Stretch your back and hips, release tension, and stimulate your lower chakras with Folded Butterfly Pose…

Butterfly Pose (Baddha Konasana) – also known as Bound Angle Pose or Cobbler’s Pose – offers a great stretch for the hips and inner thighs – but to take it even further, you can transition into Folded Butterfly. Folded Butterfly Pose offers a deeper stretch for the lower back and groin, and also releases tension in the neck and shoulders, engages the pelvic floor muscles, and helps to calm the mind. It’s a great hip opener, and also may be helpful for women who are pregnant, or to ease menstrual symptoms.

This pose stimulates both the Root and Sacral chakras, and is a great pose to include in yoga sequences targeting these energy centers.

To modify the pose if your hips are very tight, you can move your feet further from your hips, or sit on a block. You can also rest your head on a bolster as you fold. If you have knee issues, you may wish to rest your knees on cushions for support.

If you have a serious knee, groin, or lower back injury or slipped disc, you should avoid this pose.

How to Do Folded Butterfly Pose:

• Set-Up

  From a seated position, bring the soles of your feet together in the shape of a diamond and let your knees relax down towards the mat.

• Action

  Inhale, sit up tall. Exhale, fold forward and completely relax your upper body—arms, neck and head.

• Duration

  Stay in Folded Butterfly pose for 2-5 minutes, breathing in and out through your nose.

• To Release

  Take a deep breath in. Exhale, gently come back up. Bring your legs out in front of you and bounce them up and down to release tension.