Child's pose

Movement

One published description of child’s pose, also called balasana, is a forward bend from a kneeling position¹. The knees are fully flexed (bent) and the spine is rounded¹. The arms are fully extended in front, and the forehead rests between the upper arms¹.

A 2025 review covered 52 prospective clinical studies of yoga for musculoskeletal (muscle, bone and joint) disorders⁴. It lists balasana among the forward-bending poses that many of the spine and low back protocols included⁴.

What the studies on this page tested

Most of the studies cited on this page fall into three groups^2,5,8:

• Two trials of yoga programmes that had the pose as one item among others^2,3.
• Two studies of pelvic floor muscle activity in a “modified child pose”^8,9.
• Studies of trunk flexion (forward bending) in sitting, or held for minutes^5,7,10.

In both trials, the result reported is for the yoga classes or the yoga group^2,3.

What it loads

The authors of a 2025 review describe forward-bending poses, balasana among them, as movements that lengthen and release the back muscles⁴. They name mainly the erector spinae, the long muscles beside the spine that straighten the back⁴. They also name the quadratus lumborum, a deep muscle of the lower back⁴. This is the authors’ description, not a measurement⁴.

Measurements from other positions

Two studies measured muscle stiffness, how much force it takes to stretch something by a given amount, in other positions^5,6. The table uses lumbar for the lower back and prone for lying face-down.

Who was studied	Position tested	What was found
Ten healthy men	Three seated positions with the trunk flexed, and lying prone	Stiffness of the lumbar multifidus, a deep muscle running along the spine, was similar across the seated positions and significantly lower lying prone5
The same ten men	Sitting with the trunk flexed and bent to the opposite side	Lumbar erector spinae stiffness was significantly higher than lying prone, sitting flexed, or sitting flexed and rotated5
14 healthy males	Arm passively raised as far as it would go	Latissimus dorsi stiffness showed high values with the trunk rotated away, or bent and rotated away6. Trunk flexion was tested and is not among the positions reported with high values6

The authors of the study of ten men took its result to show that trunk flexion stretches the multifidus effectively⁵.

The pelvic floor in a modified pose

One study used surface electromyography, which measures a muscle’s activity by picking up its electrical signals, in three positions⁸. It tested 67 women with urinary incontinence (leaking of urine)⁸. Relaxation of the pelvic floor, the sheet of muscle that closes the bottom of the pelvis, was greatest in a modified butterfly pose⁸. A modified deep squat with a block came next, then a modified child pose⁸. The authors concluded that relaxation was achieved in each of the three positions⁸.

A second study tested 76 women with pelvic floor dysfunction in three positions, a modified child pose among them⁹. Its authors concluded that the positions of greatest relaxation and contraction may vary with the muscles’ functional status⁹.

How the body adapts

After a held forward bend

In 22 healthy men, a 3-minute static trunk-flexion stretch improved scores on two forward-bending flexibility tests⁷. Lumbar multifidus stiffness showed no significant change at the group level⁷. The authors concluded that changes in multifidus stiffness did not, on their own, explain the flexibility gains⁷.

Trials of programmes that included the pose

A 12-week randomised trial in 95 adults with chronic low back pain compared once-weekly with twice-weekly yoga classes². Child’s pose was one of the poses in the class protocol². Pain and back-related function improved in both groups, with no difference between them². Thirty adverse events (unwanted effects seen during a trial) were reported². Most were episodes of musculoskeletal pain, a flare of low back pain being the most common, and the majority were self-limited².

A second randomised trial enrolled 62 people with chronic low back pain and disc degeneration seen on MRI, a detailed soft-tissue scan³. The yoga group’s one-hour daily programme over 3 months included child pose among its light exercises and postures³. With data from 40 of the 62, the yoga group reported less pain and state anxiety (anxiety at that moment) after 12 weeks than before³. The MRI findings in the discs and vertebrae (the bones of the spine) were not altered³. Instructors were asked to watch for adverse events during practice, and they reported no such event³.

A 2022 Cochrane review included 21 randomised trials of yoga in chronic non-specific low back pain¹¹. It found low- to moderate-certainty evidence that yoga, compared with no exercise, gave small, clinically unimportant improvements in function and pain¹¹. It found low-certainty evidence that yoga raised the risk of adverse events, mainly more back pain, at six to 12 months¹¹. Its authors concluded that adverse events are more common with yoga than with no exercise, and that the risk may match that of other exercise¹¹.

Progressive overload

The trial of 95 adults progressed its whole class, not one pose². Its 12-week protocol was divided into four 3-week segments, and the poses increased in difficulty with each segment². Teachers used set variations and props for different physical abilities². Pain and back-related function showed no difference between once-weekly and twice-weekly classes².

One study of held flexion changed the hold itself¹⁰. Ten healthy participants held full lumbar flexion for 10 minutes¹⁰. A 30-second rest break in the middle of the hold moderated the creep and the rise in extensor muscle activity¹⁰. Creep is the slow stretch of a material under a steady load. Extensors here are the muscles that bend the spine backward.

Connections

One published description of the pose has the spine rounded and the knees fully flexed¹. Bending forward compresses the front of an intervertebral disc, a pad of cartilage between the bones of the spine, and expands the back¹².

Review authors name the erector spinae and quadratus lumborum as lengthened by forward-bending poses⁴. The lumbar multifidus helps extend the spine and bend it to the side¹². The latissimus dorsi, the broad muscle across the middle and lower back, was measured with the arm raised in 14 healthy males⁶.

Two trials in people with low back pain used yoga programmes that included the pose^2,3. The 10-minute flexion study also appears on the knee-to-chest page, and the stretching page defines static stretching^10,13.

Sources

1. Zuhair M, Seitler S, Kaza N, Lim PB, Keene D, Khiani R (2025). Yoga in the emergency room: termination of SVT with the Child's pose.. Oxford medical case reports. doi:10.1093/omcr/omaf049 PMID 40443873
2. Saper RB, Boah AR, Keosaian J, Cerrada C, Weinberg J, Sherman KJ (2013). Comparing Once- versus Twice-Weekly Yoga Classes for Chronic Low Back Pain in Predominantly Low Income Minorities: A Randomized Dosing Trial.. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM. doi:10.1155/2013/658030 PMID 23878604
3. Telles S, Bhardwaj AK, Gupta RK, Sharma SK, Monro R, Balkrishna A (2016). A Randomized Controlled Trial to Assess Pain and Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based (MRI-Based) Structural Spine Changes in Low Back Pain Patients After Yoga Practice.. Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research. doi:10.12659/msm.896599 PMID 27619104
4. Gandolfi MG, Zamparini F, Spinelli A, Saper RB, Prati C (2025). Yoga For Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Review of Prospective Clinical Studies.. Global advances in integrative medicine and health. doi:10.1177/27536130251388385 PMID 41282368
5. Masaki M, Ji X, Yamauchi T, Tateuchi H, Ichihashi N (2019). Effects of the trunk position on muscle stiffness that reflects elongation of the lumbar erector spinae and multifidus muscles: an ultrasonic shear wave elastography study.. European journal of applied physiology. doi:10.1007/s00421-019-04098-6 PMID 30747266
6. Asayama A, Tateuchi H, Ota M, Motomura Y, Yanase K, Komamura T, Ichihashi N (2021). Differences in shear elastic modulus of the latissimus dorsi muscle during stretching among varied trunk positions.. Journal of biomechanics. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2021.110324 PMID 33618168
7. Albuquerque Brandão MC, Palmieri DC, Oliveira Meireles VB, de Oliveira LF (2026). Lumbar multifidus layers stiffness during static stretching measured by shear wave elastography.. Journal of biomechanics. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2026.113523 PMID 42617536
8. Tosun ÖÇ, Dayıcan DK, Keser İ, Kurt S, Yıldırım M, Tosun G (2022). Are clinically recommended pelvic floor muscle relaxation positions really efficient for muscle relaxation?. International urogynecology journal. doi:10.1007/s00192-022-05119-3 PMID 35201370
9. Dayican DK, Keser I, Yavuz O, Tosun G, Kurt S, Tosun OC (2023). Can pelvic floor muscle training positions be selected according to the functional status of pelvic floor muscles?. Nigerian journal of clinical practice. doi:10.4103/njcp.njcp_53_23 PMID 37794544
10. Shin G, Mirka GA (2007). An in vivo assessment of the low back response to prolonged flexion: Interplay between active and passive tissues.. Clinical biomechanics (Bristol, Avon). doi:10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2007.06.003 PMID 17709161
11. Wieland LS, Skoetz N, Pilkington K, Harbin S, Vempati R, Berman BM (2022). Yoga for chronic non-specific low back pain.. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD010671.pub3 PMID 36398843
12. Betts JG, Young KA, Wise JA, Johnson E, Poe B, Kruse DH, Korol O, Johnson JE, Womble M, DeSaix P (2022). Anatomy and Physiology 2e. OpenStax. Link
13. Behm DG, Alizadeh S, Daneshjoo A, Anvar SH, Graham A, Zahiri A, et al. (2023). Acute Effects of Various Stretching Techniques on Range of Motion: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.. Sports medicine - open. doi:10.1186/s40798-023-00652-x PMID 37962709

Every source the library cites

Changes

• October 9, 2026 First published.