Heron

Krounchasana

hold 30 s each side · advanced · move in slowly, hold, come out the same way

Take care: Skip it with a knee that will not fold back comfortably or a hamstring strain; sit on a block to ease the knee.

Krounchasana with a strap: sitting with the left leg folded back as in hero, its foot beside the left hip, and a strap looped round the ball of the right foot. Holding the strap in both hands, the straight right leg lifts toward vertical while the spine stays upright and the shoulders stay down.

Load and joint demand

Bodyweight: no weights. Joint demand below is your own body's weight in this position.

Faults

Faults grow with knee bend and apply to lifts standing on the floor. The fault check flags a knee caving more than 10° inside the line of the toes and a load split beyond 60/40. Knee cave shows best in the front camera.

Body

Femur changes keep standing height fixed by shortening or lengthening the torso. Longer femurs force more forward lean in any squat.

Muscles worked

Effort and your quota

Hold for 30 seconds on each side: move into the pose slowly, breathe steadily, and come out the way you went in. Yoga is practised for control, balance and mobility, never to failure, so this does not change with your limits.

Level: advanced. One round counts like light conditioning work: 40 legs points, 39 core points.

Prime movers

Hamstrings and calf of the raised leg (stretched), quadriceps of the folded leg (stretched), hip flexors and quadriceps of the raised leg, spinal erectors.

What to look for

• Sit tall first; lift the leg only as high as the back stays upright.
• Walk the hands up the strap rather than pulling the leg toward you.
• Sit on a block if the folded knee complains.