Warrior Iवीरभद्रासन प्रथम
Vīrabhadrāsana I — a beginner standing pose that works the quadriceps, glutes, hip flexors.
30–60SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Warrior I is held 30–60 seconds, with the breath moving throughout — and it takes its place inside 3 of the practices posted on this site.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Warrior I
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
From standing, step one foot back about a leg's length and turn the back foot out roughly 45 degrees.
Keep the front foot pointing straight ahead and the heels roughly in line, or wider if the balance is unsteady.
Bend the front knee towards a right angle, keeping it stacked over the ankle.
Turn the pelvis towards the front of the mat as far as the back hip allows without straining.
Raise the arms overhead, soften the front ribs, and hold before changing sides.
Hold: 30–60 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 Warrior I 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.
- Loads the front thigh under a deep knee bend while the back leg stays long.
- Stretches the hip flexors and calf of the back leg.
- Takes the shoulders overhead while the legs are working, which is harder than it looks.
Warrior I is one of 18 standing poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Poses built on the feet, where the legs carry the work and the floor is the reference point.
Who should skip Warrior I, or change it
- Knee injury on the front leg — shorten the stance and reduce the bend.
- Shoulder injury: keep the hands at the chest instead of overhead.
- High blood pressure, where long holds with the arms up are uncomfortable.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which the square-hips instruction can aggravate — let the back hip open.
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 Warrior I
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeForcing the hips perfectly square, which twists the back knee.
FixLet the back hip open a little and turn the back foot out further instead.
MistakeFront knee collapsing inward.
FixPress the front big toe down and think of drawing the knee towards the little-toe side.
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. Warrior I 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 Warrior I?
From standing, step one foot back about a leg's length and turn the back foot out roughly 45 degrees. Keep the front foot pointing straight ahead and the heels roughly in line, or wider if the balance is unsteady. Bend the front knee towards a right angle, keeping it stacked over the ankle. Turn the pelvis towards the front of the mat as far as the back hip allows without straining. Raise the arms overhead, soften the front ribs, and hold before changing sides. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does Warrior I work?
Primarily the quadriceps, glutes, hip flexors, with the shoulders, spinal erectors, calves assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the front thigh under a deep knee bend while the back leg stays long.
Who should not do Warrior I?
Knee injury on the front leg — shorten the stance and reduce the bend. Shoulder injury: keep the hands at the chest instead of overhead. High blood pressure, where long holds with the arms up are uncomfortable. Sacroiliac irritation, which the square-hips instruction can aggravate — let the back hip open. 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 Warrior I suitable for beginners?
Yes. Warrior I 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 Warrior I 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. Warrior I 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 standing poses on the wall
More standing 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 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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