intermediate pose / mot-see-AH-sah-na
Matsyasana (Fish Pose)
In one breath
Matsyasana, or Fish Pose, is a intermediate backbend pose held for 15 to 30 seconds, or half as long as the pose it counters. It works mainly on chest, throat, neck. Read the warnings below before you try it: it is not right for everybody.
On this page
- What Matsyasana is, and what it is for
- The elbows lift you, not the head
- The neck, and who should never tip it back
- How long to hold Matsyasana
- Where Matsyasana belongs in a sequence
- Who should modify Matsyasana
- 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 Matsyasana is, and what it is for
Matsyasana, the fish, is a reclining backbend: lying on the back, forearms tucked underneath, chest lifted and the head tipped gently back. Matsya means fish, and the usual explanation is that a body in this shape floats. The older texts call it the destroyer of all diseases, and that is the kind of claim I leave in the book where I found it.
What the pose is actually for is narrower and more useful. It is the counter pose. Sarvangasana and Halasana both flex the neck a long way and hold it there. Matsyasana takes the neck a short way in the other direction and opens the chest that those two poses closed. Both of those pages name it as their counter, and that is nine tenths of why it is taught at all.
It is not a pose to chase depth in, and it is not a pose to hold for a long time in its active form. Half as long as the pose it follows, and no longer. The supported version over a rolled blanket is a different practice entirely and can be held for minutes.
The elbows lift you, not the head
This is the whole safety of the pose and it is the thing beginners get wrong within the first two seconds.
The hands go under the seat, palms down, and the elbows tuck in towards each other underneath the body. You then press the elbows and the forearms into the floor, and that press is what raises the chest. The head tips back afterwards, as a consequence, and rests on the floor with almost no weight in it.
The test is simple: at any moment in the pose you should be able to lift your head a centimetre off the floor without the chest dropping. If lifting the head collapses the pose, then the head was holding you up, and the neck has been taking a load it should never take.
- Elbows in, not out. Wide elbows leave nothing to press against.
- Legs firm and active. Soft legs let the arch fall into the lower back.
- Where the head lands is not a target. Crown or back of the head, whichever arrives, and a folded blanket under it if the floor is too far.
The same principle governs every backbend on this site: the load belongs in the strong parts and the neck comes along for the ride. It is worked through from the front of the body in Bhujangasana, where the corresponding mistake is throwing the head back to look at the ceiling.
The neck, and who should never tip it back
Matsyasana extends the neck on purpose. That is its function as a counter pose, and it is also the reason a good number of people should practise it only in the supported form.
If you have cervical spondylosis with symptoms, a disc problem in the neck, whiplash, or you have had neck surgery, do not tip the head back. Use the blanket version: a rolled blanket or a bolster laid lengthways under the upper back, head resting on the floor beyond it, arms open to the sides. The chest opens, the upper back arches, and the neck stays neutral. Nothing important is lost.
The same applies to anyone whose neck already hurts at a desk, which is a large proportion of the adults who walk into a class. Yoga for neck and shoulder pain sets out the full approach, and its first instruction is the same as mine here: stop giving a sore neck end range positions and give it the middle of the range instead.
Two related cautions. With uncontrolled blood pressure, high or low, tipping the head back and opening the throat is not the place to experiment, so ask your doctor and see yoga for high blood pressure for what else changes. And with a migraine, or a headache already in progress, leave the pose out for the day.
How long to hold Matsyasana
The active fish is short. The rule I have used for decades is: half as long as the pose it is countering, and never more than about a minute.
| Stage | Hold | Rounds | Breath | Stop if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First month | 10 to 15 seconds | 1 | Normal, into the top of the chest | Any sensation at all in the neck |
| After three months | 20 to 30 seconds | 1 or 2 | Slow, chest breathing | The head starts taking weight |
| Long practice | 30 to 60 seconds | 2 | Slow and even | The lower back pinches |
| Supported over a blanket | 3 to 5 minutes | 1 | Left alone entirely | The arms go numb or the blanket digs in |
| As a counter pose | Half the hold of the pose before it | 1 | Normal | Never hold it longer than what it counters |
Once in a practice is enough. It is not a pose to repeat several times a day, and there is no benefit I know of in doing so. Lie flat for a few breaths afterwards and let the chest settle before you move on.
Where Matsyasana belongs in a sequence
It has one traditional place and one modern one.
Traditionally, it follows the shoulderstand and the plough, immediately, and it is held for half as long. That is the pairing the classical sequences build in, and it is a sensible piece of engineering: a long neck flexion is followed by a short, controlled neck extension while the body is still warm. If you practise Sarvangasana at all, practise this after it.
In a modern practice, the supported version is useful on its own, with no inversion anywhere near it, as a chest opening for a body that folds forward all day. Three minutes over a rolled blanket at the end of a working day does more for the front of the chest than most of what people attempt actively.
Rest afterwards. Balasana is the natural counter to the counter, or simply lie flat in Savasana for a few breaths. If you are building a routine that includes inversions at all, do it with a teacher first; yoga for beginners over 40 explains why the inversions are the poses I most often ask people to leave out, and why the counter poses matter more than the poses that need them.
Who should modify Matsyasana
More people should use the supported version than the active one, and there is no shame in that at all.
- Any neck history. Blanket under the upper back, head on the floor, neck neutral. This is not a lesser version, it is a different and safer route to the same chest opening.
- A back that objects to arching. Bend the knees and put the feet flat on the floor. The lower back quietens down at once.
- Stiff or painful knees. The lotus version, with the legs in Padmasana, is not a goal to work towards. If your knees are not already entirely comfortable in the lotus, skip that version permanently.
- Trouble sleeping. A strong chest opening late at night keeps some people awake. Move it earlier in the day, and use the bedtime sequence in the evening instead.
- At a desk. Sit at the front of a chair, hold the sides of the seat behind you, draw the elbows towards one another and lift the chest, head upright. Thirty seconds, twice a day. It belongs with the desk yoga sequence.
If you want somebody to watch where your head is going, come to a class. The first one is free, in the hall or live online.
How to do it, step by step
Read all of it once before you start. Hold for 15 to 30 seconds, or half as long as the pose it counters, and come out while the pose is still steady rather than when it gives way.
Step 1. Lie flat on your back with the legs straight and together, and the arms beside the body.
Step 2. Slide the hands, palms down, under the seat so that the forearms and the elbows are tucked beneath you and the hands are under the thighs. The elbows should be close to each other, not out wide.
Step 3. Press down through the forearms and the elbows. This is what lifts you, not the neck. Say it to yourself before every attempt, because the neck will offer to do the job.
Step 4. Breathing in, press the elbows down and lift the chest, arching the upper back so the top of the chest opens towards the ceiling.
Step 5. Let the head tip back gently and rest the crown, or the back of the head, lightly on the floor. Almost no weight belongs there. The chest carries the pose.
Step 6. Keep the legs active, thighs firm, and either together or hip width. The feet stay on the floor throughout.
Step 7. Breathe into the top of the chest for fifteen to thirty seconds. The breath is the point: if it is short, you are in too far.
Step 8. To come out, press the elbows down again, lift the head, tuck the chin, and lower the whole back to the floor. Never let the head take the weight on the way down.
Step 9. Lie flat for a few breaths, then hug the knees in, before going anywhere else.
What it is good for
- It is the classical counter to the shoulderstand and the plough. Those two poses flex the neck a long way in one direction, and a short, careful extension afterwards is what stops the neck feeling stiff for the rest of the day. In forty years I have never taught the shoulderstand without teaching this after it.
- It opens the front of the chest and the front of the shoulders in a body that has spent its day curling forward over a desk or a phone. Very few poses reach the top of the chest the way this one does.
- It stretches the muscles between the ribs, and the practice as a whole is associated with measurable changes in lung function: a randomised controlled trial of sixteen weeks of yoga in forty eight adults reported improvements in forced vital capacity, in one second forced expiratory volume and in peak expiratory flow, against a control group whose values fell. Source
- It teaches a student where the top of their breath actually is. With the chest already opened, the inhalation goes somewhere it does not usually go, and people notice that immediately.
- The old texts call it the destroyer of all diseases, which is a claim I do not repeat. What I will say is that it is a good short counter pose, and that is a useful thing to be.
Who should not do this
- Neck injury, cervical spondylosis with symptoms, whiplash or recent neck surgery: this pose extends the neck deliberately and it is the wrong pose for that neck. Use the supported version over a rolled blanket, which does not tip the head back at all, or leave it out.
- High or low blood pressure: the head position and the throat opening make this unsuitable while blood pressure is uncontrolled. Ask your doctor, and practise the supported version if you practise it at all.
- Migraine, or a headache in progress: tipping the head back tends to make both worse.
- Insomnia: a strong chest opening late in the evening wakes some people up. If that is you, keep it out of an evening practice.
- Recent abdominal or hernia surgery, and the later months of pregnancy: the abdomen is lengthened here, and lying flat on the back is separately unsuitable in later pregnancy.
- Lower back pain that is worse with arching: keep the lift small, keep the legs firm, and stop at the first pinch.
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.
Pressing the head into the floor and using the neck to lever the chest up.
The fix. Press the elbows and the forearms into the floor instead. The head should be able to be lifted a centimetre at any moment without the chest dropping. If it cannot, the neck is holding you up.
Elbows out wide, so there is nothing to press against.
The fix. Tuck the elbows in towards each other under the body before you lift. Narrow elbows are the whole mechanism of this pose.
Holding it as long as the shoulderstand that came before it.
The fix. Half as long is the rule. This is a counter pose, not a destination. Thirty seconds of shoulderstand wants about fifteen seconds of fish.
Forcing the crown of the head to the floor when the upper back will not arch that far.
The fix. Rest the back of the head on the floor instead, or put a folded blanket under it. Where the head lands is a consequence of the chest lift, not a target.
Coming out head first, letting the head take the weight as the back lowers.
The fix. Press the elbows, lift the head, tuck the chin, and lower the spine. The head arrives on the floor last and unloaded.
Easier and harder versions
Supported Matsyasana over a blanket
Roll a blanket or lay a bolster lengthways under the upper back with the head resting on the floor beyond it, and simply lie back over it with the arms out to the sides. The chest opens, the neck is not extended at all, and it can be held for three to five minutes. This is the version for anybody with a neck history, and it is the version I use most.
Matsyasana with the legs bent
Knees bent, feet flat on the floor. The lower back is quieter and the pose becomes accessible to somebody whose back objects to the straight leg version.
Padmasana Matsyasana
The classical form, with the legs in the lotus position and the hands holding the feet. It requires a comfortable, established lotus. Anyone whose knees are not entirely at ease in Padmasana should leave this version alone permanently, and nothing is lost by doing so.
Chair version
Sit at the front of a firm chair, hold the sides of the seat behind you, draw the elbows towards each other and lift the chest. The head stays upright. It is the desk version of the same chest opening.
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 will not teach a shoulderstand to anybody who will not stay for the fish afterwards. That has been my rule for a very long time, and it comes from watching students walk out with stiff necks in the first years of teaching. But I also watch the fish itself very carefully, because the mistake is instant and invisible from the front: the student pushes the head into the floor and heaves the chest up with the neck. So I ask for one thing before I ask for the pose. Press your elbows. Then I walk round and lift each person's head a centimetre with two fingers. If the chest falls, the pose was being held by the neck, and we start again. Most students need that correction twice and then never again.
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
How long should you hold Matsyasana?
Ten to fifteen seconds in the first month, twenty to thirty seconds after three months, and up to a minute in a long practice. As a counter pose the rule is half as long as the pose it follows: thirty seconds of shoulderstand wants about fifteen seconds of fish. The supported version over a rolled blanket is a different practice and can be held for three to five minutes. Once in a session is enough.
Who should not do Fish Pose?
Anyone with a neck injury, cervical spondylosis with symptoms, whiplash or recent neck surgery should not tip the head back, and should use the supported version over a rolled blanket or leave the pose out; yoga for neck and shoulder pain explains why. It is also unsuitable while blood pressure is uncontrolled, high or low, and during a migraine or a headache. Avoid it in the later months of pregnancy and after abdominal or hernia surgery until you are cleared.
Why is Matsyasana done after Sarvangasana?
Because the shoulderstand and the plough hold the neck in a long flexion, and the fish takes it a short way in the other direction while the body is still warm. It also reopens the chest that those poses closed. Both of those poses name it as their counter pose for that reason, and the traditional instruction is to hold the fish for half as long as the pose it follows.
Is Fish Pose good for the thyroid?
The claim is common and I would not repeat it. Matsyasana stretches the front of the throat, and a stretch is not a mechanism by which a gland changes what it produces. What I can say honestly is that the pose opens a chest that has been closed all day, and that it is a sensible counter to the poses people are usually sent to for the thyroid, as yoga for thyroid sets out. Keep taking whatever your doctor has prescribed and have your blood tested as you are told to.
Is Matsyasana good for the lungs?
It opens the front of the chest and stretches the muscles between the ribs, and people do report that the next few breaths feel bigger. As for measured lung function, a sixteen week randomised controlled trial of yoga in forty eight adults found improvements in forced vital capacity and peak expiratory flow against a control group whose values declined. That is the practice as a whole rather than this pose alone, which is the honest way to put it. For breathing itself, Ujjayi is the more direct practice.
Can beginners do Fish Pose?
A beginner can do the supported version over a rolled blanket on the first day, and should. The active version, with the head tipped back, is worth waiting a few weeks for, because the mistake in it happens instantly and is easy to make: the head takes the weight instead of the elbows. Learn it with somebody watching you in a class, and start with the knees bent.
Do I have to do Matsyasana in the lotus position?
No. The classical form has the legs in Padmasana and the hands holding the feet, but that is a version for somebody whose lotus is already entirely comfortable, which is a small number of adults. The straight leg version does everything the pose is for. If your knees are not at ease in the lotus, leave that variation alone permanently rather than working towards it.
What muscles does Matsyasana work?
The lift comes from the triceps and the rhomboids pressing the forearms and elbows into the floor, with the erector spinae of the upper back arching the chest up. The legs stay firm through the quadriceps and gluteals so the arch does not fall into the lower back. What lengthens is the pectorals, the front of the shoulders, the intercostals between the ribs and the front of the neck.
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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