Bulb Poseकन्दासन
Kandāsana — an advanced backbend that works the hip adductors, hip flexors, spinal erectors.
10–20सेकंद धरून ठेवले
One line on the timetable. Bulb Pose is held 10–20 seconds, 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 Bulb Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Sit tall with the soles of the feet together and the knees wide, as in a bound angle position.
Take hold of both feet and draw the heels in close to the pelvis.
Lift the feet off the floor and rotate them so the soles turn upward.
Continue drawing the feet up the body towards the navel and chest, keeping the knees low.
Sit upright with the chest lifted and the spine long, hold briefly, then lower the feet with both hands.
Hold: 10–20 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 Bulb 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.
- Takes the hips into their deepest available external rotation and abduction.
- Requires the spine to hold upright extension while the legs are folded high.
- Stretches the inner thighs and the front of the ankles simultaneously.
Bulb 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 Bulb Pose, or change it
- Knee injury or meniscus damage — the rotational load on the knee is extreme, so leave this out.
- Hip replacement or restricted hip rotation.
- Ankle injury, since the feet are twisted and pulled.
- Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, given the upright spinal demand under a fixed pelvis.
- Pregnancy at any stage.
- Groin or adductor strain.
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 Bulb Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakePulling the feet up while the rotation happens at the knees rather than the hips.
FixStop the moment the knees complain and spend the practice on Baddha Konasana and hip rotation drills instead.
MistakeThe chest collapsing and the low back rounding to get the feet higher.
FixSit up on a block and hold the spine tall; the height of the feet is worth nothing without it.
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. Bulb 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 Bulb Pose?
Sit tall with the soles of the feet together and the knees wide, as in a bound angle position. Take hold of both feet and draw the heels in close to the pelvis. Lift the feet off the floor and rotate them so the soles turn upward. Continue drawing the feet up the body towards the navel and chest, keeping the knees low. Sit upright with the chest lifted and the spine long, hold briefly, then lower the feet with both hands. Hold for 10–20 seconds.
What does Bulb Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, hip flexors, spinal erectors, with the quadriceps, chest, abdominals assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: takes the hips into their deepest available external rotation and abduction.
Who should not do Bulb Pose?
Knee injury or meniscus damage — the rotational load on the knee is extreme, so leave this out. Hip replacement or restricted hip rotation. Ankle injury, since the feet are twisted and pulled. Disc injury or spondylolisthesis, given the upright spinal demand under a fixed pelvis. Pregnancy at any stage. Groin or adductor strain. 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 Bulb Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Bulb 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 Bulb 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. Bulb 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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