how long should you hold a yoga pose?

"How long should you hold a yoga pose?"
Someone asked that question last week in yoga teacher training. 

Meet Amar Bharti Ji (above).
He says he’s been holding his right arm up in the air since 1973. His story goes like this: Amar was an average middle-class family man. Then, one morning in 1970, he woke up and decided to dedicate his life to Shiva. He left his job, family and friends to dedicate himself to his spiritual practice.

Three years later, feeling he was still too connected to mortal life, Amar decided to make a sacrifice - his right arm. He raised it as a sign of his devotion - and never put it back down. Amar's sacrifice means his arm is no longer functional. He experienced years of excruciating pain. But the pain has now passed - and his arm is atrophied and frozen in this position.

Most of us would probably agree that 48 years is waaaay longer than we’d care to spend in any yoga pose. But you probably also have different goals for your practice than Amar does. So, how long should YOU hold a yoga pose? IT DEPENDS. On what YOU want to get out of your practice.

Do you want to relax? Build strength? Increase flexibility? Get a quick energy boost? Find enlightenment?

The key to getting the most out of your yoga practice lies in matching the goal you’re trying to achieve with the right kind of practice.  

And the kind of practice you do will determine how long you hold your poses. 
So, a great place to start answering the question 'how long should you hold a yoga pose?' is by identifying your goals.  For example:

• If you want to get some cardio in while increasing your strength and stamina, a fast flowing-style practice, where poses are held for 1-5 breaths, will help you meet that goal

 

• If you want to practice body awareness and refine your alignment, try a Hatha or Iyengar yoga practice.  In these styles you’ll hold most poses for 30 – 90 seconds (or longer)

 

• To relax and improve your flexibility, try a Yin style practice (you’ll hold most poses somewhere between 1 – 10 minutes)

 

• If de-stressing is a priority, then a restorative practice might be the best choice for you.  In which case you might hold a supported yoga pose for 5- 30 minutes.

But before we dig any deeper into the benefits of different kinds of yoga practice,  we’ll need to take a quick detour into some movement science.  Here's a short video that walks you through the 3 basic styles of stretching we use in yoga practice and how they affect your body/mind. 

1. Dynamic Stretching
2. Active Static Stretching
3. Passive Static Stretching

Benefits of Long Hold Times in Static Poses
Restorative Yoga, Yin Yoga and Iyengar Yoga are a few examples of practices that are famous for using long hold times – but they do it in dramatically different ways to achieve completely different outcomes. 

Iyengar Yoga
In Iyengar Yoga there’s a strong focus on alignment and on holding active static poses.  This style of practice helps you:

• Increase strength and endurance. The more you practice holding a plank or a Warrior II, the easier it gets.
• Improve balance.  Static balance practice works your core and ankle stabilizer muscles; improves joint stability and enhances your ability to focus and concentrate. Your ability to balance is a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ thing.  Ability tends to deteriorate as you age. The best way to maintain/improve your ability to balance is to practice.
• Practice mindfulness and improve your proprioception: your ability to sense your body’s position.  Long holds give you the time you need in a pose to refine your technique & improve your body awareness. 
• Improve strength and flexibility

I asked one of my early yoga teachers, Nesta Falladown, a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, how long you should hold a yoga pose. She had a long list of 'it depends' in addition to the ones we've already covered.  She says:

            “it depends on experience in practice, age of the student, how they
            feel at the time of practice, what it is they need on that particular day,
            what their state of mind is, weather, the level of difficulty of the asana,
            the state of the breath …”  She goes on to say that ' A short answer and good guideline is
            to start with shorter holdings and build up.  Start with 15 seconds
            or less if stamina is not strong.

BKS Iyengar suggests holding:

• Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II) 20 - 30 seconds (as it is a more powerful asana)
• Utthita Trikonasana (Triangle ) 30 - 60 seconds
• an inversion such as Salamba Sarvangasana, 5-15 minutes, so the blood has time to circulate completely several times. 
• Restorative asanas - 6 minutes minimum.

She recommends reading “Light on Yoga” or “Yoga: A Gem for Women” for more specific detail on how to perform each asana from the Iyengar perspective.  

If you specifically want to increase your flexibility, the current ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) exercise guidelines are to do static stretching:

• at least 2 – 3 x per week
• to the point of feeling tightness or slight discomfort
• 10 – 30 seconds (for most adults).  Though 30 – 60 seconds might have greater benefits for older adults
• for each of the major muscle groups  

Yin Yoga
Yin Yoga focuses on long holds of passive static poses and gentle stretching.  This style of practice helps you:

• Increase flexibility
• Feel good. Stretching just plain feels good.  That’s enough of a reason to do it.
• Relax and de-stress.  Stretching activates your relaxation response and inhibits your stress response
• Reduce pain.  This style of practice can decrease your pain.  But, you should note that stretching has an analgesic effect. It acts like a painkiller – and, like any painkilling medication, the effects wear off.  If your pain or discomfort is temporarily relieved by stretching, but comes back with a vengeance a few hours later, stretching may actually be doing you more harm than good.  A strength-based practice might be more appropriate and you should probably consult with a professional, if this is the case.

Restorative Yoga
Restorative Yoga focuses on holding passive static poses for long periods of time.  In Restorative, you’re aiming to get into a position that’s completely comfortable and just relax - without stretching or strengthening anything.  Restorative yoga:

• Teaches you to be relaxed and awake at the same time.  You’ll get into positions that are so comfortable you could fall asleep in them.  But instead of doing that, you’ll remain awake and alert. 
• Just plain feels good.
• Reduces stress.  You’ve likely heard that stress is the #1 cause of disease.  Take care of your need for rest and recovery so your stress levels don’t build up and overwhelm your system.  Stress manifests itself as a variety of physical, mental and emotional problems.  Consider your restorative practice as a sort of an inoculation against the harmful effects of stress.  It turns out that lying down on the floor and doing nothing can do wonders for your health and well-being.
• Refreshes you.  A good restorative practice is like a mini vacation.  Take a break from the pressures of life, retreat to your inner world, rest deeply there, and emerge refreshed and ready to take on the world.  You need rest and recovery time as much as you need to get things done. It’s called balance.
• Can help you sleep better -  If you can learn to turn off your stress response, you can fall asleep more quickly and stay asleep longer.
• Pain reduction and improved quality of life.  Relaxation training has helped people suffering from all manner of chronic conditions, including: headaches, back pain, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, TMJ disorder and IBS, to name a few.

Benefits of Short Hold Times in Dynamic Poses
Vinyasa Flow and Ashtanga-style yoga practices use dynamic stretching, which helps you:

• Improve coordination – quick transitions from one pose to the next may initially have you scrambling to keep up, but you’ll master it with practice.
• Practice mindfulness – your thoughts will be focused on coordinating your breath with your movement for the entire duration of the class.
• Increase strength and flexibility – because of all those vinyasas.
• Experience the joy of movement – many flow teachers are gifted at choreographing sequences and transitions that surprise and delight.
• Improve cardiovascular health – when you’re in each pose for just 1-5 breaths, you’re moving at a pretty quick clip.  This increases your heart rate and moves you into the aerobic exercise zone. 
• Increases stamina – eventually you will be able to stay in motion for a longer period of time without feeling fatigued. 
• Realize you can do just about anything for one breath – Ashtanga yoga taught me I could get through difficult situations off the mat the same way I get through difficult poses on the mat - one breath at a time. 

Sometimes you’ll experience several of these styles of movement within a single yoga practice. This often happens under the umbrella of ‘Hatha’ Yoga. And, of course, every yoga practice with a Restorative Savasana. 

So, how long should you hold a yoga pose?  It depends.

Whether you’re challenging yourself to lie down and relax for 20 minutes, to hold a plank for 30 seconds, to get to the end of a 70-minute dynamic Vinaysa Flow - or to hold your arm in the air for the rest of your life as a sign of devotion – the point is to meet YOUR goals and transform YOUR limits, whatever they may be … and however long it takes. 
 
 
Resources:
These stretching and flexibility guidelines are in Table 5.6 of ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 11th Edition.