Side Bow Pose
पार्श्व धनुरासन
Pārśva Dhanurāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the quadriceps, spinal erectors, obliques.
How to do Side Bow Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Come into full Bow Pose with both ankles held and the chest lifted.
Take one full breath there to make sure the shape is stable.
Exhale and roll onto the right side, keeping the grip on both ankles and the legs pressing back.
Stay for two or three breaths, then roll back through centre on an inhale.
Repeat on the left side, then release and rest.
Hold: 2–3 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 Side 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.
- Maintains the full Bow contraction while the load shifts onto one side of the ribcage.
- Adds a strong lateral demand on the obliques and side waist.
- Keeps the quadriceps under stretch throughout the roll.
Side Bow 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 Side Bow Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy — unsuitable at any stage.
- Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or any spinal fusion.
- Shoulder injury, since one shoulder takes the bodyweight on the floor.
- Rib injury or recent chest surgery.
- Knee injury on either leg — the grip and depth are the same as full Bow.
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 Side Bow Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLosing the leg press on the way over so the shape collapses into a heap.
FixKeep the shins driving back into the hands the whole time; the roll should not change the pose.
MistakeRolling with a jerk and dumping onto the shoulder.
FixMove on a slow exhale and let the abdominal side wall control the descent.
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 Side Bow 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 Side Bow Pose?
Come into full Bow Pose with both ankles held and the chest lifted. Take one full breath there to make sure the shape is stable. Exhale and roll onto the right side, keeping the grip on both ankles and the legs pressing back. Stay for two or three breaths, then roll back through centre on an inhale. Repeat on the left side, then release and rest. Hold for 2–3 breaths each side.
What does Side Bow Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, spinal erectors, obliques, with the chest, shoulders, glutes assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: maintains the full Bow contraction while the load shifts onto one side of the ribcage.
Who should not do Side Bow Pose?
Pregnancy — unsuitable at any stage. Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or any spinal fusion. Shoulder injury, since one shoulder takes the bodyweight on the floor. Rib injury or recent chest surgery. Knee injury on either leg — the grip and depth are the same as full Bow. 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 Side Bow Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Side Bow 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 Side 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. Side Bow 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.