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Yoga poses

Child's Pose: Ease Your Lower Back and Hips

Kneel, sit your hips back toward your heels and rest your forehead on the floor, arms long or by your sides. Your lower back and hips lengthen as you breathe.

Long hold · Lower back · Hips · 2 min read

Why it works: Chapter 23, Stiff people work harder for every stroke

How to do it

  1. 1

    Sit your hips back

    From hands and knees, big toes together, hips settling toward your heels, forehead lowering to the mat.

  2. 2

    Pick your knees

    Together for more lower-back release, wide with your belly between your thighs for more hip. Arms long in front, or back by your hips with palms up.

  3. 3

    Prop what complains

    If your hips stay high or your knees ache, put a cushion between your heels and your seat. If the tops of your feet hurt, slide a rolled towel under your ankles. If your forehead does not reach the floor, rest it on a block or your stacked fists.

  4. 4

    Breathe into your back

    Let your belly soften and breathe into the back of your ribs. Let each exhale sink your hips a little closer to your heels.

  5. 5

    Shoulders soft

    With your arms long in front, let your shoulders drop away from your ears rather than gripping.

  6. 6

    The test

    A gentle lengthening across your lower back and hips, and your breath slowing down. Nothing should be sharp in your knees.

Watch for

  • Forcing your hips down onto your heels. The rest turns into a strain and your breath stops slowing.
  • Shoulders hunched up by your ears. Your neck and upper back tighten in a pose meant to let them go.
  • Knees wider than your hips can take. Your groin and inner knees strain and your lower back gets less of the stretch.
  • Holding your breath. Your back stays tight and your hips never settle.

Questions

Why does Child's Pose hurt my knees?

Usually your knees do not yet bend that far, so forcing your hips onto your heels squeezes the joint. Put a cushion between your heels and your seat, or a rolled towel behind your knees, and let your hips hover.

Should your knees be together or apart in Child's Pose?

Together rounds your back more and puts the stretch along your lower back. Wide, with your belly between your thighs, gives your hips more stretch and leaves more room to breathe. Choose by what you want and how your knees feel.

How long should you hold Child's Pose?

90 seconds in Post-Run Yoga · 01 and a minute in the cooldown that ends Range · 01 and Balance · 01; in Post-Ride Yoga · 01 you do not hold it, you pass through it again and again, circling with Puppy and Sphinx. Stay while your breath is slow and easy. There is no daily target: it comes when your training day has one of those routines.

What does Child's Pose stretch?

The muscles along your lower back, your glutes, and the tops of your feet and fronts of your ankles. With your knees wide, your hips and inner thighs as well.