a little down.
Breathing
In as the arms rise, out as the knees bend; steady breaths in the hold.
Tempo
A held pose through one slow breath, 6 s: in-breath 2.5 s, the arms and chest reach about 2° longer and the hips rise about 2 cm; out-breath 3.5 s, the hips sink back. The feet never move. Real practice: hold 5–8 breaths, then straighten the legs on an in-breath.
Form in numbers
What are the angles and distances?
- Knee flexion about 90–100°; thighs about 20–25° above level (parallel is the full pose; few people reach it).
- Shins tilted forward about 28°: the knees over the toes, no more than about 2 cm past them.
- Trunk forward of vertical about 32–38°; trunk-to-thigh angle about 75–85°.
- Arms in line with the trunk (within 5°), elbows straight (under 8°), hands shoulder-width.
The targets our 3D demo was built to, from the references below. Bodies differ, so treat the ranges as a guide for your own build.
For coaches
Use this demo in your clients’ programs
The Chair Pose is in Trainaq’s exercise library. Add it to a workout, and your client sees this demo in the free Trainaq app above the sets they log.
Sources
Sources
- Yoga Journal pose library, "Chair Pose (Utkatasana)"
- B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga (1966), Utkatasana.
- American Council on Exercise (ACE) exercise library, "Chair Pose".
