Side Plank with Lifted Leg
वसिष्ठासन
Vasiṣṭhāsana — an intermediate balance pose that works the obliques, hip abductors, shoulders.
How to do Side Plank with Lifted Leg
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Set up a stacked side plank on the right hand with both feet on the outer right edge.
Bend the top knee towards the chest and hook the big toe with the first two fingers of the top hand.
Extend the top leg upward as far as the hamstring allows without the hips dropping.
Keep pressing the bottom hand down and lifting the underneath waist.
Hold with a steady gaze, release the foot, and change sides.
Hold: 15–30 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 Side Plank with Lifted Leg 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.
- Adds an active hamstring stretch on top of a single-arm weight-bearing hold.
- Loads the outer hip of the bottom leg while the top hip works to keep the leg raised.
- Demands continuous correction at the supporting wrist and shoulder.
Side Plank with Lifted Leg is one of 31 balance poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses held on a reduced base — one foot, two hands, or the forearms.
Who should skip Side Plank with Lifted Leg, or change it
- Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome — practise on the forearm with both feet down.
- Shoulder injury on the supporting side.
- Hamstring strain on the lifted leg.
- Pregnancy after the first trimester: keep to a knee-down side plank instead.
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 Plank with Lifted Leg
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeGrabbing the toe before the plain side plank is steady.
FixBuild the stacked version for several weeks first; the leg lift is the last part.
MistakeUnderneath hip sinking the moment the leg extends.
FixLower the top leg until the hips can stay lifted.
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 Plank with Lifted Leg 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 Side Plank with Lifted Leg?
Set up a stacked side plank on the right hand with both feet on the outer right edge. Bend the top knee towards the chest and hook the big toe with the first two fingers of the top hand. Extend the top leg upward as far as the hamstring allows without the hips dropping. Keep pressing the bottom hand down and lifting the underneath waist. Hold with a steady gaze, release the foot, and change sides. Hold for 15–30 seconds each side.
What does Side Plank with Lifted Leg work?
Primarily the obliques, hip abductors, shoulders, with the hamstrings, abdominals, wrists assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: adds an active hamstring stretch on top of a single-arm weight-bearing hold.
Who should not do Side Plank with Lifted Leg?
Wrist injury or carpal tunnel syndrome — practise on the forearm with both feet down. Shoulder injury on the supporting side. Hamstring strain on the lifted leg. Pregnancy after the first trimester: keep to a knee-down side plank instead. 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 Plank with Lifted Leg suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Side Plank with Lifted Leg 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 balance poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Side Plank with Lifted Leg 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 Plank with Lifted Leg 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.
Sequences that use Side Plank with Lifted Leg
Related poses
More balance poses — 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.