Side Lungeस्कन्दासन
Skandāsana — an intermediate standing pose that works the hip adductors, quadriceps, glutes.
30–60SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Side Lunge is held 30–60 seconds, with the breath moving throughout — and it takes its place inside one of the practices posted on this site.
ਸਰੋਤ·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
How to do Side Lunge
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Stand with the feet very wide and the toes pointing forward.
Bend the right knee deeply and shift the hips towards the right foot.
Keep the left leg straight with the toes turned up and the heel down.
Bring the hands to the floor, to blocks, or to the chest for balance.
Hold, then shift slowly across to the other side.
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 Side Lunge 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 the inner thigh of the straight leg through a long adductor range.
- Loads the bent leg's quadriceps and glute in a deep lateral squat.
- Trains hip mobility in the frontal plane, which forward-facing exercise never touches.
Side Lunge is one of 18 standing poses in this library and one of 60 poses rated intermediate. Poses built on the feet, where the legs carry the work and the floor is the reference point.
Who should skip Side Lunge, or change it
- Groin or adductor strain.
- Knee injury on the bent side.
- Ankle restriction that forces the heel up.
- Hip replacement, where deep flexion and abduction may be restricted.
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 Lunge
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeBent-side heel lifting and the knee collapsing in.
FixSit on a block or reduce the depth until the heel stays down.
MistakeRounding the back to reach the floor.
FixUse blocks under the hands and keep the chest lifted.
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 Lunge 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 Side Lunge?
Stand with the feet very wide and the toes pointing forward. Bend the right knee deeply and shift the hips towards the right foot. Keep the left leg straight with the toes turned up and the heel down. Bring the hands to the floor, to blocks, or to the chest for balance. Hold, then shift slowly across to the other side. Hold for 30–60 seconds.
What does Side Lunge work?
Primarily the hip adductors, quadriceps, glutes, with the hamstrings, calves, spinal erectors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: stretches the inner thigh of the straight leg through a long adductor range.
Who should not do Side Lunge?
Groin or adductor strain. Knee injury on the bent side. Ankle restriction that forces the heel up. Hip replacement, where deep flexion and abduction may be restricted. 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 Lunge suitable for beginners?
Not as a first pose. Side Lunge 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 standing poses marked beginner first.
How many calories does Side Lunge 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 Lunge 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.
Sequences that use Side Lunge
The rest of the standing poses on the wall
More standing poses — 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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