Yoga teacher holds scorpion pose for 29 minutes, breaks world record

June 21 (UPI) -- A yoga teacher broke a Guinness World Record in Dubai when he held the scorpion pose for 29 minutes and 4 seconds.

Yash Moradiya, 21, who is from India and currently lives in Dubai, said he spent nearly two years training his body to be able to hold the scorpion pose, which involves the practitioner balancing with their forearms on the ground and their legs arched over the head, for long periods of time.

"The scorpion position is all about stability. The longer you hold the pose, the better you learn to establish your mental resilience," Moradiya told Guinness World Records.

Moradiya held the pose for 29 minutes and 4 seconds, demolishing the previous record of 4 minutes and 47 seconds.

Moradiya, who started practicing yoga at the age of 8 in 2001 and got his teaching certificate in 2017, said he started feeling the strain of the position after about 10 minutes.

"I was not feeling my toes, and my hip and back numbed before feeling so much pain throughout," he said.

He said "self-confidence and mental strength" helped him make it through.

"Breaking a Guinness World Records was a celebration for a long-waited moment in my life. I started thinking about it five years ago and committed myself to it for two whole years," he said.