Taking a fresh look at an old favourite

We’re excited to share a 12-minute video for Yoga Teachers all about Child's Pose. Have you noticed how some students love this pose, but others hate it and have difficulty accessing it? This short video is designed with you in mind, to help deepen your approach and offer even more support to your students. After watching, you’ll have more options to help make this pose accessible and beneficial for everyone

We’ll explore:

• Adjusting Child’s Pose

• The anatomy of the pose

• Guiding breath work within the pose

• Understanding contraindications

Or if you prefer some highlights you can keep reading below 

So the first thing we will all notice is the influence of 

• Body shape - breasts, belly or even baby (in pregnancy yoga) 

• Tightness/restriction in the back body - often assumed to be tightness in the legs, but can often be the back, shoulders and ankles

• Tightness/restriction in the feet - unable to extend the feet flat

can make Child's pose uncomfortable at best and painful at worst.

If you have been teaching this pose, you will already have lots of fixes for the above; wide legs, supported child, propping the head on stacked fists, etc. 

However here I want to go beyond these quick fixes to explore what else is possible and how to support all of our students to get even more from the pose.

Breath in Child’s pose

USING CHILD’S POSE TO

• EXPLORE BREATH

• DEEPEN MOBILITY

• DEVELOP SUPPORT FOR BUILDING STRENGTH

Belly breath

In this pose we've got a lot of flexion in the back and support/pressure in the front, so, taking a breath can feel restricted. A belly breath or deep breath can't get into the belly because it is compressed. This has the wonderful impact of bringing the breath into the back body, as long as there is the freedom under the shoulder girdle and within the side ribs. If this freedom is not present yet, this is a way of developing that freedom. In the back body the lungs are much bigger so there's a lot more lung space because it isn’t restricted.
This practice supports respiration, mobility in the thoracic cavity, and lung capacity and can even support freeing the shoulder girdle and integrating support from the midline for raising the arms overhead. Sounds too good to be true? Here’s how.

Breath in the lungs

Now let's try out finding breath in the lungs so for this I'm going to invite you to take your arms forward elbows on the ground and like a spire (image below) and you can almost feel like you're breathing into your armpits and so now we freed up that space. 

Structure of Child’s pose 

Depending on our leg and arm position we will get different levels of extension, flexion, and pressure on different areas. You are used to having legs together or having wide legs. Let's explore the impact of other adjustments we can offer.

1. The head (or to be more precise - the neck)

We don't want pressure on the neck.

To make the pose more passive or where a student needs support for their neck it is really nice to use a rolled-up blanket. 

2. The Arms

Position of the arms 

So, with the arms out straight compared to back by her side, you can clearly see the shoulders and thus the sensation in the shoulders and arch in her back have completely changed, so she's more into extension rather than flexion. It depends on the person, as to what is comfortable. 

Making it an active pose 

If we activate the hands and arms we will get a completely different shape and sensation. The belly and whole body will become active and it is no longer a restorative pose. 

Let's now experiment with the difference if we put a prop under her head in the active pose, by using this we've got much more activity in the in neck and the neck is not folding forward but is long and will give a different sensation. 

3. The Legs

Widening the legs 

With legs together, there is a certain amount of flexion but no adduction or abduction in the hip. 

Taking the legs out the whole way so that they will be approximately the width of the mat 

can be really nice for people who like belly breathing, for people who have big bellies, for

pregnant people and for people with big breasts. 

So in terms of your breath, here your breath does go into your belly so the focus is off breathing into the back lungs because the front is now available. 

Here the leg is now externally rotated so there's a lot more going on in the hip.

We have the same options of, active and props with wide legs. 

But there are more than 2 options, try bringing them together fully, and see what impact that has on your body. 

In each of these inquiries, explore - the foot, leg, back (rounding), breath, neck, shoulders, arm position, hand rotation. As always, the first question is ‘what is your intention’, then what position offers that to you or your student. The key is that each person in your class will probably require a different position to achieve the desired goal. If they can do that - that is great teaching. 

Limitations

Some of your students won't be able to have their foot out straight, they may not be

able to sit back on their hips and so their bums may be way up in the air and again depending on the purpose of the pose you might want to give them support with a rolled blanket or a block or they may be happy to stay active in that pose. 

The beauty of child’s pose is its adaptability so don’t be afraid to have a play around. 

To support a student who cannot straighten their feet, placing a rolled blanket such as in the image below can be really nice.

When deciding which of these variations to begin with the two questions are what are we using this pose for and most importantly what is comfortable in the pose for the person. 

You will see in the muscles whether they are able to give weight. Have a play with it yourself and see if you can get other people to play with it and give you some feedback on how it feels in their body. 

You can also use better, worse or the same with your students to discover what adjustment works best for them. 

Finding the way that works for your student can be really restorative, have some fun with it. 

Namaste, 

Laura and everyone at Aruna 

P.S. If you want to dive even deeper with your teaching and discover more anatomy and discover how to deliver powerful and meaningful classes, our next 300hr Yoga Teacher Training is starting September 2025. Find out more here