Child's Pose (Balasana)

Pronunciation and meaning

Balasana: bah-LAHS-uh-nuh. Lean on LAHS and keep the other syllables soft.

Bala means child and asana means posture. You fold forward over your knees with your forehead down, much like the curled shape a small child often sleeps in.

How to do Child's Pose

1. Kneel on your mat with your big toes touching and your knees together or as wide as the mat.
2. Sit your hips back toward your heels, only as far as they go easily.
3. Walk your hands forward and fold over your thighs until your forehead rests on the mat.
4. Choose your arms: reach them long in front with the palms down, or lay them beside your body with the palms up.
5. Let your breath move into the back of your ribs, so you can feel your back widen on each inhale.
6. Stay for five to ten breaths, or for as long as you like between harder poses, then walk your hands back and rise slowly.

Make it easier

• Take the knees wide if your belly, chest or hips feel squashed with them together.
• Put a folded blanket between your hips and heels if the hips do not reach.
• Rest your forehead on a block or on your stacked fists if it does not reach the floor.
• Place a rolled towel under the fronts of your ankles if the tops of the feet complain.

Pregnancy and after birth

Pregnancy. Adapt. Take the knees wide so the belly has room between the thighs, and rest your head on a block or your hands. If folding forward feels uncomfortable or you get breathless, come up. Check with your OB or midwife before starting yoga in pregnancy.

After birth. Adapt. Once your OB or midwife is happy for you to move, rest in the wide-knee version with a blanket under the hips. After a caesarean, wait until the scar is comfortable with pressure from the thighs before folding fully.

Wondering about yoga safety in pregnancy? Joahnna Lee covers it trimester by trimester.

Common mistakes

• Forcing the hips down onto the heels when the knees or ankles do not want it.
• Resting all the weight on the forehead and scrunching the back of the neck.
• Shrugging the shoulders up toward the ears with the arms forward.
• Holding the breath because the belly is squashed. Widen the knees instead.

Child’s Pose is the pause button of most yoga classes. This is the classic version on the mat, with the body folded and the arms working lightly. It is simple, and it still has a few details worth getting right. The forehead rests at the point between the eyebrows, the spot yoga texts call ajna, the third eye.

If you are new to yoga, it is also the pose to come back to whenever you need a rest, for as long as you like. With a cushion under the chest, it closes the ten-minute stretch for a stiff lower back. If you would like a firmer support than a cushion, the guide to yoga bolsters and blankets covers what to use, including household alternatives.

Lift the hips back over the knees and keep the arms long, and you are in Puppy Pose, Child’s Pose with the hips raised.

Before you sit back into Child’s Pose, you often pass through Table Top Pose, on hands and knees.