Day 21 of IDJSIJ Challenge - Supported Child's Pose

I had a great experience taking Lianne’s Candlelight Restorative Yoga class at Yoga Loka on Saturday. It was nice to be led into different poses and having a teacher come around to check in on your position, offer more props, and cover you up with a blanket. Lianne has a sweet calming demeanor and her class seemed like it flew by. She will offer it again in the future on a semi regular basis so if you are local to Frenchtown, New Jersey, keep an eye on Yoga Loka’s workshop schedule offerings.
 
At one point we went into supported Child’s Pose, which I haven’t talked about yet because I feel that one really isn’t a pose that’s easy to hold for 20 minutes and is best done with an actual bolster to lay on. Child’s Pose starts out on a mat in a high kneel. Then you rest the hips on the heels and fold the torso forward. As a restorative pose, you would open the knees wide and place them on either side of the bolster long ways, and then fold the upper body onto the bolster. You either turn the cheek to one side or let the head rest face down on the bolster with another blanket under the forehead. The arms rest palms down on either side of the bolster.
 
I think you could roll up a lot of blankets into a long burrito shape to imitate a bolster. If your hips do not rest comfortably on the heels because short hamstrings won’t let you drop your hips, then you increase the height of the bolster by using two blocks (picture above), or add a block or more blankets between the heels and hips.
 
Even with the props this could be a lot of pressure on the knees as they are in deep flexion, and your feet tend to fall asleep. It did feel great for me as a hamstring and inner thigh stretch, but I would recommend it as a shorter held pose followed by relaxing on the back in Savasana. 


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