Child's Pose
बालासन
Bālāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the lower back, glutes.
How to do Child's Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Kneel with the big toes touching and the knees as wide as is comfortable.
Place a folded blanket behind the knees if sitting back onto the heels pinches.
Sit the hips back towards the heels and walk the hands forward until the torso rests between the thighs.
Rest the forehead on the mat, on stacked fists, or on a block so the neck is fully supported.
Let the arms go heavy, either forward or back alongside the body, and breathe into the back ribs.
Hold: 2–5 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 Child's 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.
- Puts the spine into a long supported rounding with the floor carrying the torso.
- Lengthens the muscles either side of the lower back with no effort from the practitioner.
- Directs the breath into the back of the ribcage, which the shape makes easy to feel.
Child's 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 Child's Pose, or change it
- Knee injury or recent meniscus surgery — the deep knee fold is the limiting factor.
- Pregnancy: take the knees very wide so the belly hangs freely between the thighs.
- Ankle pain from the tops of the feet on the floor — roll a blanket under the ankles.
- Any position where the head is below the heart can feel uncomfortable with sinus pressure or a headache.
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 Child's Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeForehead hovering above the floor so the neck has to hold the head up.
FixStack blocks or fists until the forehead has something solid to rest on.
MistakeHips floating well above the heels with the shape held by effort.
FixWedge a folded blanket between the calves and thighs so the hips have somewhere to land.
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 Child's 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 Child's Pose?
Kneel with the big toes touching and the knees as wide as is comfortable. Place a folded blanket behind the knees if sitting back onto the heels pinches. Sit the hips back towards the heels and walk the hands forward until the torso rests between the thighs. Rest the forehead on the mat, on stacked fists, or on a block so the neck is fully supported. Let the arms go heavy, either forward or back alongside the body, and breathe into the back ribs. Hold for 2–5 minutes.
What does Child's Pose work?
Primarily the lower back, glutes, with the hip adductors, quadriceps, ankles assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: puts the spine into a long supported rounding with the floor carrying the torso.
Who should not do Child's Pose?
Knee injury or recent meniscus surgery — the deep knee fold is the limiting factor. Pregnancy: take the knees very wide so the belly hangs freely between the thighs. Ankle pain from the tops of the feet on the floor — roll a blanket under the ankles. Any position where the head is below the heart can feel uncomfortable with sinus pressure or a headache. 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 Child's Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Child's 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 Child's 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. Child's 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 Child's 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.