Happy Baby Pose
आनन्द बालासन
Ānanda Bālāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the hip adductors, glutes.
How to do Happy Baby Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Lie on your back with a thin folded blanket under the head.
Draw both knees towards the armpits and take hold of the outer edges of the feet, or use a strap around each arch.
Stack each ankle over its knee so the shins are vertical and the soles face the ceiling.
Draw the knees down towards the floor beside the ribs and let the tailbone stay heavy on the mat.
Rock gently side to side if you like, then settle and hold.
Hold: 1–3 minutes. 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 Happy Baby 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.
- Takes both hips into deep flexion with the spine fully supported by the floor.
- Lengthens the inner thighs and the back of the pelvis without any standing balance to manage.
- Lets the lower back rest flat while the hips move, which upright hip work never allows.
Happy Baby Pose is one of 21 restorative poses in this library and one of 88 poses rated beginner. Supported, low-effort poses held long, where the point is to stop working rather than to work.
Who should skip Happy Baby Pose, or change it
- Pregnancy after the first trimester — flat supine positions are usually swapped for side-lying.
- Neck problems: keep the head down on a blanket and do not lift it towards the knees.
- Knee injury, since the knees are deeply bent under a pull.
- Reflux, which lying flat can aggravate.
- Recent hip replacement, where deep flexion and abduction may be restricted.
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 Happy Baby Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakePulling the feet down so hard that the tailbone lifts off the floor.
FixEase off until the sacrum rests flat, then hold there.
MistakeReaching for the feet with rounded shoulders and a lifted head.
FixLoop a strap around each foot and keep the head and shoulders down.
What a practice like this costs in energy
Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values per style of practice, so Happy Baby Pose is mapped to the nearest published code — 02170, yoga, Nadisodhana (seated, quiet practice), 2 MET — and the figures below are for a practice of that kind, not for holding this one pose.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 25 | 49 | 74 | 110 | 147 |
Calculated as MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 kcal per minute — the standard ACSM relationship, shown in full on the method page. Scale it to your own weight by multiplying by your weight in kilograms and dividing by 70. The whole activity dataset, including every non-yoga activity, is at BurnLab.
Questions
How do you do Happy Baby Pose?
Lie on your back with a thin folded blanket under the head. Draw both knees towards the armpits and take hold of the outer edges of the feet, or use a strap around each arch. Stack each ankle over its knee so the shins are vertical and the soles face the ceiling. Draw the knees down towards the floor beside the ribs and let the tailbone stay heavy on the mat. Rock gently side to side if you like, then settle and hold. Hold for 1–3 minutes.
What does Happy Baby Pose work?
Primarily the hip adductors, glutes, with the hamstrings, lower back, hip flexors assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: takes both hips into deep flexion with the spine fully supported by the floor.
Who should not do Happy Baby Pose?
Pregnancy after the first trimester — flat supine positions are usually swapped for side-lying. Neck problems: keep the head down on a blanket and do not lift it towards the knees. Knee injury, since the knees are deeply bent under a pull. Reflux, which lying flat can aggravate. Recent hip replacement, where deep flexion and abduction may be restricted. 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 Happy Baby Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Happy Baby Pose is a beginner-level pose on this site, which means it is learnable in a first class and has a version that works for most bodies. The cautions above still apply.
How many calories does Happy Baby 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. Happy Baby Pose sits closest to Compendium code 02170, yoga, Nadisodhana (seated, quiet practice), at 2 MET — about 74 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.
Sequences that use Happy Baby Pose
Related poses
More restorative poses — 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. Energy figures derive from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. 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.