One-Legged Upward Bow Pose
एक पाद ऊर्ध्व धनुरासन
Eka Pāda Ūrdhva Dhanurāsana — an advanced backbend that works the glutes, quadriceps, shoulders.
How to do One-Legged Upward Bow Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Press up into a stable Upward Bow with the arms as straight as they will go.
Walk the feet in a little and shift the weight evenly into both hands.
Load the left foot, then draw the right knee in towards the chest.
Extend the right leg up towards the ceiling, keeping both hip bones level.
Lower the right foot with control, breathe, then repeat on the other side before coming down.
Hold: 5–10 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 Upward 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.
- Puts the entire lower-body load onto one leg while the spine holds full extension.
- Demands strong trunk control to keep the pelvis from rotating.
- Increases the share of bodyweight carried through the shoulders and wrists.
One-Legged Upward Bow Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip One-Legged Upward Bow Pose, or change it
- Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion.
- Wrist injury, since the arms now hold more than half the bodyweight.
- Shoulder impingement or instability.
- High blood pressure and glaucoma.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which the single-leg load quickly provokes.
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 Upward Bow Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLifting the leg before the wheel itself is steady.
FixHold a plain Urdhva Dhanurasana comfortably for thirty seconds before attempting a leg lift.
MistakeThe supporting hip collapsing so the low back hinges at one point.
FixDrive the standing foot down, squeeze that glute, and lift the leg only as far as the level pelvis allows.
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 Upward Bow 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-Legged Upward Bow Pose?
Press up into a stable Upward Bow with the arms as straight as they will go. Walk the feet in a little and shift the weight evenly into both hands. Load the left foot, then draw the right knee in towards the chest. Extend the right leg up towards the ceiling, keeping both hip bones level. Lower the right foot with control, breathe, then repeat on the other side before coming down. Hold for 5–10 seconds each side.
What does One-Legged Upward Bow Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, quadriceps, shoulders, with the abdominals, spinal erectors, triceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: puts the entire lower-body load onto one leg while the spine holds full extension.
Who should not do One-Legged Upward Bow Pose?
Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion. Wrist injury, since the arms now hold more than half the bodyweight. Shoulder impingement or instability. High blood pressure and glaucoma. Pregnancy at any stage. Sacroiliac irritation, which the single-leg load quickly provokes. 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 Upward Bow Pose suitable for beginners?
No. One-Legged Upward Bow Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate backbends poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does One-Legged Upward 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. One-Legged Upward Bow 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 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.