Adductors exercise
Happy BabyHow to do it, with form in numbers
- Main muscles
- Adductors, Lower back
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
How do you do the Happy Baby?
- Lie on your back and bring your knees up towards your chest.
- Open your knees wider than your hips and point the soles of your feet at the ceiling.
- Hold the outside edges of your feet, keeping your ankles above your knees.
- Gently press your feet into your hands while drawing your knees down towards your sides.
- Keep your head, shoulders and tailbone down and hold for 30–60 seconds.
Cues
- Ankles stacked over knees.
- Tailbone heavy on the mat.
- Head and shoulders relaxed down.
Common mistakes
- Lifting your head to reach your feet: hold your ankles or loop a towel round your feet.
- Tailbone curling up: ease the knees up a little and press it down.
- Knees closing in: keep them wide, beside your ribs.
Form in detail
What does good form look like?
The version in our demo
Lying on the back, knees bent about 90° and drawn wide towards the sides of the chest, shins vertical with the soles facing the ceiling, hands holding the outside edges of the feet, head, shoulders and tailbone down.
Starting position
Lie face up on a mat, head and shoulders relaxed, knees bent and feet flat. Draw both knees up towards the chest so the feet leave the floor.
The movement
Open the knees wider than the hips and turn the soles of the feet up to the ceiling, stacking each ankle over its knee so the shins are vertical. Reach the arms up inside the legs and hold the outer edge of each foot. Gently push the feet up into the hands while the hands draw the feet down, easing the knees down towards the floor beside the ribs and pressing the tailbone and lower back into the mat. Hold. The head, shoulders and sacrum stay on the mat; the feet stay flexed.
Breathing
Slow, deep belly breaths; let the hips relax on each exhale.
Tempo
Real sets: hold 30–60 s or 5–10 slow breaths; gentle side-to-side rocking is optional.
Form in numbers
What are the angles and distances?
- Knee flexion about 90°; shins vertical, ankles directly above the knees (side camera sees shin perpendicular to the floor).
- Ankles flexed about 90°, soles facing the ceiling.
- Arms pass inside the knees, elbows slightly bent (10–30°), hands on the outer edges of the feet.
- Sacrum, shoulder blades and back of the head on the mat; lower back flat.
The targets our 3D demo was built to, from the references below. Bodies differ, so treat the ranges as a guide for your own build.
For coaches
Use this demo in your clients’ programs
The Happy Baby is in Trainaq’s exercise library. Add it to a workout, and your client sees this demo in the free Trainaq app above the sets they log.
Sources
