One-Legged Inverted Staff Pose
एक पाद विपरीत दण्डासन
Eka Pāda Viparīta Daṇḍāsana — an advanced backbend that works the spinal erectors, shoulders, glutes.
How to do One-Legged Inverted Staff Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Establish Inverted Staff Pose with the forearms down, the fingers interlaced and the shoulders lifted.
Straighten both legs along the floor and press the heels down.
Shift the weight into the left leg and keep that heel driving into the mat.
Lift the right leg straight up towards the ceiling without letting the pelvis rotate.
Lower it slowly, breathe, repeat on the left, then bend the knees and come down through the crown.
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 Inverted Staff 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.
- Holds a deep arch while one leg carries the entire lower-body load.
- Increases the demand on the shoulders and upper back to keep the head unweighted.
- Requires strong trunk control to keep the hips square with a leg raised.
One-Legged Inverted Staff 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 Inverted Staff Pose, or change it
- Neck injury of any kind — the head is on the floor beneath a loaded arch.
- Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion.
- Shoulder injury or instability.
- High blood pressure and glaucoma.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which single-leg loading in extension aggravates.
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 Inverted Staff Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeAttempting the leg lift while the head still bears weight.
FixMaster the two-legged pose with the shoulders genuinely lifted first.
MistakeThe pelvis twisting so the arch pinches on one side of the low back.
FixKeep both hip points facing the ceiling and raise the leg only as far as that 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 Inverted Staff 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 Inverted Staff Pose?
Establish Inverted Staff Pose with the forearms down, the fingers interlaced and the shoulders lifted. Straighten both legs along the floor and press the heels down. Shift the weight into the left leg and keep that heel driving into the mat. Lift the right leg straight up towards the ceiling without letting the pelvis rotate. Lower it slowly, breathe, repeat on the left, then bend the knees and come down through the crown. Hold for 5–10 seconds each side.
What does One-Legged Inverted Staff Pose work?
Primarily the spinal erectors, shoulders, glutes, with the hamstrings, abdominals, chest assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: holds a deep arch while one leg carries the entire lower-body load.
Who should not do One-Legged Inverted Staff Pose?
Neck injury of any kind — the head is on the floor beneath a loaded arch. Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion. Shoulder injury or instability. High blood pressure and glaucoma. Pregnancy at any stage. Sacroiliac irritation, which single-leg loading in extension aggravates. 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 Inverted Staff Pose suitable for beginners?
No. One-Legged Inverted Staff 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 Inverted Staff 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 Inverted Staff 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.