Fun Pose Friday: Child's Pose

Today’s Friday fun pose is definitely a crowd pleaser– Child’s Pose or Balasana.

bah-LAHS-anna
bala = child

Not only is child’s pose a great break and rest period during a kick ass flow class (or any yoga class), but there are also many benefits to this pose.  Including:

• Releases tension in the back, shoulders and chest
• Recommended if you have dizziness or fatigue
• Helps alleviate stress and anxiety
• Flexes the body’s internal organs and keeps them supple
• It lengthens and stretches the spine
• Relieves neck and lower back pain when performed with the head and torso supported
• It gently stretches the hips, thighs and ankles
• Normalizes circulation throughout the body
• It stretches muscles, tendons and ligaments in the knee
• Calms the mind and body
• Encourages strong and steady breathing

Here’s how to get into one variation of child’s pose:

1. Kneel on the floor. Touch your big toes together and sit on your heels, then separate your knees about as wide as your hips.
2. Exhale and lay your torso down between your thighs. Broaden your sacrum across the back of your pelvis and narrow your hip points toward the navel, so that they nestle down onto the inner thighs. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of the pelvis while you lift the base of your skull away from the back of your neck.
3. Lay your hands on the floor alongside your torso, palms up, and release the fronts of your shoulders toward the floor. Feel how the weight of the front shoulders pulls the shoulder blades wide across your back.
4. Balasana is a resting pose. Stay anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. Beginners can also use Balasana to get a taste of a deep forward bend, where the torso rests on the thighs. Stay in the pose from 1 to 3 minutes. To come up, first lengthen the front torso, and then with an inhalation lift from the tailbone as it presses down and into the pelvis.

There are variations of child’s pose. You can have your arms by your side or reaching out in front of you. You can have your legs spread wide or  knees touching.  Whatever feels right for you!  Always know that child’s pose can be taken at any time.  I like to think of it as my happy place.
 
Happy Friday!