10 Tips for Headstand – Part 1
I have to say right at the outset of this article, that Salamba Sirsasana (Supported Headstand) is one yoga pose that I get passionately worked up about. Because of this passion, I have decided to write a series of articles specifically to help you with your practice of headstand.
These 10 Tips for Headstand will be covered in four (4) parts.
I have been in yoga classes where the instructions for headstand are: if you normally do headstand come into it now, if you are not doing headstand, then do Shoulderstand or lay with the legs up the wall. That’s it. Literally. No other instructions or guidance. In the meantime, as the teacher is off working with the people in Shoulderstand, a few reckless and inexperienced people are literally jumping up into headstands. Yes, I have been in classes where absolute beginners, in their very first class, are attempting to do headstands.
I have walked past classes whilst waiting for my own class to start, peeked in and seen a multitude of people wobbling around in their headstand, precariously perched on the wrong part of their head and the teacher is doing nothing to correct this dangerous misalignment. I shudder with dread and hope that no-one gets hurt.
Due to this lack of attention and teaching during headstand, people are getting injured, and you find that teachers are becoming less willing to teach the pose due to fear of injury to students.
When you know you are working with an experienced teacher, one who will keep a vigilant eye on you and, teach, correct and guide you in the pose, and you have done the necessary preparation work, then headstand can be practised quite safely and without fear.
Anyway, now that I have said all of that, let me get onto these tips. Please understand, these tips on headstand are not meant to be used to replace the guidance of a teacher. You will find these tips helpful however, if you are already practising headstand under the guidance of a good yoga teacher, or if your teacher feels that you are ready to begin attempting headstand in your yoga practice.
Do you understand what you have just read? If you do then continue reading, if you have not understood then go back and read it again. Now!
Tip No. 1 – Establish a good foundation.
This first tip cannot be emphasised enough. Without a strong foundation you can forget even thinking about attempting headstand. If you are already practising Salamba Sirsasana and have not done the necessary foundation work - stop doing headstands and go back and build your foundation. No supper until your vegetables are eaten! You will absolutely thank me for this tip later.
What constitutes a good foundation? Quite simply, the Dolphin Pose series A and B. These poses, Advadanta Sirsasana (Dolphin Pose) are absolutely essential to a headstand, they build strength in the chest, shoulders, upper arms and upper back whilst at the same time they develop flexibility in the thoracic spine (chest area).
Dolphin Pose series A consists of Dolphin Pose 1, 2 and 3. You need to be able to do the sequence of Dolphin 1, 2, 1, 3 and then 1 again – without taking a break. If you can do that then you are ready for the next stage of preparing for Headstand. The next stage is Dolphin Pose series B.
Series B is done supported on the elbows with the legs up the wall at a 90 degree angle to the torso. I won’t go into these postures in detail now, but I will cover them in another article.
Why am I so adamant about having these poses under your belt? Because I used to practise headstands in classes and had problems with alignment and strength in the pose, I could get into a headstand no problem but it did have issues. When I was doing my Teacher Training and I met my teacher in 2007, she would not allow me to do headstands until I had established this foundation. I practised Dolphin poses for 6 months until they were well established and only then did I return to my headstand. Sometimes I would practise the Dolphin Poses three times a day!
The strength and ease that came into my headstand the very first time I returned to it, validated all of the work that I spent in retraining. Trust me, you will send me notes of thanks if you follow this one tip.
Tip No. 2 – Establish a good foundation.
You are probably thinking – hang on a minute, didn’t we just cover this tip? Well, there are two parts to establishing your foundation. The first, is building the necessary upper body strength and the second is literally the establishing of the foundation for the headstand.
If you have followed Tip No.1 carefully, then you will have already learnt how to establish the foundation of the headstand. The foundation for the headstand is the positioning of the elbows, lower arms, wrists and fingers. This positioning of the hands and arms is exactly the same for headstand as it is for Dolphin Poses.
The first point is to ensure that your elbows are shoulder distance apart on the floor. No wider. Some teachers will have you measure the distance of your shoulders by wrapping your hands around your elbows, with your elbows on the floor. Whilst this will usually arrange your elbows shoulder distance apart it will also put one elbow slightly forward on the floor in relation to the other.
You may be thinking that this is no big deal, you will just move it back a fraction. A word of caution, your elbows will want to drift back to their original place. In my opinion it is far more effective that you use your eyes to see if your elbows are directly under your shoulders and perpendicular to the floor. Once the elbows are shoulder distance apart, whilst keeping them on the floor (very important), activate them in toward each other. This action is called scissoring, do this so that you feel the lower arm muscles roll in a little underneath the bones – it will feel like the muscles are gripping the floor or mat.
Next, ensure there is an unbroken line from your elbows, through your wrists, all the way to the knuckles of your fingers. Another very good teacher of mine describes this as the ‘karate chop’ hand.
From here interlock your fingers, with the tips of the thumbs contacting.
Now, here comes perhaps the most important part of establishing your foundation: when you interlock your fingers, lets say for the moment that you have your right index finger on top, you will notice that your left little finger is on the bottom. Take that left little finger and tuck it inside the palm of the right hand.
Why, I hear you ask?
Here’s why, and I want you to physically do this; interlock your fingers with the right index finger on top but do not tuck the left little finger inside the palms. Lightly put your interlocked hands onto a firm surface, perhaps onto a table top. What do you notice? You will notice that because you have not tucked your left little finger away that your right wrist is sitting slightly higher than your left and is probably not contacting the table. You will see light under your right wrist. If you then try to place the right wrist down to correct it you will create a broken line in the wrist, which will not be very strong and is going to stress the joints of the wrist. It also creates a slight twist.
Now try this; tuck that little finger away, and you will notice that the wrists can evenly contact the table surface and the line of the wrists stays unbroken and strong. If you interlocked your hands with the left index finger on top then you would tuck away the right little finger.
If you do not take the time to establish this properly, it would be akin to trying to drink your favourite coffee at the cafe whilst sitting at a wobbly table. If the table is wobbly it is quite likely that your coffee will spill and you will end up wearing it. Ouch! In yoga, the smallest changes make the biggest difference. Especially in a pose such as headstand.
Okay, so you have your fingers interlocked. The third part of the foundation is to ensure that your top wrist bone is stacked directly above the bottom wrist bone, or perhaps rolled in toward your body ever so slightly. Also ensure that the underneath surface of the wrists that are contacting the floor are grounding down firmly. Do not allow the top wrist bone to fall away from your body or you will lose strength in the arms that is necessary for the practice of your headstand.
That is a quite lot of information to take in for establishing your foundation, so practice it often. If you have been practicing the Dolphin Poses correctly then you will have already been practising this foundation.
This is probably the perfect place to leave these tips for now. More tips will follow in Part Two – for now, get to work on building that foundation! 
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