Supported Child's Pose
सालम्ब बालासन
Sālamba Bālāsana — a beginner restorative pose that works the lower back, glutes.
How to do Supported Child's Pose
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Kneel with the knees wide and lay a bolster lengthways on the mat between them, one end close to your body.
Raise the far end of the bolster on a block if you want the torso higher and the fold shallower.
Sit the hips back towards the heels and lower the whole torso onto the bolster so it carries the ribs and belly.
Turn the head to one side and rest the cheek on the bolster; halfway through the hold, turn it the other way.
Let both arms drape either side of the bolster and stay for the full hold.
Hold: 5–10 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 Supported 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.
- Transfers the weight of the torso onto a prop so no back muscle has to hold the fold.
- Keeps the spine in a mild supported rounding for a long period without effort.
- Raising the far end reduces how far the hips must travel, which makes tight hips irrelevant to the pose.
Supported 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 Supported Child's Pose, or change it
- Knee injury — the kneeling base is the limit here, not the back.
- Pregnancy after the first trimester: a bolster under the chest and belly is not suitable; use a side-lying rest.
- Reflux, which lying face down over a bolster can aggravate.
- Neck problems — turn the head only as far as it goes freely, and switch sides halfway.
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 Supported Child's Pose
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeBolster set too far forward so the chest is stranded in mid-air.
FixSlide the near end right up against the belly before lowering down.
MistakeHead left facing one way for ten minutes.
FixTurn the head at the halfway mark every time.
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 Supported 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 Supported Child's Pose?
Kneel with the knees wide and lay a bolster lengthways on the mat between them, one end close to your body. Raise the far end of the bolster on a block if you want the torso higher and the fold shallower. Sit the hips back towards the heels and lower the whole torso onto the bolster so it carries the ribs and belly. Turn the head to one side and rest the cheek on the bolster; halfway through the hold, turn it the other way. Let both arms drape either side of the bolster and stay for the full hold. Hold for 5–10 minutes.
What does Supported Child's Pose work?
Primarily the lower back, glutes, with the hip adductors, neck, quadriceps assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: transfers the weight of the torso onto a prop so no back muscle has to hold the fold.
Who should not do Supported Child's Pose?
Knee injury — the kneeling base is the limit here, not the back. Pregnancy after the first trimester: a bolster under the chest and belly is not suitable; use a side-lying rest. Reflux, which lying face down over a bolster can aggravate. Neck problems — turn the head only as far as it goes freely, and switch sides halfway. 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 Supported Child's Pose suitable for beginners?
Yes. Supported 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 Supported 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. Supported 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 Supported 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.