Gheranda's Poseघेरण्डासन
Gheraṇḍāsana — an advanced backbend that works the quadriceps, hip flexors, chest.
15–20SECONDS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Gheranda's Pose is held 15–20 seconds each side, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
स्रोत·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
How to do Gheranda's Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie on your right side, propped on the right forearm with the shoulder stacked over the elbow.
Bend the left knee and take the top of the left foot with the left hand, flipping the grip so the fingers point forward.
Press the left foot back and down towards the floor behind the left hip.
Fold the right leg into a half-lotus position in front if the hip and knee allow, holding that foot with the right hand.
Hold with the chest open, release both feet slowly, and change sides.
Hold: 15–20 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 Gheranda's 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.
- Stretches one quadriceps in the flipped-grip position while the other hip is externally rotated to end-range.
- Extends the spine on a side-lying base, which the trunk muscles must stabilise.
- Opens both shoulders into external rotation at the same time.
Gheranda's Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Gheranda's Pose, or change it
- Knee injury of any kind — one knee is fully flexed under pressure and the other is in a loaded half-lotus.
- Hip replacement or restricted external rotation, which makes the lotus leg unsafe.
- Shoulder impingement, given the flipped grip on both sides.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Ankle injury on either foot.
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 Gheranda's Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeForcing the half-lotus from the knee instead of the hip.
FixIf the hip does not rotate freely, leave that leg straight or bent in front — never twist the knee to get there.
MistakeThe arch collapsing into the waist as the side-lying base wobbles.
FixPress the supporting forearm down, lift the bottom ribs and let the mid-back carry the curve.
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. Gheranda's Pose sits at code 02175, योग, पॉवर, 4 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
= 4 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 4.90 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 मिनिटे | 20 मिनिटे | 30 मिनिटे | 45 मिनिटे | 60 मिनिटे |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
स्रोत·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02175 · 4 MET · 70 kg reference adult·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Gheranda's Pose?
Lie on your right side, propped on the right forearm with the shoulder stacked over the elbow. Bend the left knee and take the top of the left foot with the left hand, flipping the grip so the fingers point forward. Press the left foot back and down towards the floor behind the left hip. Fold the right leg into a half-lotus position in front if the hip and knee allow, holding that foot with the right hand. Hold with the chest open, release both feet slowly, and change sides. Hold for 15–20 seconds each side.
What does Gheranda's Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, hip flexors, chest, with the glutes, spinal erectors, shoulders assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: stretches one quadriceps in the flipped-grip position while the other hip is externally rotated to end-range.
Who should not do Gheranda's Pose?
Knee injury of any kind — one knee is fully flexed under pressure and the other is in a loaded half-lotus. Hip replacement or restricted external rotation, which makes the lotus leg unsafe. Shoulder impingement, given the flipped grip on both sides. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis. Pregnancy at any stage. Ankle injury on either foot. 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 Gheranda's Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Gheranda's Pose is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate backbends poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Gheranda's 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. Gheranda's Pose 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.
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 आणि 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.
स्रोत·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
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