Half Bow Pose
अर्ध धनुरासन
Ardha Dhanurāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the quadriceps, spinal erectors, chest.
How to do Half Bow Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie face down and extend the left arm forward along the mat, palm down.
Bend the right knee and take hold of the right ankle with the right hand.
Press the right shin back into the hand and lift the right thigh and the chest together.
Reach the left arm forward and slightly up to keep both sides of the chest even.
Hold, lower with control, then change sides.
Hold: 15–20 seconds each side. Keep the breath moving throughout — if you are holding it, the pose is too much for today.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Half Bow Pose does
Described mechanically — what the movement does to muscle and joint. Not a list of conditions it treats, because a pose does not treat conditions.
- Loads one quadriceps and hip flexor into a deep stretch while the other side stays long.
- Extends the spine with roughly half the demand of the full pose.
- Recruits the obliques to stop the torso rolling towards the lifted side.
Half Bow Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Half Bow Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy from the second trimester — prone poses press into the belly.
- Knee injury on the bent leg: use a strap around the ankle.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, where lumbar extension is not advised.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which the uneven hip position can provoke.
- Shoulder injury on the reaching arm — leave it folded under the forehead instead.
General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts. If you are pregnant, recovering from surgery or managing any health condition, ask your doctor before starting a practice, and learn the pose itself from a qualified teacher who can see you move.
Common mistakes in Half Bow Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeThe torso rolling open towards the bent leg so the pelvis twists.
FixPress the opposite hip down firmly and lift less until the pelvis stays square.
MistakeThe arch collapsing into a single hinge at the waist.
FixLengthen the tailbone back and lift the breastbone forward so the mid-back joins in.
What a practice like this costs in energy
Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values per style of practice, so Half Bow Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET — and the figures below are for a practice of that kind, not for holding this one pose.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
Calculated as MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 kcal per minute — the standard ACSM relationship, shown in full on the method page. Scale it to your own weight by multiplying by your weight in kilograms and dividing by 70. The whole activity dataset, including every non-yoga activity, is at BurnLab.
Questions
How do you do Half Bow Pose?
Lie face down and extend the left arm forward along the mat, palm down. Bend the right knee and take hold of the right ankle with the right hand. Press the right shin back into the hand and lift the right thigh and the chest together. Reach the left arm forward and slightly up to keep both sides of the chest even. Hold, lower with control, then change sides. Hold for 15–20 seconds each side.
What does Half Bow Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, spinal erectors, chest, with the glutes, shoulders, obliques assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads one quadriceps and hip flexor into a deep stretch while the other side stays long.
Who should not do Half Bow Pose?
Pregnancy from the second trimester — prone poses press into the belly. Knee injury on the bent leg: use a strap around the ankle. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, where lumbar extension is not advised. Sacroiliac irritation, which the uneven hip position can provoke. Shoulder injury on the reaching arm — leave it folded under the forehead instead. This is general information, not medical advice — if any of these apply to you, ask your doctor and learn the pose with a qualified teacher rather than from a page.
Is Half Bow Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Half Bow Pose is rated intermediate here: it assumes a working base of strength and range, and a teacher who has watched you move. Build up through the backbends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Half Bow Pose burn?
The honest answer is that nobody has measured a single asana. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values for styles of yoga, not for individual poses. Half Bow Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02150, yoga, Hatha, at 2.5 MET — about 92 kcal for 30 minutes of that kind of practice for a 70 kg adult. Holding one pose for a minute is a rounding error either way.
Related poses
More backbends — first at the same level, then the rest of the family.
Asana names are traditional. Every step, benefit and caution on this page is written for YogaPath rather than reproduced from any book, studio or other library — see how this site is written. Energy figures derive from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts.