beginner pose / ASH-wah sun-chah-lah-NAH-sah-na
Ashwa Sanchalanasana (Equestrian Pose)
In one breath
Ashwa Sanchalanasana, or Equestrian Pose, is a beginner standing pose held for one breath inside Surya Namaskar. Thirty seconds to one minute each side on its own. It works mainly on hip flexors, groin, quadriceps. Read the warnings below before you try it: it is not right for everybody.
On this page
- What Ashwa Sanchalanasana is
- The muscle nobody knows they have shortened
- The step that beginners cannot make
- Its place in the sun salutation
- Looking after the knees
- How long, and how to progress
- Hold time, each side, by stage
- Where the lunge sits, and what to put under the knee
- How to do it, step by step
- What it is good for
- Who should not do this
- What Vaithialingam sees people get wrong
- Easier and harder versions
- Questions people ask
What Ashwa Sanchalanasana is
Ashwa Sanchalanasana is the low lunge, the fourth and the ninth position of Surya Namaskar. Ashwa means horse and sanchalana means movement, so the usual English rendering is the equestrian pose: one leg forward, one leg back, the shape of a rider mid stride.
It is the pose in the sun salutation that most people pass through without noticing, because it lasts one breath and it arrives at speed. Practised on its own for a minute a side it turns out to be one of the most useful postures in the whole practice, because it addresses the single most common consequence of modern life: a hip that has forgotten how to extend.
The classical Surya Namaskar version puts the back knee on the floor. A more athletic modern version keeps it lifted. Neither is more correct. The knee down version gives a deeper hip stretch and a calmer pose, the knee up version is more work for the legs, and in a sun salutation I teach knee down for the first month with everybody.
The muscle nobody knows they have shortened
Sit in a chair for eight hours and the muscles at the front of the hip, chiefly the iliopsoas and the rectus femoris, spend eight hours in a shortened position. Do that five days a week for fifteen years and they adapt to that length, because that is what muscle does.
The consequence is not felt at the hip. It is felt in the lower back, because a short hip flexor tips the pelvis forward and the lumbar spine has to arch to keep you upright. Students arrive telling me their back is weak. Very often their back is fine and their hips are short.
This pose is the direct answer, provided you do one thing: tuck the tailbone under before you sink. Without the tuck, the pelvis simply tips further and the stretch lands in the lower back, which feels like something is happening and achieves nothing. With the tuck, the sensation moves to the front of the back thigh and the top of the back hip, and that is the muscle you came for.
The wider picture of what a short hip flexor does to a spine is set out on the yoga for back pain page.
The step that beginners cannot make
The moment in Surya Namaskar that defeats new students is not the strong position or the backbend. It is stepping the back foot forward between the hands at position nine. The foot lands halfway, or beside the hand, or not at all, and the student assumes they are hopeless.
They are not. The step requires a combination of hip mobility and momentum that takes months. Four legitimate ways through it:
- Use your hand. Take hold of the ankle and physically place the foot where it needs to go. This is not cheating, it is what I did for years.
- Take two steps. Bring the foot halfway, then forward again. Nobody is timing you.
- Drop the back knee first. From all fours the step is far shorter.
- Raise the floor. With blocks under the hands, the foot has much less distance to travel to arrive level with your hands.
Within about three months of daily practice the foot starts arriving on its own, and students are always faintly surprised, because they did not practise the step. They practised the hips.
Its place in the sun salutation
In one half round of Surya Namaskar this position appears twice: at position four, stepping one leg back on an inhalation, and at position nine, stepping the same leg forward again on an inhalation.
Which leg goes back matters more than people think. Step the right leg back on the first half round and the left leg back on the second, and the two halves together make one full round with both hips treated equally. Practise carelessly, always leading with the same leg, and after six months you will have one hip noticeably more open than the other. I have corrected that in more students than I can count and it takes far longer to fix than to avoid.
Both appearances are inhalations, and both are chest opening movements, which is why they alternate so well with the exhaling folds either side of them. Its counter movement in the round is Adho Mukha Svanasana, which sends the hips back and up and lengthens exactly what this pose has just shortened.
Looking after the knees
Two knees are at stake here and they have different problems.
The back knee is on the floor, so the kneecap is taking your weight against a hard surface. On a thin mat this is genuinely painful for many people and for anyone with any knee history it is unwise. Fold a blanket, fold the end of the mat over, or use a cushion. There is no virtue in a bruised kneecap.
The front knee is at risk from a stance that is too short. If the knee travels forward past the ankle, the joint is holding your weight at an angle it does not like, and over months that produces exactly the front of knee ache that people blame on yoga. Walk the back foot further away until the front shin is vertical, and check it every single time, because the stance creeps shorter as you tire.
Anyone with an existing knee problem should use the chair variation described above, which gives the same hip stretch standing up with nothing kneeling and nothing loaded.
How long, and how to progress
Inside the sun salutation, one inhalation. Practised on its own, thirty seconds to a minute on each side, and it is worth doing on its own.
A month that works:
- Week one: chair version, thirty seconds a side, twice a day.
- Week two: back knee down on a folded blanket, hands on blocks, thirty seconds a side.
- Week three: the same, forty five seconds, adding the tailbone tuck deliberately on every exhale.
- Week four: one minute a side, and try the hands on the front thigh version for the last fifteen seconds.
Do it in the evening if you sit all day. The hip has been short since morning and it lets go far more willingly than it does at six in the morning. Students who add one minute a side before bed usually report the difference inside a fortnight, most often as an easier first hundred steps in the morning.
Hold time, each side, by stage
Everything here is per side and both sides get the same. Put a folded blanket under the back knee before you start.
| Stage | Hold | Rounds | Breath | Stop if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First month | 20 seconds, back knee down | 1 each side | Normal, chest low | The front knee goes past the ankle |
| After three months | 30 to 45 seconds | 2 each side | Slow, chest lifting | The lower back pinches |
| Long practice | 1 minute, back knee lifted | 2 each side | Even | The back leg is braced rather than long |
| Inside a sun salutation | One breath | Twice a round | In on the step back | Anything sharp in the knee |
The front of the back thigh is what this pose is for. If you feel it in the knee instead, the blanket is not thick enough.
Where the lunge sits, and what to put under the knee
The lunge is positions four and nine of the sun salutation, and it is the position where most beginners discover that the front of the hip is short.
Put a folded blanket under the back knee if it is on the floor, which takes the argument out of the pose immediately. Keep the front knee over the ankle and not beyond it, and let the back leg be long rather than braced. The chest can stay low for the first month; lifting it is a later addition, not the point.
It leads directly to Adho Mukha Svanasana on one side and back to Uttanasana on the other, and in a slow round it is the position worth pausing in for an extra breath.
Around it: the position before it is Uttanasana and the one after it is Dandasana, the plank, so a lunge that has been stepped into carelessly is felt immediately in the wrists. Warm the spine with Marjariasana before a first round of Surya Namaskar, and rest in Balasana between rounds rather than pushing through. The full sequence appears in the ten minute morning routine and on the later days of the seven day beginner plan. Anyone with a knee that objects to the floor should read yoga for beginners over 40 and put the blanket down before starting, and Savasana closes the practice as always. The salutation belongs to the hatha tradition rather than to any modern school.
How to do it, step by step
Read all of it once before you start. Hold for one breath inside Surya Namaskar. Thirty seconds to one minute each side on its own, and come out while the pose is still steady rather than when it gives way.
Step 1. Begin folded forward with the hands on the floor either side of the feet, or on a pair of blocks if the floor is a long way away. Blocks here are not a compromise, they are the sensible default for most adults.
Step 2. Inhale and step the right foot back as far as you comfortably can, landing on the ball of the foot with the leg long behind you.
Step 3. Lower the right knee to the floor. In the traditional Surya Namaskar the back knee comes down, and it is a kinder and more honest version than hovering it. Pad the knee with a folded blanket if the floor is hard.
Step 4. Check the front leg. The left knee should sit directly above the left ankle, not in front of it. If the knee has run past the toes, walk the back foot further away.
Step 5. Let the hips sink forward and down towards the floor. This is where the stretch lives: the front of the right thigh and the front of the right hip.
Step 6. Draw the tailbone down and the lower belly gently in, so the hips tuck slightly under. Without this the whole movement collapses into the lower back and you feel nothing in the hip at all.
Step 7. Lift the chest and lengthen the spine forward. Look ahead at the floor a metre in front of you, or a little further up if the neck is comfortable. Do not throw the head back.
Step 8. Keep the fingertips or the palms pressing down for support, and let the shoulders stay away from the ears.
Step 9. Stay for one inhalation in the sequence, or thirty seconds to a minute on its own. Then step the foot forward and repeat with the other leg back, always both sides.
What it is good for
- It stretches the hip flexors and the front of the thigh, the muscles that shorten in a body that sits for hours. Yoga practice as a whole has been shown to improve body flexibility and muscular strength across a range of clinical reviews. Source
- As the fourth and ninth positions of Surya Namaskar it belongs to a sequence with measured effects: a systematic review reports improved cardiorespiratory efficiency and flexibility with regular Suryanamaskar practice. Source
- It asks real work of the buttock and the thigh: surface electromyography across the twelve positions of Surya Namaskar measured gluteus maximus at about 38 percent and vastus lateralis at about 35 percent of maximum voluntary contraction in this position. Source
- It opens the front of the body without asking the spine to bend far, which makes it the safest backbend in the sun salutation and the one I give first to a stiff back.
- It restores the hip extension that walking is supposed to provide and that a scooter, a car and a chair never do. Students who take it up seriously often report their walking pace changes.
- It builds single leg stability. The front leg is doing quiet work in a position it rarely occupies, and that shows up in stairs and in balance.
- In forty years I have found it to be the most reliable pose for lower back stiffness caused by sitting, because a short hip flexor pulls on the lumbar spine all day and this is what lets go of it.
Who should not do this
- Knee injury, arthritis in the knee or a recent knee operation: kneeling puts direct pressure on the kneecap. Use a thickly folded blanket under the knee, or keep the back knee lifted, or use the chair variation.
- Groin strain or a hip flexor tear: this pose pulls directly on the injury. Wait until it has settled, then return with a very short stance.
- Sacroiliac joint pain: the split stance can irritate the joint. Keep the feet wider apart, as though standing on railway lines rather than a tightrope, and do not sink the hips as far.
- Pregnancy: keep the stance narrower and the hips higher, do not deepen the backward curve of the spine, and take the hands to blocks or a chair so the abdomen is not compressed.
- High blood pressure or glaucoma: the head stays below the heart in the low version. Keep the gaze down, do not lift the head high, and use the chair variation if you have been advised against inverted positions.
- Ankle injury: the back foot is on its toes with the ankle in a strong stretch. Point the toes and rest on the top of the foot instead, or leave the pose out.
If any of these apply to you, say so before your first class. There is almost always a version of the pose that is safe for you, and it is the teacher's job to find it, not yours.
What Vaithialingam sees people get wrong
What the teacher corrects most often in this pose, on the left, and what to do instead, on the right.
The front knee travelling well past the ankle, so the joint takes the weight at a sharp angle.
The fix. Walk the back foot further away until the shin of the front leg is vertical. Everybody's stance length is different because everybody's legs are.
Sinking into the lower back and calling it a hip stretch, so the belly drops forward and nothing opens at the hip.
The fix. Tuck the tailbone under and firm the lower belly first. The stretch will suddenly appear in the front of the back thigh, which is where it was supposed to be.
Standing on a tightrope, with both feet in one line, so the balance is impossible.
The fix. Set the feet as wide apart as railway lines, about hip width. Balance becomes a non problem instantly.
Throwing the head back to look up, crunching the back of the neck.
The fix. Lift the breastbone forward instead and let the gaze go to the floor ahead. The chest opening is the point, the head position is not.
Hands on the floor when the floor is far away, so the shoulders hunch and the whole torso collapses.
The fix. Put a block under each hand, or bring the hands onto the front thigh. Raising the floor is the most useful thing a beginner can do in this pose.
Easier and harder versions
Blocks under the hands
Set a block on its tallest side under each hand. This raises the floor by twenty centimetres, lets the chest lift, and removes the hunched shoulders entirely. For most adults over forty this should simply be the standard version.
Chair equestrian
Stand facing the back of a sturdy chair, hands on the chair back. Step one foot back into a long stance, keep the back leg straight and the heel lifted, and sink the hips forward. You get the hip flexor stretch standing up, with no kneeling and no head below the heart. This is the version for a bad knee, raised blood pressure or unsteady balance.
Hands on the front thigh
From the low lunge with the back knee down, bring both hands to rest on the front thigh and lift the torso upright. The chest opens more, the shoulders relax, and the hip stretch deepens without the wrists taking any weight. Good for anyone with wrist trouble.
Arms overhead, Anjaneyasana
From the same base, sweep the arms overhead beside the ears, palms facing each other, and lift the chest into a gentle backbend. This is the fuller crescent lunge. Add it only once the hips sink comfortably and the lower back stays long.
Where these claims come from
Anything on this page stated as a fact about the body is sourced below. Anything not sourced is written plainly as what the teacher has seen in his own classes, and is labelled that way in the text.
From Vaithialingam's class
I ask every new student to do this pose on the second day, before they learn anything else about the sun salutation, and I watch their face. Most of them are astonished at how much sensation there is in the front of the back thigh, because nothing in their week ever takes the hip backwards. Then I ask them to tuck the tail under and the sensation doubles, and I hear the same sentence I have heard for four decades: I did not know that was tight. It was tight when they were thirty and it was tight when they were fifty, and nobody had ever asked the hip to go the other way. One minute a side in the evening changes more for an office worker than any amount of stretching the hamstrings.
This is what he sees in class, not a medical claim. Where this page states what a practice does for a condition, the evidence is in the sources cited on the page.
Vaithialingam, founder and teacher, 40 years of teaching.
Questions people ask
What does Ashwa Sanchalanasana mean?
Ashwa means horse and sanchalana means movement or driving, so the name is usually translated as the equestrian pose or the horse riding pose. It describes the shape: one leg forward, one leg stretched back, the stance of a rider in motion. In English classes it is generally called the low lunge, and with the arms overhead it becomes the crescent lunge or Anjaneyasana.
Should the back knee be down or lifted?
In the classical Surya Namaskar the back knee comes down to the floor, and that is what I teach for at least the first month. Knee down gives a deeper and calmer hip stretch and takes the strain out of the pose. Keeping the knee lifted turns it into a strength position for the legs and is a reasonable progression later. If you put the knee down, pad it with a folded blanket.
Why can I not step my foot forward between my hands?
Because that step needs hip mobility that takes months to build, not because you are doing something wrong. Use your hand to lift the ankle and place the foot where it needs to go, or take two small steps instead of one, or drop the back knee first so the distance is shorter. Blocks under the hands also help, because the foot then only needs to arrive level with the blocks. Within about three months of daily practice it usually starts happening on its own.
My front knee hurts in this pose. What is wrong?
Almost always the stance is too short, so the knee has travelled forward past the ankle and the joint is holding weight at a sharp angle. Walk the back foot further away until the front shin is vertical, with the knee stacked directly over the ankle. Check this every time, because the stance creeps shorter as you get tired. If the pain is at the kneecap of the back leg instead, pad it with a folded blanket.
Can I practise it with a knee problem?
Use the chair version. Stand facing the back of a sturdy chair, hold the chair back, step one foot well back with the heel lifted and the leg straight, and sink the hips forward. You get the same hip flexor stretch with nothing kneeling, nothing loaded and no head below the heart. Anyone with a recent knee operation or diagnosed knee arthritis should ask their clinician before kneeling on the floor at all.
Where does it appear in Surya Namaskar?
It is the fourth position, stepping one leg back on an inhalation, and the ninth position, stepping the same leg forward again on an inhalation. Lead with the right leg on the first half round and the left leg on the second, so both hips get equal work. Practising always on the same side leaves one hip noticeably more open than the other within months.
Who should not do Ashwa Sanchalanasana?
Anyone with a knee injury, knee arthritis or a recent knee operation should put a thick folded blanket under the back knee or leave it out. Wait after a groin strain or a hip flexor tear, because the pose pulls directly on the injury. With sacroiliac pain, widen the feet. With high blood pressure or glaucoma, keep the gaze down and use a chair under the hands. In pregnancy, narrow the stance and keep the hands supported.
What muscles does Ashwa Sanchalanasana work?
The front leg's quadriceps and gluteals hold the lunge, and the back leg's hip flexors, the psoas and the rectus femoris, are being lengthened, which is what most people who sit all day actually feel. The erector spinae hold the chest up, and the abdominal wall keeps the lower back from dropping into a sag.
Practise in the hall, in person
In a hall in north Bangalore, in a small group, with hands-on correction. The hall is within a short ride of MSR Nagar, Mathikere, Malleshwaram, Yeshwanthpur and further out.
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