Butterfly
Baddha Konasana, also known as the Bound Angle Pose, Cobbler's Pose, or Butterfly Pose, is a seated yoga pose that stretches and strengthens the thighs, core, and back.
It is a common go-to pose for opening the hips used in all forms of yoga: Vinyasa, Restorative, Yin, Ashtanga, Hatha, etc.
While this is known a hip opener, this asana activates the muscles in your back as you lengthen and stretch through your spine. A strong and stable core is key to this posture. When you sit on the floor in Baddha Konasana in the more traditional versions of the pose, your core works to keep you from rounding the back and dropping the chest.
Many students experience frustration as they think the purpose of this pose is to have the knees open up as wide as possible, dropping them to the ground, supported by the floor as well as folding over to get your head/chest closer to the ground. While the shape of the pose suggests this train of thought, it is not the intent of the pose if it compromises the alignment of your spine causing discomfort.
It is also important to remember that everyone has natural limits. Your bone structure and muscular development may prevent your knees from ever opening all the way to the floor or to find that deeper hip hinge to fold your torso to the ground. Instead, switch your focus to include not only the sensation in the hip as a stretch, but an inner thigh stretch and healthy spine expansion in the low back to the upper back. The latter requires low core engagement and perhaps a bit of help with props to elevate your sit bones.
How to enter, hold and exit Baddha Konasana:
Begin seated with your legs straight out in front of you.
Bend your knees and allow them to fall open to the sides.
Place your hands just behind your outer thighs. Press into all 10 fingertips and pick up your hips an inch or so off the floor to allow you to find your sit bones.
Sit directly on top of your sit bones, rather than behind them. If you are unable to do this, take a folded or rolled up blanket and place under your sit bones. This elevation will give you the pelvic tilt you need to stay on your sit bones.
Press your toe mounds and inner and outer heels together.
Roll your outer thighs down.
Press down through your sit bones to bring your pelvis upright; draw up through the crown of your head to lengthen your spine.
Press your shoulder blades against your upper back to lift through your sternum or chest. Allow the shoulder blades to draw down so you can widen through the collarbones.
Clasp your ankles or feet to help you find lift along your torso.
Start to hinge at the hip to find a bit of a forward fold.
Refine your pose:
Notice and explore your edges. Either soften or go deeper, depending on what you need.
If the stretch is intense, breathe into it and focus on staying upright. Explore your edges, but if in pain, ease out of it.
If you are finding pain in the knees or the inner thigh/groin stretch is too much, place blocks under the knees to support the butterfly opening.
If experiencing pain in the low back, reduce your forward hinge, re-engage your low abs and look at elevating your seat by adding more blankets under your sit bones.
If you’re more flexible/hypermobile, it may feel as though not much is happening. If that’s the case try pressing the soles of the feet together during the entire time in this pose. You could place a block in between the soles of your feet to increase engagement, or elevate your feet on a block with your soles still actively touching.
Finish the pose:
Accept where you are whether your thighs/knees drop to the floor or are nowhere near it.
Soften your face
Expand your breath
To exit the pose, gently release your feet and come back to Staff Pose.
Why the different names for Baddha Konasana?
Baddha means bound. Kon means angle and asana means posture or pose. The direct English translation from Sanskrit is Bound Angle Pose. Cobblers Pose is often used as it resembles the typical sitting position of Indian cobblers when they work. Butterfly came about as a Yin Yoga term for Baddha Konasana. Yin Yoga gives poses different names to the more well-known active yoga pose counterparts. The reason for this is that in taking a passive approach to the practice, the body actually moves into the poses differently than in the active versions. Yin Yoga seeks to differentiate the poses by giving them different names.
Feet close to the body or away from the body in Baddha Konasana?
If you ask an Ashtanga teacher, they will tell you Baddha Konasana should place the feet as close as possible to your pelvis, and the soles open as you would with a book to ground the knees.
A Yin teacher will tell you to keep a comfortable distance between your pelvis and your feet and let gravity do the work rather than the muscles.
A Vinyasa teacher may be somewhere in between.
And Restorative? They will prop you up, keep a more diamond shape with your legs, put you in a supine position and let you sink into rest.
So which one is the right pose? All of them!
Each variation of Baddha Konasana stretches the inner thighs and the entire hip complex, but each variation will add or remove an additional target area.
Healthy Spine Approach
I am a firm believer in balance between the integrity of the pose and the integrity of your unique body. Don’t be afraid to use props!
As you get into Baddha Konasana, find the natural, healthy curves in your spine by adjusting your pelvis so it’s not tilting too far forward or too far back. If you are tucking your tailbone and rounding your lower back, press your buttocks gently backward until you feel the natural arch in your lower back. If you already have a big arch in the low back, lightly squeeze in your abdominals to lessen the tilt in your pelvis and to support your spine. You can definitely fold over, but you do not need to try to get your chest to the ground. Go as far as you can while maintaining healthy space in your low back by engaging your lower abdominals. If folding over causes low back pain, sit more upright, add more blankets under your sit bones, lengthen from hip to armpit and find a slight hinge at the hips.