In short: Viparīta Karaṇī, the “inverted action”, is a half-inverted position: lying on the back, the hips are lifted and supported, usually by the hands, so the legs point up while the trunk slants toward the floor and the shoulders, neck and head stay down. It began as a practice described among the mudras of hatha yoga, is taught as an asana in schools such as the Bihar School, and in the Iyengar tradition has a restful version on a bolster at the wall. It is an intermediate inversion.
The name is used for more than one practice, so this page explains each. The fully supported restorative shape most people know as legs up the wall has its own page.
The name: one term, three practices
Viparīta means inverted or reversed and karaṇī doing or action. In the 15th-century Hatha Yoga Pradipika it is a mudra, not an asana: Pancham Sinh’s 1914 translation describes placing the head on the ground and the feet up in the air, for only a moment on the first day and a little longer each day, and says the exercise is to be learned from a guru. The text explains it with the image of reversing the sun above the navel and the moon below the palate, and makes very large claims for daily practice, including the disappearance of wrinkles and grey hair; those are the text’s traditional claims, not medical findings. Swami Sivananda’s book Hatha Yoga likewise lists it in its chapter on mudras and bandhas, and his Yoga Asanas gives the technique in a few lines: lie down, raise the legs straight up, support the buttocks with the hands and rest the elbows on the ground. Read more about these practices on our mudras page.
The Bihar School’s manual Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha describes Vipareeta Karani Mudra as done like shoulderstand (using the arms as levers to raise the legs and back, then the hands supporting the back) except that the chin is not pressed to the chest and the trunk is held at about 45 degrees to the ground instead of vertical; it recommends it for beginners and for people with a stiff neck who cannot do shoulderstand. The Bihar School also teaches Viparīta Karaṇī as an inverted asana in which, unlike shoulderstand, much of the weight passes through the wrists and elbows as the hands support the pelvis. Its magazine describes it as strengthening the abdominal, shoulder, arm and neck muscles and notes that people who cannot do it, such as pregnant women or elderly people, can simply rest their legs against a wall instead. In the Iyengar tradition, Yoga Journal’s Mary Dunn teaches Viparīta Karaṇī as a supported pose with a bolster or folded blankets under the pelvis and the legs resting up the wall.
Making the pose work
In the hand-supported version, the hands act as a shelf: elbows on the floor no wider than the shoulders, the heels of the hands under the back of the pelvis. Lift the legs to vertical, or angle them slightly over the head, so the weight of the legs falls straight down into the hands rather than tipping you. The trunk stays at an angle, about 45 degrees to the floor in the Bihar manual, and the chin does not press into the chest as it does in shoulderstand. Keep the face, throat and breath soft. Start with short holds and come down slowly by lowering the knees toward the forehead and rolling the back down.
In the bolster version there is no muscular work at all: the pelvis is supported from the tailbone to the lower ribs, the buttocks are close to the wall and the legs rest on it. Yoga Journal’s Iyengar-based instructions suggest bringing the bottom of the buttocks slightly over the bolster toward the floor so you do not feel you are sliding toward your head.
Precautions in plain words
The Bihar School’s magazine advises that people with high blood pressure, glaucoma or high pressure in the eyes, retinal problems, or brain or heart conditions refrain from the inverted asana, because blood flow from the head is affected. Also avoid the hand-supported version with wrist, elbow, neck or lower back injuries. In pregnancy, choose legs up the wall on the floor rather than lifting the hips, and ask your provider. The hatha texts present the mudra as something to learn from a teacher, and that is still good advice. This page is general information, not individual advice.
Preparation and what comes next
Prepare with bridge, supported bridge and legs up the wall. The hand-supported version is a natural step toward shoulderstand. Afterwards, rest flat in corpse pose. Many teachers place inversions near the end of practice, before breathing practices or relaxation; see our pages on pranayama and mudras.
You will meet Viparīta Karaṇī in traditional hatha and Bihar/Satyananda yoga, in Iyengar classes and, in its supported form, in restorative yoga.
