One-Handed Arm Pose
एक हस्त भुजासन
Eka Hasta Bhujāsana — an intermediate balance pose that works the shoulders, triceps, abdominals.
How to do One-Handed Arm Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit with both legs straight out in front and the hands beside the hips.
Bend the right knee and thread the right arm under the right thigh, sliding the leg high onto the upper arm.
Place both palms flat on the floor beside the hips, fingers pointing forward, with blocks under them if needed.
Flex the left foot and press both hands down to lift the seat and the straight left leg off the mat.
Hold for a few breaths, lower with control, and change sides.
Hold: 3–8 breaths 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 One-Handed Arm 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.
- Lifts the whole body on two hands with one leg hooked over an arm and the other held straight out.
- Loads the hip flexors and quadriceps of the extended leg to keep it clear of the floor.
- Puts a heavy pressing load through both wrists with the arms straight.
One-Handed Arm Pose is one of 31 balance poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses held on a reduced base — one foot, two hands, or the forearms.
Who should skip One-Handed Arm Pose, or change it
- Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Shoulder injury on the side carrying the thigh.
- Hamstring strain on the extended leg.
- Recent abdominal surgery or a hernia repair.
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 One-Handed Arm Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeThigh sitting near the elbow so nothing can lift.
FixUse the free hand to draw the leg as high onto the upper arm as it goes first.
MistakeExtended leg dragging on the floor.
FixFlex the foot hard and lift the thigh actively, or use blocks under the hands for extra height.
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 One-Handed Arm Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02175, yoga, Power, 4 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 | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
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 One-Handed Arm Pose?
Sit with both legs straight out in front and the hands beside the hips. Bend the right knee and thread the right arm under the right thigh, sliding the leg high onto the upper arm. Place both palms flat on the floor beside the hips, fingers pointing forward, with blocks under them if needed. Flex the left foot and press both hands down to lift the seat and the straight left leg off the mat. Hold for a few breaths, lower with control, and change sides. Hold for 3–8 breaths each side.
What does One-Handed Arm Pose work?
Primarily the shoulders, triceps, abdominals, with the wrists, hip flexors, quadriceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: lifts the whole body on two hands with one leg hooked over an arm and the other held straight out.
Who should not do One-Handed Arm Pose?
Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome. Shoulder injury on the side carrying the thigh. Hamstring strain on the extended leg. Recent abdominal surgery or a hernia repair. 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 One-Handed Arm Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. One-Handed Arm 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 balance poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does One-Handed Arm 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. One-Handed Arm Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02175, yoga, Power, at 4 MET — about 147 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 balance poses — 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.