The following instructions are the ones I learned when I was 15. As long as you enter and exit the pose slowly and carefully - never allowing yourself to jerk suddenly or collapse in a heap - you should do fine. Again, though, if you have had neck or shoulder injuries, please check with your medical advisor or doctor first.
How to do the pose:
1. Lie down on your mat and relax with your arms and
hands at your side.
2. Face your palms downward.
3. Inhale distending your abdomen and then hold your
breath while tightening your abdominal muscles and stiffening your legs.
4. Press downward against the floor with the palms of
your hands, using them as a lever, and slowly lift your legs off the floor
while exhaling. Keep your knees
straight.
5. Take at least 5 seconds and smoothly raise your legs
straight up in the air until they are perpendicular with the floor. The more slowly you raise your legs,
the firmer your abdomen will become.
If needed, you may rock you knees and forelegs back and forth a bit to
gain the necessary momentum to lift your lower back and buttocks off the floor.
6. Place your right hand against the kidney region of
your back and brace yourself with it.
Place your left hand also against your back for additional support.
7. Raise both legs together until your entire body is vertical
with your elbows resting on the floor and both hands supporting your back.
8. Keep your legs and body as straight as possible with
your chin nestled into the space in front of your collar bone – i.e., the
jugular notch.
9. Hold the pose motionless for 30 seconds.
10. Slowly bend your legs at
the knees and gently lower your legs until your knees are about one or two
inches from your face.
11. Place your right hand on
the floor and brace yourself with it.
Follow by placing your left hand on the floor and also brace yourself
with it.
12. Slowly straighten your
legs until they are again vertical in the air.
13. Keeping your knees
straight, slowly lower your legs until they are resting on the floor. You may wish to enhance the abdominal
firming effect of this pose by holding your legs taut for a few seconds when
they are one to two inches away from the floor.
Practice time: Hold the pose for 30 seconds during your first week of practice. Add 10 seconds a week until you can hold the pose for 2-3 minutes.
Number of repetitions: 1
Key benefits from this pose:
1. Benefits and energizes the entire body.
2. Massages and stimulates the spinal column.
3. Increases blood supply to brain to increase energy,
tones the nervous system, and can improve certain mental faculties such as the
memory.
4. Stimulates the thyroid and parathyroid glands, and
enriches the pituitary gland.
5. This inversion repositions organs and glands into
their proper place by offsetting the downward pull that gravity naturally has
on the body.
6. Enhances circulation and helps to relieve strain
placed on blood vessels when body stays in its customary upright position. Can help alleviate varicose veins.
7. Can help regulate weight because of the therapeutic,
stimulation of the thyroid gland.
8. Strengthens back and can build up chest.
9. Can eliminate headaches.
10. Stretches and
strengthens shoulder and back muscles.
11. Stretches muscles and
ligaments of the cervical region (the top part of the spine that consists of
the seven vertebrae of the neck and the disks that separate them).
12. Strengthens entire
nervous system.
13. Stimulates sexual glands and organs and boosts the libido (sex becomes sexier!).
Special hints and Laura’s experience with this pose:
If you have had neck injury or problems or have high blood pressure, check with your physician before trying this pose.
This pose reportedly gives you virtually all the benefits of the headstand, but is easier for non-athlete like me! (I still have not yet been able to do the headstand!)
Women should avoid doing this pose during menstruation.
Go up into the shoulder stand only as far as you comfortably can. People who find the pose difficult at first are often advised to use a wall to help get them into the position or at least to acclimate themselves to getting their legs vertically into the air. I never found this necessary. I simply raised my legs as far up into a vertical position as was feasible for me in the beginning and over a few weeks was able to achieve the hold in a totally vertical position.
Always move out of the
shoulder stand very carefully and slowly to avoid hurting your spine. The shoulder stand is especially
beneficial when it follows the plough.
They are a dynamic yoga duo!
Thanks for reading.
Posted by: Laura Rodriguez | September 29, 2013 at 03:30 PM