Balasana (Child's Pose): How to Do It Step by Step

Balasana (Child's Pose) is a kneeling resting pose in which you sit back on your heels, fold your upper body over your thighs and rest your forehead on the floor. It gently stretches the back, hips, thighs and ankles, and it is the place most teachers send you when you need a break in the middle of a class. You can come into it at any point, stay as long as you like, and breathe.

Pose type: kneeling forward fold, resting pose. Level: beginner. Props: optional blanket, cushion or bolster.

What Balasana means

The name is two Sanskrit words: bala, child, and asana, seat or posture. Curled up with the head down and the arms soft, you look like a small child asleep on the floor.

How to do Child's Pose, step by step

1. Kneel on your mat with the tops of your feet flat on the floor. Bring your big toes to touch.
2. Choose your knees: together if you want more stretch along the back, wide apart (about the width of the mat) if you want room for your belly and chest.
3. Sit your hips back toward your heels. If they do not reach, put a folded blanket or cushion between your heels and your sitting bones.
4. Breathe in and lengthen your spine. As you breathe out, fold forward from the hips and lay your chest on or between your thighs.
5. Rest your forehead on the mat. If it does not reach the floor, put a block or a folded blanket under it. The head should be supported, not hanging.
6. Place your arms. Alongside the body, palms up, lets the shoulders drop toward the floor. Reaching forward, palms down, stretches the arms and the sides of the back.
7. Let your shoulders and jaw soften. Breathe slowly into the back of your ribs and feel them widen on every inhale.
8. Stay from a few breaths up to a few minutes. To come out, place your hands under your shoulders and walk them back toward your knees, then roll up slowly to kneeling with the head coming up last.

A cue that helps: on each exhale, let your hips sink a little further toward your heels. The pose deepens by itself when you stop pushing.

Benefits of Child's Pose

Child's Pose is a rest. That is its main job, and it does it well.

• Back: the fold gives the muscles along the spine a gentle, passive stretch, and with the arms forward the stretch reaches the latissimus dorsi along the sides of the back.
• Hips and thighs: sitting back flexes the hips deeply. With the knees wide, the inner thighs open as well.
• Front of the ankles and feet: the tops of the feet lie flat and stretch.
• Breath: with the belly pressed against the thighs, the breath moves into the back and sides of the ribcage. Many people notice their back body breathing for the first time here.

Slow breathing with the head supported can help you calm down, because a long exhale shifts the nervous system toward rest. That is the honest basis for the "relaxing" reputation. You will sometimes read that Balasana improves digestion. There is no good evidence for that.

Who should skip or modify Child's Pose

For a resting pose, Balasana asks quite a lot of the knees and ankles. Modify it when:

• Your knees hurt. Deep knee bending loads the kneecap and the meniscus. Put a rolled blanket in the back of the knees, a cushion under the hips, or rest your torso on a bolster so you do not sink all the way down. If kneeling hurts anyway, lie on your back and hug your knees to your chest instead.
• Your ankles or the tops of your feet complain. Place a rolled towel under the front of the ankles.
• You are pregnant. Take the knees wide so the belly has space, and rest the chest on a bolster.
• You feel dizzy or pressure in the head, for example with uncontrolled high blood pressure or eye pressure. Keep the head higher than the hips on a bolster or on stacked fists, and come up slowly.
• You have a recent knee or back injury, or back pain that runs down the leg. Ask your physiotherapist first. Some people with disc problems feel worse in deep forward bends.

More on this in our 10 tips to avoid yoga injuries.

Common mistakes

• Forcing the hips to the heels. If they hover, support them. A pose you have to hold yourself up in is no longer a rest.
• Head hanging in the air. The neck then works the whole time. Put something under the forehead.
• Shoulders up by the ears. Common with the arms reaching forward. Bend the elbows a little or bring the arms back beside the body.
• Squeezing the knees together with a big belly or chest. The breath gets cramped. Open the knees.
• Coming up fast. After a few minutes head down, standing up quickly can make you lightheaded. Roll up to kneeling and wait a breath.

Preparatory poses

Child's Pose needs no warm-up for most people. If kneeling is hard, these help:

• Vajrasana (Thunderbolt Pose): kneeling upright on the heels, the same leg position without the fold. Sit here for a minute to get the knees and ankles used to it.
• Malasana (Garland Pose): a deep squat that works on the same hip and knee flexion from standing.
• Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend): a forward fold for the back of the body, with the knees straight.

Follow-up poses

In a class, Child's Pose is usually a pause between harder poses. It sits well after:

• Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose) and Ustrasana (Camel Pose): a gentle forward fold after a backbend.
• Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog): from Down Dog, lower the knees and sit back. It is the classic place to rest in a flow.
• Sasangasana (Rabbit Pose): from Child's Pose, hold your heels and roll onto the crown of the head for a deeper stretch of the spine.

At the end of a practice, Child's Pose is a good step on the way down to Savasana (Corpse Pose).

Balasana variations

Extended Child's Pose

Knees wide, arms reaching forward, palms down. Walk the fingertips as far forward as they go and let the armpits sink toward the floor. This is the version most flow classes use.

Child's Pose with shoulder stretch

1. From Child's Pose, lift your hips about 10 cm off your heels.
2. Reach your arms forward, shoulder-width apart, palms flat on the floor.
3. Press into the hands and draw the shoulder blades down your back.
4. Keep the hands where they are and sink your hips back toward your heels. You will feel it in the armpits and along the sides of the back.

Child's Pose with a twist (thread the needle)

Start on hands and knees. Slide your right arm under your body toward the left, palm up, and lower your right shoulder and the side of your head to the floor. Sit your hips back toward your heels. Stay for a few breaths, press into the left hand to come back up, and change sides.

Child's Pose with side stretch

From Extended Child's Pose, walk both hands over to the right while the hips stay back toward the heels. The left side of your waist and back lengthens. Stay a few breaths, walk back to the centre, then go to the left.

Supported Child's Pose

Knees wide, a bolster lengthwise between them, and the whole torso resting on it with the head turned to one side. Turn the head halfway through. This is the version used in restorative yoga and Yin yoga, where you might stay three to five minutes.

Where Child's Pose comes from

Child's Pose is often called ancient. The evidence points the other way. It does not appear among the postures in the medieval hatha texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and the name Balasana shows up in 20th-century teaching. The shape itself is older than any yoga book: it is how people kneel to rest and how many people bow in prayer. What is new is its role as the standard rest in a modern class.

To practise longer supported holds, the 30-minute Yin class 4 Essential Poses for Sleep works with supported poses for bedtime, with a bolster, block and blanket.

Frequently asked questions

What is Child's Pose good for?

Child's Pose is a place to rest and breathe. It gently stretches the back, hips, thighs and the fronts of the ankles, and with the arms forward it lengthens the sides of the back. Breathing slowly with the forehead supported can help you settle.

Who should not do Child's Pose?

Take care, or choose another resting pose, if you have knee pain or a recent knee injury, stiff or painful ankles, or feel dizzy with the head down. In pregnancy, take the knees wide. With a disc problem, check with a physiotherapist first, since deep forward bends can make some backs worse.

What are the common mistakes in Child's Pose?

Forcing the hips down to the heels, leaving the head unsupported, lifting the shoulders toward the ears and squeezing the knees together so the breath gets cramped. A cushion under the hips and a block under the forehead fix most of them.

Is Child's Pose good for sciatica?

It depends on the cause. Some people with sciatica find a supported Child's Pose eases the back, while others with a disc problem feel worse in any deep forward bend. If the pain runs further down the leg or gets sharper, come out and ask a physiotherapist.

How long should you stay in Child's Pose?

In a flow class, three to five breaths is common. As a pause, stay as long as you need. In restorative or Yin practice, with a bolster under the torso, three to five minutes is normal.

Is Child's Pose good for lower back pain?

Many people with a stiff lower back find the gentle stretch and the support comfortable, especially with the knees wide and a bolster under the chest. It is a comfortable position, not a treatment. If it increases the pain, stop.

What is the difference between Child's Pose and Extended Child's Pose?

In classic Child's Pose the knees are together and the arms rest beside the body. In Extended Child's Pose the knees are wide and the arms reach forward, which adds a stretch for the shoulders and the sides of the back.