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How to do the four limbed staff pose in yoga (chaturanga dandasana)

Read about the steps I took to try to learn to master the four limbed staff pose, and follow my progress as I share my successes.

The four limbed staff pose or chaturanga dandasana is a pose that is extremely challenging for beginners, since it requires strength in your arms, shoulders, and abs.

You can find the description of this and all other yoga pose in the Yoga Bible.

Tips for building strength to perform this pose

1. Increase strength in your triceps by doing the arm pressure balance, inclined plane posture, and one hand over arm balance.
2. Increase strength in your shoulders by doing the headstand.
3. Increase strength in your abs by doing the plank pose, boat pose, the extended leg fish pose, and double leg raises.

Note that you do not have to be able to perform any of the poses mentioned above perfectly. You just have to perform them partly or entirely if you can. As you practise and do them daily, your body will automatically become stronger, and eventually you will be able to perform the poses correctly, but also do the four limbed staff pose.

The beginning
I started doing the four limbed staff pose from the very moment I started doing yoga, since it is part of the sun salutation.

While I did not practise this pose every single day, multiple times, as I generally do for poses that I want to master, the muscles that are required to do this pose were being worked by doing other poses that target the arms and abs.

It took me approximately 1 month to build up enough strength to be able to lift my entire body off the ground for longer than 1 second.

Jan 12, 2012
While I was able to lift my body off the ground from the very beginning, it came at the price of holding my breath during the pose.

Today I managed to finally perform 5 breaths while doing the four limbed staff pose.