Half Locust Poseअर्ध शलभासन
Ardha Śalabhāsana — a beginner backbend that works the glutes, spinal erectors, hamstrings.
10–15SECONDS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Half Locust Pose is held 10–15 seconds each side, 2–3 rounds, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Half Locust Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie face down with the chin on the mat and the arms tucked under the body, palms down beneath the thighs.
Press both arms into the floor and lengthen the right leg back.
Inhale and lift the right leg as high as it goes without letting the right hip roll up.
Keep the left hip and the left thigh pressed down as an anchor.
Lower with control, breathe once, then repeat with the left leg.
Hold: 10–15 seconds each side, 2–3 rounds. 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 Half Locust 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.
- Isolates one glute and hamstring at a time in hip extension.
- Loads the spinal erectors on one side while the pelvis stays level.
- Gives most of the work of full Locust with far less load on the lower back.
Half Locust Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Half Locust Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy from the second trimester — lying face down is unsuitable.
- Disc injury: keep the lift low and stop if anything pinches.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which single-leg lifting can aggravate — keep both hips down.
- Recent abdominal surgery.
- Shoulder or elbow pain from tucking the arms under the body — leave them alongside 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 Half Locust Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeRolling the lifting hip open to gain height.
FixWeight both hip bones evenly and lift only to the height the level pelvis allows.
MistakeBending the lifting knee so the leg swings up instead of extending.
FixStraighten the knee and lengthen the heel away before lifting at all.
How the energy figure on a yoga timetable is reached
- Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart, so no per-pose figure is published here — not by this site and not by anyone.
- The pose is matched to the nearest style of practice in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Half Locust Pose sits at code 02150, yoga, Hatha, 2.5 MET.
- That MET value is put through the standard ACSM relationship for a stated reference adult of 70 kg.
- The result is the cost of a practice of that kind for as long as you practise — not the cost of holding this one shape.
- Scale it to yourself: the relationship is linear in body mass, so multiply by your own weight in kilograms and divide by 70.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200
= 2.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 3.06 kcal per minute
The same practice, hour by hour
Read it the way you would read a timetable: pick the length of session you actually sit down for, and that is the figure.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Half Locust Pose?
Lie face down with the chin on the mat and the arms tucked under the body, palms down beneath the thighs. Press both arms into the floor and lengthen the right leg back. Inhale and lift the right leg as high as it goes without letting the right hip roll up. Keep the left hip and the left thigh pressed down as an anchor. Lower with control, breathe once, then repeat with the left leg. Hold for 10–15 seconds each side, 2–3 rounds.
What does Half Locust Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, spinal erectors, hamstrings, with the abdominals, lower back, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: isolates one glute and hamstring at a time in hip extension.
Who should not do Half Locust Pose?
Pregnancy from the second trimester — lying face down is unsuitable. Disc injury: keep the lift low and stop if anything pinches. Sacroiliac irritation, which single-leg lifting can aggravate — keep both hips down. Recent abdominal surgery. Shoulder or elbow pain from tucking the arms under the body — leave them alongside 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 Half Locust Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Half Locust Pose is a beginner-level pose on this site, which means it is learnable in a first class and has a version that works for most bodies. The cautions above still apply.
How many calories does Half Locust 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. Half Locust 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.
The rest of the backbends on the wall
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 and what it is written from. 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.
SOURCE·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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