One-Legged Bridge Poseएक पाद सेतु बन्धासन
Eka Pāda Setu Bandhāsana — an intermediate backbend that works the glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors.
15–20SECONDS HELD · EACH SIDE
One line on the timetable. One-Legged Bridge 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.
ਸਰੋਤ·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
How to do One-Legged Bridge Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Come into Bridge Pose with the hips lifted and the arms alongside the body.
Press the left foot down and shift a little weight into it without letting the hips drop.
Draw the right knee towards the chest, then extend the right leg towards the ceiling.
Keep both hip bones level and the left knee tracking over the left foot.
Lower the right foot with control, take a breath, then repeat on the other side.
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 One-Legged Bridge 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.
- Loads one glute and hamstring at a time in hip extension while the pelvis must stay level.
- Recruits the deep trunk muscles hard to stop the hips rotating.
- Keeps the thoracic spine extended and the chest open throughout the single-leg work.
One-Legged Bridge 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 One-Legged Bridge Pose, or change it
- Neck injury — never turn the head while the hips are lifted; use a folded blanket under the shoulders.
- Hamstring strain on the standing leg, which now carries everything.
- Sacroiliac irritation, which single-leg bridging can provoke — return to the two-legged version.
- Disc injury: keep the lift lower and the glutes firm.
- Later pregnancy, where extended time flat on the back is not recommended.
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 One-Legged Bridge Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeThe supporting hip sinking as soon as the leg lifts.
FixLevel the pelvis first, and if it drops, keep the raised knee bent instead of extending the leg.
MistakeThe whole lift hinging at the waist rather than driving from the glute.
FixSqueeze the supporting glute before lifting and lengthen the tailbone towards the knee.
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. One-Legged Bridge Pose sits at code 02150, ਯੋਗਾ, ਹਠ, 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 ਮਿੰਟ | 20 ਮਿੰਟ | 30 ਮਿੰਟ | 45 ਮਿੰਟ | 60 ਮਿੰਟ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 31 | 61 | 92 | 138 | 184 |
ਸਰੋਤ·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02150 · 2.5 MET · 70 kg reference adult·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do One-Legged Bridge Pose?
Come into Bridge Pose with the hips lifted and the arms alongside the body. Press the left foot down and shift a little weight into it without letting the hips drop. Draw the right knee towards the chest, then extend the right leg towards the ceiling. Keep both hip bones level and the left knee tracking over the left foot. Lower the right foot with control, take a breath, then repeat on the other side. Hold for 15–20 seconds each side.
What does One-Legged Bridge Pose work?
Primarily the glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors, with the abdominals, hip abductors, quadriceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads one glute and hamstring at a time in hip extension while the pelvis must stay level.
Who should not do One-Legged Bridge Pose?
Neck injury — never turn the head while the hips are lifted; use a folded blanket under the shoulders. Hamstring strain on the standing leg, which now carries everything. Sacroiliac irritation, which single-leg bridging can provoke — return to the two-legged version. Disc injury: keep the lift lower and the glutes firm. Later pregnancy, where extended time flat on the back is not recommended. 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 One-Legged Bridge Pose suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. One-Legged Bridge 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 One-Legged Bridge 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. One-Legged Bridge 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 ਅਤੇ 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.
ਸਰੋਤ·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
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