As a certified personal trainer, I understand the importance of stretching, but like most people, I struggle to find the time to do it.
However, when I returned to exercise after having my baby, I realized my hips and thighs had become super tight.
This was impacting my ability to move freely, so I decided to get serious about flexibility training.
I wanted to find something straightforward that I could do regularly, and I thought the happy baby yoga pose looked ideal.
“Happy baby is safe to do daily,” physical therapist Dr Karena Wu told me when I asked for her advice. “It’s a gentle stretch that opens up the lumbopelvic area and uses gravity to assist.”
With the sign-off from the expert, I was ready to go.
How to do the happy baby pose
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Bring your knees to your chest.
- Grab your feet or ankles.
- Spread your knees and feet apart and gently push against your hands until you feel a stretch in the inner thighs.
- Hold this position for 30-60 seconds.
My experience
Here’s what happened during my month of happy baby stretches.
I had to modify the position at first
Pregnancy really affected my mobility, so I couldn’t do the standard form of the stretch on my first few attempts.
Fortunately, I was able to modify the position by holding on to my calves instead of my feet. As the days passed and my mobility improved, I was able to grab my feet and deepen the stretch.
Running started to feel better
When I first started to run again postpartum, I noticed that my hips and back would start to ache almost immediately.
I pulled back on distance and interspersed a few walking intervals, but that still didn’t help.
Halfway through my happy baby month, my back and hips started to feel more open.
I could run for longer distances with less stiffness and pain, and was even able to increase my speed. By the end of the month, I was able to run a 5K without too many issues.
My pelvic floor symptoms improved
I dealt with some minor prolapse after childbirth, which caused a feeling of pelvic floor heaviness and a bit of pain.
My own physical therapist had suggested adding happy baby poses to my recovery program, but admittedly I hadn’t been consistent.
Doing the stretch every day for a month did a lot to relieve the symptoms I was having and motivated me to be more compliant with my other therapeutic exercises.