Lower back, hips, knees and shoulders

Child's Pose: Quick

A brief restful pause that passively decompresses your spine and releases tension through your back, hips, and shoulders: the classic child's pose, sized for shorter practices.

How to do it

1. 1

   Come straight down from wherever you already are

   From hands and knees, simply sit your hips back towards your heels and let your forehead come down. Because the stay is short, spend no time arranging yourself.

2. 2

   Give yourself one prop, not four

   Pick the single thing that lets you let go: a bolster under your chest, a blanket behind the knees, wider knees, or arms resting alongside your body.

3. 3

   Make the first breaths the slow ones

   With a short pause the settling has to begin immediately, so soften your jaw and empty each breath out fully.

4. 4

   Stay for 20 to 60 seconds, then come up slowly

   Roll up through your spine and carry the slower breath into whatever comes next.

What to watch for

A short stay is not a reason to go deeper to make up for the time. If you catch yourself driving the hips back harder or pulling the chest lower than usual, ease off, because this pause only works at a range you could have held for minutes.

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: Classic

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.