Pawanmuktasana, the Wind-Relieving Pose, is a reclined pose where you lie on your back and draw one or both knees toward the chest, then breathe slowly. In its basic form it is gentle and beginner-friendly. Check with your doctor first if you are pregnant or recovering from surgery or injury, and learn it with a teacher.
In the traditional method you inhale, lift the head and shoulders toward the knee, hold the breath briefly, then exhale and lower. This is the more advanced version, so learn it with a teacher. The head-down version in the steps above is where beginners start.
The traditional text suggests three to five rounds for each stage of the pose (right leg, left leg, both legs) and advises practising on an empty stomach, never straight after a meal.
This is general guidance, not medical advice. If in doubt, check with your doctor.
Draw the right knee toward the chest, hold it, then release and repeat with the left. The traditional method always begins with the right leg.
Once each leg feels comfortable on its own, draw both knees toward the chest together.
Keep the head and shoulders on the floor and breathe naturally while holding the knee or knees. The traditional text offers this version for people with back problems.
The word pawanmuktasana is used in two ways in the traditional text. As a single pose it is the reclined knee-to-chest pose on this page, which the text calls supta pawanmuktasana, the leg lock pose.
The text also uses pawanmuktasana as the name of the first group of asanas: simple pre-meditative loosening exercises. That group includes ankle crank (goolf ghoornan), half butterfly (ardha titali asana), squat and rise (utthanasana), hip rotation (shroni chakra), crow walking (kawa chalasana), dynamic spinal twist (gatyatmak meru vakrasana), churning the mill (chakki chalanasana) and neck movements (greeva sanchalana).
So when a class or a book says pawanmuktasana, it can mean either the single reclined pose or that wider loosening series. This page describes the single pose. If you are new to yoga, start with our yoga for beginners page and browse all the yoga poses. Other gentle floor poses are Happy Baby Pose, Reclined Bound Angle and Child's Pose.
Pawanmuktasana joins pawan (wind) and mukta (release or free), which is why the name is often rendered as the Wind-Relieving Pose. The traditional text describes it as a pose practised for the abdomen and digestion, a traditional description rather than a medical claim.
In Satyananda's Yoga and Kriya the pose is practised in three stages: the right knee, then the left, then both knees together. The text always starts with the right leg, tying this to the direction of the large intestine so that the movement follows the direction of digestion.
It suggests three to five rounds for each stage, not after meals, and early in the morning if you practise at that time. The text presents the pose as beginner-friendly and offers the head-down version when the back is a concern.
Practise it properly with Sailaja, who adjusts each person in a small women-first class in Kolathur.
Last updated 2026-10-03.
Book a ₹199 first class and learn Wind-Relieving Pose with Sailaja, in a small women-first group in Kolathur.
