Warrior IIवीरभद्रासन द्वितीय
Vīrabhadrāsana II — a beginner standing pose that works the quadriceps, glutes, hip abductors.
30–60SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Warrior II 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
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How to do Warrior II
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Step the feet wide apart, around a leg's length, with the arms out at shoulder height.
Turn the front foot out 90 degrees and angle the back foot in slightly.
Bend the front knee towards a right angle, tracking it over the middle toes.
Keep the torso stacked directly over the pelvis rather than leaning towards the front leg.
Turn the head to look over the front hand, hold, then change 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 II 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 quadriceps and the outer hip of the back leg at the same time.
- Opens the hips outward while the torso stays upright — a rotation the body rarely practises.
- Builds shoulder endurance holding the arms level for the length of the pose.
Warrior II 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 II, or change it
- Knee injury — reduce the depth so the joint is silent.
- Shoulder problems: lower the arms or bring the hands to the hips.
- Neck injury: keep the head facing forward rather than turning it.
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 II
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeTorso leaning towards the front leg.
FixReach both arms actively away from each other and lift the back ribs to recentre.
MistakeFront knee falling inside the foot.
FixPress the outer edge of the back foot down and open the front knee towards the little toe.
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 II 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 II?
Step the feet wide apart, around a leg's length, with the arms out at shoulder height. Turn the front foot out 90 degrees and angle the back foot in slightly. Bend the front knee towards a right angle, tracking it over the middle toes. Keep the torso stacked directly over the pelvis rather than leaning towards the front leg. Turn the head to look over the front hand, hold, then change sides. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does Warrior II work?
Primarily the quadriceps, glutes, hip abductors, with the shoulders, abdominals, calves assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the front quadriceps and the outer hip of the back leg at the same time.
Who should not do Warrior II?
Knee injury — reduce the depth so the joint is silent. Shoulder problems: lower the arms or bring the hands to the hips. Neck injury: keep the head facing forward rather than turning it. 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 II suitable for beginners?
Yes. Warrior II 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 II 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 II 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.
The pose photograph on this page is an AI-generated illustration of Amit Sharma. Amit Sharma is real, but did not hold this pose for a camera — the image is generated from photographs of him, and he is not a yoga instructor. It was checked against the alignment steps on this page before publishing, and it is not a record of anyone’s practice.
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
