This is a great stretch for your groin to help relieve lower-back pain. Use Happy baby before a yoga workout to help warm up, or after a workout session to release muscle tension and speed up recovery. This posture is also perfect for when you want to move but don’t feel like exercising.
Happy Baby Target Areas
- Groin
- Lower back
- Hamstrings
- Inner thighs
Happy Baby Benefits
- Releases lower-back tension and discomfort
- Stretches groin and hamstrings
- Increases hip flexibility
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How to Do Happy Baby
- Grab the outside of your right foot with your right hand, resting your elbow inside the knee.
- Flex your feet by reaching your toes toward your shins. Press your feet up into your hands, and pull your feet toward the floor with your hands, creating opposing forces to deepen the stretch in your groin.
- Squeeze outer hips to drive knees outward. Relax your head, shoulders, and back, slightly tucking chin to keep neck and spine neutral. Hold the posture, inhaling to maintain the position, and exhaling to deepen the stretch.
Cues for Happy Baby
- Keep head and neck relaxed on floor, and chin tucked
- Make sure palm faces in
- Keep lower back on floor
- Retract shoulder blades
WHAT YOU SHOULD FEEL
- Stretch in groin and hamstrings
- Release of lower back
- Slight engagement of quadriceps and upper back
WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T FEEL
- Lower-back pain; if so, bend knees more, and engage core
Happy Baby Pro Tip
Roll lightly from side to side, and slightly bend and straighten your legs to achieve the desired stretch in your thighs.
Happy Baby Modification
If it’s difficult to hold your feet while retracting your shoulder blades, place a single strap across the soles of your feet, and hold the ends of the strap.
About Dean Pohlman, Founder & CEO of Man Flow Yoga, Author of Yoga Fitness for Men, Expert on Yoga Fitness for Men.
Dean Pohlman is an E-RYT 200 certified yoga instructor and the founder of Man Flow Yoga. Dean is widely considered to be an authority on Yoga for Men. He has worked with physical therapists to create yoga programs for back health and spinal recovery. His workouts and programs have been used by professional and collegiate athletes, athletic trainers, and personal trainers; and have been recommended by physical therapists, doctors, chiropractors, and other medical professionals.
Dean is a successfully published author through DK Publishing (Yoga Fitness for Men), selling 35,000 copies worldwide in English, French, and German; in addition to being a co-producer of the Body by Yoga DVD Series, which has sold over 40,000 copies on Amazon since its release in 2016.
Man Flow Yoga has been featured in Muscle & Fitness Magazine, Mens’ Health, The Chicago Sun, New York Magazine, and many more major news media outlets.
