Locust Poseशलभासन
Śalabhāsana — a beginner backbend that works the spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings.
10–20SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Locust Pose is held 10–20 seconds, 3 rounds, with the breath moving throughout — and it takes its place inside one 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 Locust Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie face down with the arms alongside the body, palms down or facing up.
Rest the forehead on the mat and lengthen the legs back with the feet hip-width apart.
Inhale and lift the head, chest, arms and both legs away from the floor together.
Reach the fingertips towards the feet and the feet away behind you so the body stays long.
Hold for as long as the breath stays smooth, then lower everything at once and rest.
Hold: 10–20 seconds, 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 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.
- Strengthens the spinal erectors, glutes and hamstrings simultaneously in one continuous contraction.
- Extends the whole spine with no support from the arms.
- Trains the posterior chain to hold a lengthened position against gravity.
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 Locust Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy from the second trimester onward — prone poses press the weight into the belly.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis: lift only the upper body, or only one leg at a time.
- Recent abdominal surgery or hernia repair.
- Neck injury — keep the forehead down and lift the legs alone.
- Uncontrolled high blood pressure, where a strong held contraction with breath-holding is unwise.
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 Locust Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeHolding the breath through the whole lift.
FixLift on an inhale, then keep breathing shallowly and evenly; come down when the breath stops.
MistakeAll the effort landing in the lower back while the mid-back stays flat.
FixReach the crown of the head forward and the toes back, so the extension spreads along the whole spine.
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. 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 Locust Pose?
Lie face down with the arms alongside the body, palms down or facing up. Rest the forehead on the mat and lengthen the legs back with the feet hip-width apart. Inhale and lift the head, chest, arms and both legs away from the floor together. Reach the fingertips towards the feet and the feet away behind you so the body stays long. Hold for as long as the breath stays smooth, then lower everything at once and rest. Hold for 10–20 seconds, 3 rounds.
What does Locust Pose work?
Primarily the spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings, with the rhomboids, shoulders, upper back assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: strengthens the spinal erectors, glutes and hamstrings simultaneously in one continuous contraction.
Who should not do Locust Pose?
Pregnancy from the second trimester onward — prone poses press the weight into the belly. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis: lift only the upper body, or only one leg at a time. Recent abdominal surgery or hernia repair. Neck injury — keep the forehead down and lift the legs alone. Uncontrolled high blood pressure, where a strong held contraction with breath-holding is unwise. 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 Locust Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. 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 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. 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.
Sequences that use Locust Pose
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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