Lower back, hips, knees and shoulders

Child's Pose: Classic

A deeply restful pose that passively decompresses your spine and releases tension through your back, hips, and shoulders: helping your nervous system settle and your body recover.

How to do it

1. 1

   Kneel with your big toes together, knees apart

   Shins flat on the floor, knees roughly hip width or a little wider so your body has room.

2. 2

   Sit your hips back towards your heels

   Let your hips travel back first and your back follow, so the fold starts from the hips rather than from the middle of your back.

3. 3

   Walk your hands forward and rest your forehead

   Arms long in front, forehead down on the floor or on a block. Arms alongside your body is just as good if the overhead reach is work rather than rest.

4. 4

   Fill any gaps underneath you with props

   A bolster lengthwise under your chest raises the floor to meet you, a blanket behind the knees softens the fold, and taking the knees wider makes room for your belly.

5. 5

   Stay one to three minutes, breathing into your back

   Feel the breath widen the back of your ribs. Come up slowly, rolling up through the spine.

What to watch for

This is a full rounding of the whole back. If anything low in your back or down a leg starts to build, sharpen or travel while you are in it, come out and use a version that keeps you more upright rather than waiting for it to pass.

Ways to adjust it

• Bolster
• Wide knee
• Blanket behind knee
• Arms alongside body

If this one is too much today

Try the gentler version instead. It asks less of you and does much the same work.

• Child's Pose: Bolster

Other ways to do this movement

Every version below is the same movement set up differently, so one of them usually suits. See all Child's Pose versions in one place, ordered from gentlest to strongest.

• Child's Pose: Bolster
• Child's Pose: Chair Facing Back
• Child's Pose: Chair Support from Floor
• Child's Pose: Quick

Before you try it

Move within a range that stays comfortable. Stop if this brings on sharp pain, dizziness, or symptoms that travel down an arm or a leg, and speak to a clinician before repeating it.

From the clinically authored Vinys movement library.