How To Do Happy Baby Pose

A Few Notes

Ananda Balasana, aka happy baby pose, is a gentle hip opener and lower back releaser. In kids yoga, this is called dead bug pose.

As the posture is done whilst laying on your back, it’s normally placed at the beginning or the end of a yoga practice. It’s really great for releasing back pain as your spine is in contact with the floor and if it feels comfortable to do so, you can rock from side to side, massaging your lower back, doing your best impression of a happy baby!

All too often though, people strain to hold onto their feet, causing the neck to arch, the arms to stretch and the tailbone lifts from the floor. Happy baby pose requires a level of mobility in the hips and hip flexors to be able to draw the knees wide and in towards the armpits. If you have tight hips and tight muscles in and around the inner groin and inner thigh, this is when you may start to feel strain in the body. If you can’t comfortably reach for your feet with your hands, then try reaching for your ankles, shins or better yet, hold onto the backs of your thighs, but still keep your legs wide to feel the stretch along your inner thighs and the opening of your hips.

Doing this will allow your tailbone and sacrum to rest comfortably on the floor, grounding your shoulders and allowing your whole spine to be in contact with your yoga mat, thus relaxing your neck into a neutral position, helping to relieve tension around the neck area. If you stay here in stillness for a few moments and take a deep inhale and an even deeper exhale, you’ll start to feel your body relax and melt into the posture. Then if it’s comfortable for you, try rocking from side to side, and feel the delicious massage along your back.

If full happy baby feels quite strong, you may also want to try half happy baby pose. You can do this with a yoga strap, by wrapping the strap around one foot using the resistance between you and the strap to draw that same knee into your armpit. You may find that you feel more open along the inside leg when doing one at a time.

In Yin yoga you may hold this position for a few minutes and it can feel really nice to elevate your pelvis by placing a bolster or a folded blanket underneath your sacrum. Then bring your awareness onto your breath and feel into your body with each inhale and exhale.

In a more yang style practice, when learning how to do crow pose, for example, happy baby can be a really great starting point to imitate the pose while on your back. It allows you to practice opening up the hip joint area and drawing the knees as high up the arms as possible.

Happy baby can also be used an alternative to child’s pose in yoga classes to stretch the inner thighs and release tension in the lower back.

If you are a pregnant woman, happy baby pose can feel quite relieving physically and mentally, but seek medical advice or a pre natal yoga teacher before practicing.