Bulb Pose
कन्दासन
Kandāsana — an advanced backbend that works the hip adductors, hip flexors, spinal erectors.
How to do Bulb Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit tall with the soles of the feet together and the knees wide, as in a bound angle position.
Take hold of both feet and draw the heels in close to the pelvis.
Lift the feet off the floor and rotate them so the soles turn upward.
Continue drawing the feet up the body towards the navel and chest, keeping the knees low.
Sit upright with the chest lifted and the spine long, hold briefly, then lower the feet with both hands.
Hold: 10–20 seconds. 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 Bulb 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.
- Takes the hips into their deepest available external rotation and abduction.
- Requires the spine to hold upright extension while the legs are folded high.
- Stretches the inner thighs and the front of the ankles simultaneously.
Bulb 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 Bulb Pose, or change it
- Knee injury or meniscus damage — the rotational load on the knee is extreme, so leave this out.
- Hip replacement or restricted hip rotation.
- Ankle injury, since the feet are twisted and pulled.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, given the upright spinal demand under a fixed pelvis.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Groin or adductor strain.
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 Bulb Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakePulling the feet up while the rotation happens at the knees rather than the hips.
FixStop the moment the knees complain and spend the practice on Baddha Konasana and hip rotation drills instead.
MistakeThe chest collapsing and the low back rounding to get the feet higher.
FixSit up on a block and hold the spine tall; the height of the feet is worth nothing without it.
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 Bulb 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 Bulb Pose?
Sit tall with the soles of the feet together and the knees wide, as in a bound angle position. Take hold of both feet and draw the heels in close to the pelvis. Lift the feet off the floor and rotate them so the soles turn upward. Continue drawing the feet up the body towards the navel and chest, keeping the knees low. Sit upright with the chest lifted and the spine long, hold briefly, then lower the feet with both hands. Hold for 10–20 seconds.
What does Bulb Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, hip flexors, spinal erectors, with the quadriceps, chest, abdominals assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: takes the hips into their deepest available external rotation and abduction.
Who should not do Bulb Pose?
Knee injury or meniscus damage — the rotational load on the knee is extreme, so leave this out. Hip replacement or restricted hip rotation. Ankle injury, since the feet are twisted and pulled. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, given the upright spinal demand under a fixed pelvis. Pregnancy at any stage. Groin or adductor strain. 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 Bulb Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Bulb 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 Bulb 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. Bulb 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.