Yoga Sandbag: Why Iyengar Yoga Uses Weights To Help You Let Go

Yoga sandbag: the short answer

Stuart McGill walked into his first Yoga For Health class with a sore mid back, and his teacher soon began placing weights on him. A yoga sandbag is a soft, heavy bag of sand, weighing a few kilograms, that an Iyengar teacher places on your thighs, chest, back or feet. Its job is not to make you stronger. Sandbags in yoga are used to give the muscles something to yield into, so they stop gripping, the breath slows and the mind settles. It is one of the restorative yoga props students love most once they have tried it. Here is how it works, where it goes, who started it, and what it teaches you about yourself.

Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, through his books and his teaching, and he pioneered the use of props. It is sometimes called modern classical yoga, and it’s the style we teach at Flametree. This page sits in our yoga props notes.

Yoga sandbag: this article in short form

• What it is: a heavy, soft bag of sand used as a yoga prop.
• Its job: to help muscles let go, not to build bulk.
• Where it goes: thighs, chest, back, feet or pelvis.
• The calm: steady pressure slows the breath and quietens the mind.
• Where it began: Mr Iyengar used weights early in his teaching life.
• The mirror: staying under the weight shows how you react.
• At home: start light, and learn the placement from a teacher.
• Next step: your first class is free if you’re new to Flametree.

Why does Iyengar yoga use sandbags?

To educate the body and quieten the nervous system. In Iyengar yoga, weights are not used to strengthen in the usual sense. When a sandbag rests on your thighs in Reclining Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana), or across your chest in Legs Up The Wall (Viparita Karani), it acts as a grounding force.

It gives the muscles something to yield into, rather than resist. Muscles that grip out of habit, often without us knowing, start to soften, because the weight gives steady, constant feedback. It is as if it says, “You can let go now.”

That gentle yielding teaches the body to drop tension it does not need. Many students describe a deep, spreading relaxation that is both physical and emotional.

Where does a yoga sandbag go?

Wherever a part of the body needs to settle. Common placements in class include:

• On the thighs in Reclining Bound Angle Pose, so the hips open without effort;
• On the feet or shins in Legs Up The Wall, to ground the legs;
• Across the upper back in a supported forward bend over a chair;
• On the pelvis in supported poses, to steady the base of the spine;
• On the tops of the thighs in seated forward bends, to help free the lower back.

Your teacher chooses the place and the weight. Sandbags are not used everywhere, and some places, such as the abdomen in pregnancy, are avoided.

Which other poses can you try with a sandbag?

Weights suit almost any lying or sitting pose, and sometimes a standing one. Chris teaches these combinations, each with the weight placed by the teacher:

• Lying over two bolsters (cross bolsters): weights on the hands and thighs;
• Cross-legged forward bend: weights on the inner thighs and lower back;
• Reclining Hero Pose (Supta Virasana): a weight on the lower back;
• Reclining Hand-To-Big-Toe Pose (Supta Padangusthasana): a weight on the leg resting on the floor;
• Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend (Upavistha Konasana): weights in front of each leg, or on the legs.

How does a sandbag calm the nervous system?

Steady, gentle pressure acts like an anchor. In my experience, and in the experience of the students I teach, the weight slows the breath and settles the heart. It is not stimulation; it is a soothing kind of containment, which is why sandbags are so common in restorative yoga.

The usual explanation is that steady pressure supports the “rest and digest” side of the nervous system. The tissues under the skin, including the fascia (the connective tissue wrapping the muscles), are rich in sensory receptors, and the brain “listens” to that pressure. That is a working idea from long practice; research on yoga sandbags in particular has not yet tested it.

What I can say from practice is this: the more you feel into the body under the weight, the more you come into the present moment. That is the heart of yogic relaxation. Alert stillness, not collapse.

What happened when Stuart tried sandbags for a sore back?

Stuart McGill, who runs Flametree with Chris, went to his first Yoga For Health class in 2019 with a sore mid back. In about an hour and a quarter, his teacher gave him a personal set of poses. Most of them were restorative (supported, resting poses), and not all used weights.

Some of the poses with weights were ones he could not have set up alone, because he could not place the weights on himself. So the teacher put them in position and helped him into each pose.

Late in the class he lay over a barrel (a rounded yoga prop) with it under the sore spot, using his own weight. In his words, he felt calmer at the end, his back felt easier, and he noticed he was walking and sitting with a much straighter spine. Lying over the barrel with his head sloping down also worked like a mild inverted pose, and he felt clear headed and alert.

Stuart also uses weights to work with an old broken collarbone from a bike crash as a boy. He says weights show him what is going on in that arm, and how to deal with it better. That is one person’s experience, and every body is different.

Who started using weights in yoga?

Mr BKS Iyengar, early in his teaching life. In an account Flametree has shared, he described cycling long distances each day to reach his students. At night his legs would shiver and his whole body felt restless. To get relief, he rested rolled mattresses on his legs, with a drum of water on top.

He then saw that some of his students had the same restless, shaky legs, which left them anxious. He tied their legs together with a cloth and put some weight on them. By his account, the shaking stopped and the students felt great relief. From that he came to use weights to help quieten the nervous system.

That is a story from the Iyengar tradition, and we have not traced the book it first appeared in. It is not a research finding. Today weights are one of the ways Iyengar teachers use props for restorative work, alongside ropes, bolsters and chairs.

How is a yoga sandbag different from lifting weights?

The direction of the effort is different. Weights in a gym are used to push muscles to work harder against a load. The effort is outward: do more, lift more, achieve more.

In yoga, the weight is used the other way. The effort is inward, a kind of conditioning of awareness. You are not trying to move the sandbag. You are learning to stop fighting it.

Yoga does build strength too, through standing poses, arm work and holding poses, which our post Can Yoga Build Muscle? explains. The sandbag is for a different job.

What do students say about sandbags?

When Chris places weights on students in restorative classes, Yoga For Health classes and regular classes, she hears comments like these, from students who are not named here:

“With weight on my back I can feel where I am holding tension and take my mind there and breath into those areas and get them to dissolve”

“Its a miracle how much my hips can open when i put two sandbags on my thighs”

These are personal experiences, and results vary. A sandbag is not a treatment for any condition.

What does staying under a sandbag teach you?

It shows you your own patterns. When you stay in a pose with a weight on you and remain present, you start to see your mind at work:

• Do I resist the discomfort?
• Do I want to fidget, or escape?
• Am I judging how I “should” feel right now?

In yoga philosophy, the kleshas are the deep-rooted causes of suffering: ignorance, ego, attachment, aversion and fear. The weight becomes a mirror for them. The ego might whisper, “I should be able to hold this easily.” Aversion might say, “I don’t like this heaviness.”

By staying and watching, you begin to see through those reactions. That is svadhyaya (self-study), one of the core practices of yoga.

Tension, memory and where you hold

Many teachers, and many students, notice that muscle holding patterns seem linked to emotional memory. A sandbag, used with care, helps reveal where you hold.

When a sandbag sits on your pelvis, you might notice resistance in the belly, or a subtle unease rising. That is useful information: your body is speaking. Once awareness shines on those areas, release can begin. Not by forcing, but by allowing.

Over time this physical letting go seeps into the mind. You learn to meet yourself with tenderness instead of reactivity. If strong feelings come up, that is normal, and you can always talk it through with your teacher.

Is the sandbag about surrender, or giving up?

Surrender, not submission. Using weights in Iyengar yoga teaches you to give in to the truth of the moment, not to give up. The mind learns to watch without interfering, and the body learns to rest without collapsing.

That is meditation in motion, or rather, in stillness. It is also why the restorative part of an Iyengar class is often the part people remember all week. Read more in What Is Restorative Yoga?

What can you use at home instead of a studio sandbag?

Start with something soft and modest, and learn the placement from a teacher. Flametree’s sandbags run from about 2 to 4 kilograms, depending on how full they are. Chris suggests starting with bags of around 3 kg and 5 kg. For a home set, she says to buy empty sandbags and fill them with washed river sand. Avoid beach sand, because the salt attracts moisture in humid weather.

Some students also use metal weights of 1.25 kg, 5 kg or 10 kg from a sports store. Always put a folded blanket, towel or a piece of mat underneath a metal weight. A bag of rice can stand in for a sandbag online.

Too much weight, or the wrong place, is a real issue. Keep weights off sore joints and the abdomen in pregnancy, and stop if anything feels uncomfortable. If you have a health condition or an injury, talk to your yoga teacher, yoga therapist, and your doctor if you wish.

Are weights part of a bigger idea about props?

Yes. In Iyengar yoga a prop is there to teach, not to prop you up. Our note on using props in yoga looks at that idea, and our yoga props page covers what to buy and what to improvise at home.

Practise this at Flametree

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga in Darwin and LIVE online, with Christine (Chris) Lalor, Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher. In the studio, sandbags and other props are there for you. Online, a teacher can show you how to use what you have at home, and Flametree’s home props pack is available too.

Your first class is free if you’re new to Flametree. For a studio class in Darwin, just come along. For an online class, click the class time you want on the class list and we email you the link to join. New students, and anyone who has been away three months or more, can also get a half price 10 class pass with 2 extra classes free, to use online, in the studio, or both.

• New to yoga? See the beginner half price 10 class pass, for new and lapsed students.
• Already practise? See the half price 10 class pass for non-beginners, for new and lapsed students.
• Want to see class times? Open the timetable, including online classes.

Related reading: how to calm your nervous system, how long to hold yoga poses and the eight limbs of yoga.

Yoga sandbag: frequently asked questions

What is a yoga sandbag used for?

In Iyengar yoga, a sandbag is used to help muscles let go, not to build strength. Placed on the thighs, chest, back or feet, its steady weight gives the body something to yield into, which many students find slows the breath and quietens the mind.

How heavy is a yoga sandbag?

A yoga sandbag weighs a few kilograms, heavy enough to feel but soft enough to mould to the body. Flametree’s bags run from about 2 to 4 kilograms depending on how full they are. Your teacher decides how many to use and where, depending on the pose and on you.

Where do you put a sandbag in yoga?

Common places are the thighs in Reclining Bound Angle Pose, the feet in Legs Up The Wall, the upper back in a supported forward bend, and the tops of the thighs in seated forward bends. Some places, such as the abdomen in pregnancy, are avoided.

Why do sandbags help you relax?

From long practice, steady gentle pressure acts like an anchor: the muscles stop gripping and attention comes into the present moment. The usual explanation is that it supports the rest and digest side of the nervous system; research on yoga sandbags in particular has not yet tested this.

Is using a sandbag in yoga the same as lifting weights?

No. In the gym, weight is a load to work against. In Iyengar yoga, a sandbag is something to rest under, so the effort is inward: noticing tension and letting it go.

Are sandbags used in restorative yoga?

Yes. Sandbags are one of the most common restorative yoga props, alongside bolsters, blankets, blocks, belts and eye bandages, because they help the body settle fully into supported poses.

Can I use a sandbag at home?

Yes, once you have learnt where and how from a teacher. Start light, avoid placing weight on sore joints or the abdomen in pregnancy, and stop if anything feels uncomfortable.

Where can I try yoga with sandbags in Darwin or online?

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga, including restorative work with sandbags, in Darwin and LIVE online with Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher Christine (Chris) Lalor. Your first class is free if you are new to Flametree.

Who started using weights in yoga?

Mr BKS Iyengar, early in his teaching life. In a story told in the Iyengar tradition, he first rested rolled mattresses and a drum of water on his tired legs, then used weights with students whose legs shook, and he found they helped people whose nervous system needed quietening.

How do you fill a yoga sandbag?

Buy an empty yoga sandbag and fill it with washed river sand, which you can get from a nursery. Avoid beach sand, because the salt attracts moisture in humid places. Flametree’s bags run from about 2 to 4 kilograms, depending on how full they are.