पार्श्व धनुष्य आसनपार्श्व धनुरासन
Pārśva Dhanurāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the quadriceps, spinal erectors, obliques.
2–3BREATHS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. Side Bow Pose is held 2–3 breaths 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 Side Bow Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Come into full Bow Pose with both ankles held and the chest lifted.
Take one full breath there to make sure the shape is stable.
Exhale and roll onto the right side, keeping the grip on both ankles and the legs pressing back.
Stay for two or three breaths, then roll back through centre on an inhale.
Repeat on the left side, then release and rest.
Hold: 2–3 breaths 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 Side Bow 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.
- Maintains the full Bow contraction while the load shifts onto one side of the ribcage.
- Adds a strong lateral demand on the obliques and side waist.
- Keeps the quadriceps under stretch throughout the roll.
Side Bow Pose is one of 43 backbends in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses that extend the spine and open the front of the body — chest, hip flexors and abdomen.
Who should skip Side Bow Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy — unsuitable at any stage.
- Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or any spinal fusion.
- Shoulder injury, since one shoulder takes the bodyweight on the floor.
- Rib injury or recent chest surgery.
- Knee injury on either leg — the grip and depth are the same as full Bow.
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 Side Bow Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeLosing the leg press on the way over so the shape collapses into a heap.
FixKeep the shins driving back into the hands the whole time; the roll should not change the pose.
MistakeRolling with a jerk and dumping onto the shoulder.
FixMove on a slow exhale and let the abdominal side wall control the descent.
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. Side Bow Pose sits at code 02150, योग, हठ, 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 मिनिटे | 20 मिनिटे | 30 मिनिटे | 45 मिनिटे | 60 मिनिटे |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
स्रोत·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 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 Side Bow Pose?
Come into full Bow Pose with both ankles held and the chest lifted. Take one full breath there to make sure the shape is stable. Exhale and roll onto the right side, keeping the grip on both ankles and the legs pressing back. Stay for two or three breaths, then roll back through centre on an inhale. Repeat on the left side, then release and rest. Hold for 2–3 breaths each side.
What does Side Bow Pose work?
Primarily the quadriceps, spinal erectors, obliques, with the chest, shoulders, glutes assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: maintains the full Bow contraction while the load shifts onto one side of the ribcage.
Who should not do Side Bow Pose?
Pregnancy — unsuitable at any stage. Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or any spinal fusion. Shoulder injury, since one shoulder takes the bodyweight on the floor. Rib injury or recent chest surgery. Knee injury on either leg — the grip and depth are the same as full Bow. 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 Side Bow Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Side Bow Pose is rated intermediate here: it assumes a working base of strength and range, and a teacher who has watched you move. Build up through the backbends poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Side Bow 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. Side Bow 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.
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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