Inverted Locust Poseविपरीत शलभासन
Viparīta Śalabhāsana — an advanced backbend that works the spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings.
5–10SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Inverted Locust Pose is held 5–10 seconds, 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 Inverted Locust Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie face down with the chin forward on the mat and the arms tucked beneath the body.
Press the forearms and hands firmly into the floor and take a few preparatory breaths.
Lift both legs together and keep raising them until the hips travel past vertical over the chest.
Take the weight across the chest, shoulders and upper arms — never on the neck.
Hold only briefly, then lower the legs slowly and rest with one cheek down.
Hold: 5–10 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 Inverted Locust 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.
- Demands maximum contraction from the spinal erectors, glutes and hamstrings at once.
- Loads the shoulders and upper arms under most of the bodyweight.
- Takes the spine into its deepest available prone extension.
Inverted Locust 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 Inverted Locust Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy — unsuitable at any stage.
- Any neck injury or cervical disc problem: the weight sits perilously close to the neck, so skip entirely.
- Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion.
- High blood pressure or glaucoma, given the inverted head position.
- Recent abdominal or shoulder surgery.
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 Inverted Locust Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeKicking the legs over with momentum and landing weight on the neck.
FixBuild the lift slowly from the arms and chest, and abandon the pose the moment the neck takes load.
MistakeChasing the vertical before the back can hold a plain Locust for thirty seconds.
FixSpend months on Shalabhasana and Dhanurasana first — this shape is an outcome, not a drill.
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. Inverted Locust Pose sits at code 02175, yoga, Power, 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 ਮਿੰਟ | 20 ਮਿੰਟ | 30 ਮਿੰਟ | 45 ਮਿੰਟ | 60 ਮਿੰਟ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
ਸਰੋਤ·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02175 · 4 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 Inverted Locust Pose?
Lie face down with the chin forward on the mat and the arms tucked beneath the body. Press the forearms and hands firmly into the floor and take a few preparatory breaths. Lift both legs together and keep raising them until the hips travel past vertical over the chest. Take the weight across the chest, shoulders and upper arms — never on the neck. Hold only briefly, then lower the legs slowly and rest with one cheek down. Hold for 5–10 seconds.
What does Inverted Locust Pose work?
Primarily the spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings, with the shoulders, triceps, neck assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: demands maximum contraction from the spinal erectors, glutes and hamstrings at once.
Who should not do Inverted Locust Pose?
Pregnancy — unsuitable at any stage. Any neck injury or cervical disc problem: the weight sits perilously close to the neck, so skip entirely. Disc injury, spondylolisthesis or spinal fusion. High blood pressure or glaucoma, given the inverted head position. Recent abdominal or shoulder surgery. 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 Inverted Locust Pose suitable for beginners?
No. Inverted Locust 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 Inverted Locust 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. Inverted Locust 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 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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