In short: in supported headstand the forearms rest on the floor with the fingers interlaced around the back of the head, the crown of the head touches the floor, and the body rises straight up above it. The forearms and shoulders carry the weight, not the neck. It is an advanced inversion: learn it step by step, ideally with a teacher, and skip it if any of the precautions below apply to you.
Headstand is often called the king of asanas. In the Sivananda tradition it opens the sequence of 12 basic postures; in Ashtanga it closes the practice in the finishing sequence; in Iyengar yoga it is studied in great detail with many variations. Most schools agree on one thing: build it slowly and never kick up into it.
The name
Śīrṣa means head, and sālamba means with support, so Sālamba Śīrṣāsana is the supported headstand. The support is the forearm-and-hands base; it distinguishes this pose from tripod headstand (Sālamba Śīrṣāsana II), where the palms are on the floor, and from the free-hand headstands of advanced practice. The Iyengar Yoga (UK) syllabus lists Sālamba Śīrṣāsana I at plates 184 to 190 of Light on Yoga. Swami Sivananda calls it the king of all asanas, and AshtangaYoga.info calls it one of the best-known postures of yoga.
Making the pose work
The base comes first. The Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch has you kneel, hold each elbow with the opposite hand to set the elbows shoulder-width apart, then interlace the fingers in front without moving the elbows, making a triangle with equal weight on all three points. The top of the head goes on the floor with the back of the head cupped by the hands. Yoga Journal adds: tuck the bottom little finger in so the outer edges of the hands are stable, and press down through the forearms so that the head carries very little weight.
Then lift in stages. Straighten the legs into a dolphin-like shape and walk the feet in until the hips are over the shoulders. Bring the knees to the chest with control, using the abdominal and back muscles; both sources warn against jumping or kicking up. Hold the tucked half headstand until it is steady, then open the hips so the bent knees point up, and only then straighten the legs. If at any point you feel more pressure on the head and neck, come out at once. Yoga Journal suggests starting with about 10 seconds and adding 5 to 10 seconds at a time; the Sivananda Ranch starts at 5 seconds and builds over time toward several minutes. Come down the same way, slowly, and rest in child’s pose for at least a minute before lifting the head.
Precautions in plain words
The Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch advises not practising headstand with high or low blood pressure, glaucoma or recent eye surgery, or a recent neck injury. Also avoid it with a detached retina, heart conditions, a history of stroke, osteoporosis of the spine, or neck pain, and do not start learning it during pregnancy. Yoga Journal recommends practising this inversion only under the careful supervision of a teacher who knows your practice, and avoiding it when you are stressed, short of sleep or tired. Use a wall while learning, a folded mat or thin blanket under the head if the floor is hard, and never let anyone push you up. This page is general information, not individual advice.
Headstand variations
Once the basic headstand is steady for several minutes, the traditions build on it. These are named here briefly with their sources; none has its own page yet.
- Pārśva Śīrṣāsana (side headstand): the trunk and legs twist to one side; Light on Yoga plates 202 to 203.
- Eka Pāda Śīrṣāsana (one leg lowered): one leg comes down toward the floor in front while the other stays vertical; plates 208 to 209. Not to be confused with the leg-behind-the-head pose of the same name.
- Pārśvaika Pāda Śīrṣāsana: one leg lowered out to the side; plate 210.
- Ūrdhva Padmāsana in Śīrṣāsana: lotus legs in headstand; plate 211. Piṇḍāsana in Śīrṣāsana: the lotus folded down toward the chest; plate 218.
- Baddha Hasta and Mukta Hasta Śīrṣāsana: headstands with the arms bound or with the hands free on the floor; plates 198 and 200 to 201. Ashtanga’s intermediate series has versions A to D of the bound-hands and A to C of the free-hands headstand.
- Ashtanga Śīrṣāsana B (also called Ūrdhva Daṇḍāsana): from headstand the straight legs lower to horizontal and stay there for ten breaths before going back up (AshtangaYoga.info).
Plate numbers are those listed in the Iyengar Yoga (UK) teaching syllabus. All of these are for experienced practitioners with a teacher.
Preparation and what comes next
Prepare with dolphin pose, downward dog, plank and forearm plank and standing forward bend; the Sivananda Ranch suggests starting with dolphin and progressing over time. Our headstand preparation plan lays out the stages. After headstand, rest in child’s pose. Many schools pair it with shoulderstand; schools differ on which comes first. Headstand is also the launch pad for advanced arm balances in Ashtanga’s third series, which start from tripod headstand.
You will meet headstand in Sivananda (first of the 12 basic asanas), Iyengar, Ashtanga (finishing sequence) and many hatha classes.
