Opening scene
In the full version of Salabhasana, both arms and both legs lift at the same time.
So the demand for trunk extension jumps to its highest level all at once. This is the highest back demand you've seen in this course.
And it's usually taught with no steps at all.
But there's one more thing, and it's almost never talked about.
When both sides lift at the same time, you can't see the difference between them.
The strong side takes over the weak side's job, and an outside observer doesn't notice it either. The full version hides the asymmetry.
The one-sided preparation does two jobs at once. It splits the dose into four, and it opens up the place in this course where the difference between the two sides shows up most clearly.
And it earns you a third thing too: a capacity the full version never trains. We'll get to that shortly.
What this lesson covers
First you'll see why the full version is too much, and how the dose gets split; we'll build a six-step ladder. Then we'll open up the fact that one-sided work has a job of its own; it's called counter-rotation, and the full version never has it. After that we'll talk about how to read the difference between the two sides and what to do with that information. Then we'll set the height criterion. After that you'll see why your neck is at an advantage in this pose. At the end we'll clarify the dose and the limits. We'll work through sixteen examples. By the end of the lesson you'll be able to work this pose at your own step, with the two sides trained separately.
Starting point
Have the setup from Y1.54 and the height criterion from Y1.55 ready.
Let's break it down.
The spine is in extension; the same action as in Y1.55.
The hip is in extension; when the leg lifts, the hip moves backward.
The shoulder is in extension; when the arm lifts, the shoulder moves backward.
The load-bearing action: distributing spine extension while lifting the trunk and limbs off the floor.
Not lifting high. Not holding for a long time.
Mechanism
Dose splitting
There are six steps, and the order has a reason behind it.
The first step is one leg. The forehead stays supported, and one leg lifts a few centimeters off the floor. The lightest.
The second step is one arm. The forehead stays supported, and one arm lifts off the floor. It can be a little lighter than the leg, but it adds a shoulder demand.
The third step is the opposite arm and leg. The right arm and the left leg together. Something new comes into play here.
The fourth step is both legs. A symmetric increase; no counter-rotation, but the demand has gone up.
The fifth step is the same-side arm and leg. The right arm and the right leg. Counter-rotation at its highest.
The sixth step is the full version. Both arms, both legs, and the head lifts too.
Progression criterion: if you can do five reps at your current step without breaking the height criterion, try the next step up.
Counter-rotation
Now for the core knowledge of this lesson.
What happens when you lift one leg?
The load becomes asymmetric. And an asymmetric load places a rotational tendency on the trunk; the pelvis wants to rotate and rise toward the side of the lifted leg.
Resisting that rotation is the pose's real job.
And now the critical sentence: the full version doesn't have this job.
In the full version, the load is symmetric. The two sides balance each other out, and no rotational tendency appears.
So the one-sided version isn't an easier form of the full version. It trains a capacity the full version never trains.
How do you check for it? There are two ways.
The first way is the floor. Is the hip on the non-lifting side pressing evenly into the floor, or is the pressure increasing? If the pressure increases noticeably, the trunk has rotated and you've been resisting that rotation with the floor.
The second way is an object. Put a folded towel or a light book across your low back. Does it slide when you lift your leg? If it slides, the trunk is rotating.
The second way is more objective and easy to do at home.
Reading the difference between the two sides
This is the second gain of one-sided work.
When you lift one leg, one side works; when you lift the other, the other side works. And the difference shows up right away: five reps feel easy on one side, while on the other the height breaks down by the third rep.
This information never surfaces in the full version.
So what do you do with this information?
Recall from Y1.05: a painless asymmetry isn't a problem on its own, and symmetry isn't a goal.
There are two things to do.
First, record it. A separate line for each side.
Second, give the weak side one extra set. Not to reach symmetry; so that side gets its work in too. The log is already tracking the two sides separately.
And what you don't do: bring the strong side down to the weak side, or make closing the gap a goal.
Height criterion
The criterion from Y1.55 applies here too, and it matters even more.
The front of the pelvis stays on the floor.
And let me add one thing: the height in this pose is very small. A few centimeters of lift off the floor is a complete piece of work for the leg.
Most people lift too high, and the movement shifts into the low back; the concentration point from Y1.55.
The criterion is where the sensation is: a broad working feeling across the middle of the back and the back of the hip. If there's a sharp pinch at a single point in the low back, the height is too much.
The neck is at an advantage in this pose
There's one piece of good news.
In the lower steps, the forehead stays supported. So the neck meets no demand at all.
This is where the forehead support from Y1.54 pays off. Because the neck is taken out of play, all of your attention stays on the trunk.
The head lifts only at the sixth step, in the full version. And even then the criterion is the same: the neck continues the line of the back; it isn't thrown backward.
So in this pose family, you don't take on any neck demand for five steps running. This is an advantage, and it should be used.
Dose and limits
Dose: five to eight reps, holding up for two breaths on each rep, then coming all the way down. The two sides separately. Two to three sessions a week.
Why reps? The same reason as in Y1.55, plus one more. Extension distribution breaks down over the course of a hold, and counter-rotation resistance breaks down even faster. By the end of a long hold, both the distribution and the rotation control are gone.
And the limits. The third category from Y1.55 applies here too: sensation radiating into the leg, numbness, or tingling isn't a dose question, and in that case the practice stops.
Reading the examples
Master layer
Now let's refine this a little.
First: I gave the reasoning for the ladder's order, but the order doesn't come out identical for everyone. For some people, one arm is harder than one leg; that happens if the shoulder's extension range is limited. Use the order as a suggestion and change it based on your own measurements. The ladder's job isn't to dictate the order; it's to remind you that there are steps.
Second: counter-rotation resistance has an everyday equivalent, and that takes the pose beyond being an exercise. When you carry a bag in one hand, reach to one side, or bend over on one leg, the trunk does the same job. In Y1.52 we framed Warrior III as a single-leg hinge; here too, one-sided Locust Pose is the prone version of carrying an asymmetric load.
Third: seeing the difference between the two sides produces discomfort in some people, and that's an expected reaction. When a difference turns up, it's easy to read it as a flaw. But asymmetry is nearly universal, and it's usually painless. The course's stance is three steps: record it, give the weak side one extra set, don't make the gap a goal. This stance was built in Y1.05, and here it gets its most concrete test.
Fourth, and the subtlest: this lesson shows that an adaptation can be a separate piece of work, and this is the furthest point in the course's understanding of adaptation. In the earlier sections, adaptations were tools for lowering the dose. In Y1.44 we asked which actions an adaptation preserves. Here there's one more step: an adaptation can add a demand that wasn't present in the original at all. So the steps aren't only a ladder; some of them are destinations in their own right.
Common mistakes and misconceptions
Common mistakeFirst mistake: the one-sided version is a simplified form of the full version.
One-sided loading applies a rotational torque to the trunk, and resisting it creates a demand different from symmetric extension. Because the load is symmetric in the full version, this demand never appears there; the two versions do two separate jobs.
Common mistakeSecond mistake: the full version works both sides equally.
Under symmetric loading, the strong side can take over the weak side's job, and the difference isn't visible from outside. The difference between the two sides only surfaces in one-sided work, and it's recorded separately.
Common mistakeThird mistake: in this pose, the higher the limb rises, the better.
As height increases, the movement piles into the low back, and the objective limit is the front of the pelvis staying on the floor. A few centimeters of lift off the floor is a complete piece of work for the leg.
Common mistakeFourth mistake: the difference between the two sides must be closed.
A painless asymmetry isn't a problem on its own, and symmetry isn't a goal. What you do is record the difference and give the weak side one extra set; not pull the strong side back, and not make the gap a goal.
Practice
Keep in mind
The full version takes trunk extension demand to its highest all at once, and because it's symmetric, it hides the difference between the two sides.
The dose is split by the number of limbs lifted; there's a six-step ladder, and the order can vary from person to person.
One-sided loading produces a rotational tendency in the trunk; resisting it is a separate capacity never demanded in the full version.
The easiest way to measure the rotation is a folded towel placed across the low back; if it slides, the trunk is rotating.
In the lower steps, the forehead stays supported and the neck meets no demand at all; this is an advantage, and it's used for five steps.
Bridge to the next lesson
In these last two lessons, you stayed prone and worked the back of your trunk.
Now we turn onto your back.
Setu Bandha, or Bridge Pose, is the most commonly done of the supine poses. And it has two completely different forms; both carry the same name, and they get confused with each other.
In one form, you lift your hips with your own muscles; a strength exercise.
In the other, you put a block under your hips and rest onto it; a resting pose.
The difference between them isn't a matter of intensity. Different purposes, different doses, different criteria. The next lesson builds that distinction.