Yoga at Home for Beginners: Yoga Headstand - Trying it for the First Time!

During my last post, I shared the inspiring tale of Arthur, a disabled Gulf war paratrooper and veteran who returned home with limited mobility.  He could not walk without elbow crutches and his physicians advised him that this was his fate for the rest of his life (shame on them).  His sedentary life caused him to become morbidly obese.  Yet, he found one yoga instructor who was willing to take him on.  Arthur's video showed how he started as an absolute yoga beginner falling and tumbling over during several poses.  Yet, consistent practice over time enabled Arthur to master difficult poses including the headstand!

The yoga headstand is one pose that I never tried for more than a split second.  I tend to become discombobulated when I go upside down- I lose my balance. Despite swim lessons, as a child and teenager I could never do flip overs when reaching the end of a lap in a pool. Although I can lift myself into the shoulder stand, the head stand has intimidated me for years. However, Arthur's video so inspired me that I decided to start teaching myself the yoga headstand.  

Today I gave myself my first lesson.  I picked up one of my first yoga books -and you can tell it's a first, the pages are greatly yellowed and falling apart. But, I was able to find detailed instructions for the head stand.  I carefully read and re-read the instructions and studied the photographs.  (By the way, I haven't learned a new pose in some time - it was about time I did so!)  I clasped my hands around my head as you see above and formed a triangle with my elbows and stretched out my legs.  I had to try this though a few times.  I felt awkward - kind of like driving a stick shift for the first time.

And, I followed my own advice - taking baby steps and being very careful of how my body felt.  I noticed my head and neck felt a bit tight (I have been sleeping in an awkward position the past few days) so I was most cautious.  The neck can be very delicate. I went only as far as was comfortable - somewhere between illustrations 3 and 4 shown above.  And, that was that.  That is as far as I felt I should go!  I am going to continue to practicing a bit of this pose during the week and every weekend.  I will share my results. There are no guarantees that I will be able to do the headstand, but my intention is to at least try it so I can further expand my yoga regime.

Yours for trying new yoga poses with caution and patience,

Laura Venecia Rodriguez, the Beginners' Yoga at Home Coach

 

Comments

[Development]

Every weekend i used to visit this site, because i wish for enjoyment, since this this site conations in fact nice funny data too.

[Tina]

Chakras that are engaged with headstand: ajna and sahasrara...
I can get the same mind-blowing aftereffects of practice from a strong hare pose, including mental clarity and a feeling of near-rebirth. You have to put a lot of weight on your head in that pose, too, and that's how you get the effect. Also, same with dolphin with your head on the ground (preferably the bregma or fontanel--hairline of your head).

Chakra that is engaged with sasangasana and dolphin headstand prep: sahasrara. You need some arm strength for the latter, but since your legs or feet stay on the ground, you can easily control the pressure on the head.

A lot less neck pain, and ability to hold the pose 12 breaths instead of 3; count for a lot with me. The difference between the forward bend or demi-inversion and the full inversion, in how you feel afterwards, is just the lagniappe ...

I hope that the 8th Chakra does not figure in ... you could do real damage to the cervical spine with the misalignment ...

In my online yoga classes, none of the teachers on that site use the wall to teach headstand; and the last teacher I ever had (live) - not the one who had the agenda, but a young lady--different studio--who seemed to encourage all this headstanding said you have to NOT use the wall to prop you up very soon after you start to learn, or there will be damage ...

I say, just my luck ... My self-sequenced home practice, makes the hare and the half-headstand completely interchangeable. My online classes are teaching me intermediate-level arm balances.

I define my challenges, and that is how it should be.

[Laura V. Rodriguez]

Yes - I am taking it very slowly. Just getting used to putting my head in the position and placing weight on my elbows. I have never had much upper body strength and thus never have done poses like the crow. I can the shoulder stand because the weight is supported by my arms and shoulders. The head stand requires holding up more with the arms and positioning them carefully.

[Tina]

I hear conflicting stories about use of the wall to help you.

But it's there to help the more overzealous of teachers who have classes where they can't give personal attention but they need the students doing the pose, to complete the tableau of the class ...

Better just to get where you can go, without the wall. Or, as Yoda says, "Do or do not. There is no try."

One yoga teacher calls the wall "the 8th chakra" - "the wall chakra" ... there is no such chakra ...

[Laura Rodriguez]

Excellent tips, Tina! Yes, it's not quite right to try to jump or kick into the headstand. I watched a few youtube videos but their instructions were not detailed enough and some showed variations of the headstand that I doubt I could ever do!

[Tina]

Before I'd gotten tired of my neck hurting for a few hours, six hours and/or one day later, I too was doing half tripod headstand with my knees resting on my upper arms and my feet in the air. No thanks, for that, to any studio because--you know my story--they'd just scared me off ...

Once I got over the very real fear of breaking my neck, I lifted adequate instructions off vinyasa yoga teacher Jonny Kest by way of the issue of Prevention Yoga Life. But I had made sure first that, given a neck like mine, that at the time, I was able to hold crow for a few breaths.

Now, if yours is a fear issue rather than a weight-on-neck issue (I really preferred a variation of headstand that took my disproportionally-short upper arms into account such as the tripod) you will do fine. What do I give the studio credit for, I tell to you: Just strengthen your Dolphin, get used to getting some weight on your neck (try to keep most of it in the arms, but you have to accept that your neck will bear a great deal of your weight), try not to jump or kick into any such headstand, don't do it like Arthur did.

Maybe, as a disabled paratrooper, he felt he had nothing to lose and his body could take it. But another thing I learned from the studio, the first yama of ahimsa ... do no harm - not to yourself (just too bad they did not follow their own preachings) ...