In short: reclining tortoise is the bound, folded-up version of tortoise pose. From the deep forward bend of tortoise, the arms reach back under the legs and the hands clasp behind the back, while the feet cross behind the head and the forehead rests on the floor. It is one of the most demanding poses of the Ashtanga primary series, appears in B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga as the final stage of tortoise pose, and should be learned with a teacher.
Despite “reclining” in the English name, you do not lie on your back: the body is folded forward, face down, wrapped around itself. The name comes from the Sanskrit supta, which can mean lying down or sleeping, so the pose is also called sleeping tortoise.
What the name means
Supta Kūrmāsana joins supta (sleeping, lying), kūrma (tortoise) and āsana (posture). It completes the image of tortoise pose: head and limbs drawn fully into the shell. It is a modern posture of the 20th-century Mysore lineages, practised in the Ashtanga primary series right after tortoise pose. Light on Yoga calls it “the sleeping tortoise pose” and presents it as the third and final stage of Kurmasana, the tortoise with head and limbs drawn under its shell. It should not be confused with Uttana Kurmasana in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a lotus-based shape lying on the back.
How the pose is approached
There are two common routes. In the Ashtanga method described by AshtangaYoga.info, you place the feet behind the head while sitting upright, balancing on the buttocks with the hands under the thighs, and only then lower forward until the forehead touches the floor, reaching the arms under the legs to clasp the hands behind the back. AshtangaYoga.info warns that trying to slide the feet behind the head while already lying with the chin on the floor puts heavy strain on the neck and pressure on the lower back. Its easier alternative is to leave the feet on the floor with the soles together. The other route, described in Light on Yoga (and in a Yoga Journal master class), works from tortoise pose: with the arms under the knees and the chest down, the palms turn up and the arms move back toward the hips; then you bend the knees, lift the chest a little, clasp the hands behind the back, bring the feet toward the head and cross them at the ankles, and on an exhale slip the head between the feet with the forehead on the floor. Iyengar asks you to change which foot is on top from one practice to the next so the legs develop evenly.
Either way, the hip joints rotate strongly outward and the whole spine flexes deeply, with the weight of the legs on the shoulders and neck. Do not try to reach the full shape by pulling or with a partner pushing. Ashtanga holds it for five breaths; Light on Yoga suggests one to two minutes once the pose is established, breathing normally.
Precautions in plain words
Learn this pose only with an experienced teacher and only after tortoise pose is comfortable. Avoid it with any neck, back, shoulder, hip or knee injury, disc problems or sciatica, and during pregnancy. Stop at any pain in the neck, lower back or knees. The soles-together version keeps much of the fold without the feet behind the head. This page is general information, not individual advice.
Preparation and what comes next
Prerequisites include a comfortable tortoise pose, deep hip openers and, for the feet behind the head, work on one leg behind the head. Yoga sleep pose (Yoganidrasana) is the same leg position lying on the back. In the Ashtanga primary series the next poses are embryo in the womb and rooster. Afterwards, rest the spine in a neutral position and open the front of the body.
How to know you are ready. Before working on the full pose, you should be able to stay comfortably in tortoise pose with the legs nearly straight and the chest close to the floor, and to sit upright with one leg placed behind the head without strain in the neck or lower back. If either of those still feels forced, the soles-together version is the right place to work. In a led Ashtanga class, the teacher normally decides when a student begins this posture.
You will meet reclining tortoise mainly in Ashtanga and Iyengar practice.
