One-Legged Bridge Pose
एक पाद सेतु बन्धासन
Eka Pāda Setu Bandhāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors.
How to do One-Legged Bridge Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Come into Bridge Pose with the hips lifted and the arms alongside the body.
Press the left foot down and shift a little weight into it without letting the hips drop.
Draw the right knee towards the chest, then extend the right leg towards the ceiling.
Keep both hip bones level and the left knee tracking over the left foot.
Lower the right foot with control, take a breath, then repeat on the other side.
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 One-Legged Bridge 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 glute and hamstring at a time in hip extension while the pelvis must stay level.
- Recruits the deep trunk muscles hard to stop the hips rotating.
- Keeps the thoracic spine extended and the chest open throughout the single-leg work.
One-Legged Bridge 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 One-Legged Bridge Pose, or change it
- Neck injury — never turn the head while the hips are lifted; use a folded blanket under the shoulders.
- Hamstring strain on the standing leg, which now carries everything.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which single-leg bridging can provoke — return to the two-legged version.
- Disc injury: keep the lift lower and the glutes firm.
- Later pregnancy, where extended time flat on the back is not recommended.
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-Legged Bridge Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeThe supporting hip sinking as soon as the leg lifts.
FixLevel the pelvis first, and if it drops, keep the raised knee bent instead of extending the leg.
MistakeThe whole lift hinging at the waist rather than driving from the glute.
FixSqueeze the supporting glute before lifting and lengthen the tailbone towards the knee.
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-Legged Bridge 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 One-Legged Bridge Pose?
Come into Bridge Pose with the hips lifted and the arms alongside the body. Press the left foot down and shift a little weight into it without letting the hips drop. Draw the right knee towards the chest, then extend the right leg towards the ceiling. Keep both hip bones level and the left knee tracking over the left foot. Lower the right foot with control, take a breath, then repeat on the other side. Hold for 15–20 seconds each side.
What does One-Legged Bridge Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors, with the abdominals, hip abductors, quadriceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads one glute and hamstring at a time in hip extension while the pelvis must stay level.
Who should not do One-Legged Bridge Pose?
Neck injury — never turn the head while the hips are lifted; use a folded blanket under the shoulders. Hamstring strain on the standing leg, which now carries everything. Sacroiliac irritation, which single-leg bridging can provoke — return to the two-legged version. Disc injury: keep the lift lower and the glutes firm. Later pregnancy, where extended time flat on the back is not recommended. 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-Legged Bridge Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. One-Legged Bridge 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 One-Legged Bridge 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-Legged Bridge 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.