Śīrṣāsana, the headstand

Sanskrit

शीर्षासनŚīrṣāsana

Meaning of the name

Head pose: śīrṣa, head, and āsana, posture; full name sālamba śīrṣāsana, supported headstand

Level

Advanced

Family

Inversion

In the texts

Modern posture; the hatha texts describe inversion as viparīta karaṇī (Hatha Yoga Pradipika 3.78-82)

The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, founded by Swami Vishnudevananda, a disciple of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, open their twelve basic postures with the headstand and call it the king of asanas. Its prestige is real, and so are its risks: in medical reviews of yoga injuries, it comes up again and again. The headstand rewards patience and punishes haste. Here are the precautions, what studies have measured, and a slow way in.

What studies say

There is no good-quality study showing a health benefit specific to the headstand, so we do not claim one. The research concerns its risks:

• Eye pressure doubles. In 75 practitioners from a yoga training institute, examined by eye doctors in Chennai (Baskaran and colleagues, 2006), eye pressure rose by about 15 mmHg as soon as they went into the headstand, roughly twice the baseline, and stayed there for the five minutes of the pose. The rise was uniform across age groups and showed no link with eye measurements. A case report (Gallardo and colleagues, 2006) describes the progression of glaucoma in a patient who had practised the headstand daily for many years; a single case proves nothing on its own, but it is one reason people with glaucoma are advised to avoid the pose.
• Adverse events. A 2013 systematic review of 76 published cases of yoga-related adverse events found the headstand among the most frequently cited postures, with shoulder stand, lotus and forceful breathing; the authors advise beginners to avoid it.
• Supervision matters. In a 2019 survey of 1,702 practitioners, hand-, shoulder- and headstands were the practices most often linked with acute adverse effects, and practising alone without supervision was associated with a higher risk. Most people recovered fully, and yoga overall had an injury rate comparable to other exercise.

Steps (with a teacher, against a wall)

1. Prepare for weeks with the dolphin: forearms on the floor, shoulder-width apart, hips lifted like a downward-facing dog on the forearms. Hold it for a minute with the shoulders strong.
2. Kneel facing a wall, a folded blanket on the floor. Interlace the fingers and place the forearms on the blanket, elbows shoulder-width apart, the hands about a forearm's length from the wall.
3. Place the crown of the head on the blanket, the back of the head held in the cupped hands.
4. Lift the knees, straighten the legs and walk the feet towards the face until the hips are above the shoulders. Press the forearms down so that the shoulders lift away from the floor. Many people stay at this stage for weeks: it is already the posture.
5. When this is easy, draw one knee to the chest, then the other, without jumping. Let the feet rest against the wall if you need.
6. Straighten the legs upward, slowly. Breathe calmly. Begin with a few breaths.
7. Come down the way you went up: knees bent, one foot after the other. Rest in child's pose for at least as long as you stayed up.

Alignment

• The forearms and shoulders carry most of the weight; the head only rests on the floor.
• The elbows stay shoulder-width apart; the shoulders lift away from the ears.
• The body forms one vertical line; the lower back does not arch like a banana.

Variations

• Dolphin (gentle version): the preparation, which can be practised on its own.
• Stage four only: legs straight, feet on the floor, hips over the shoulders.
• Legs up the wall: a gentle inversion with no weight on the head; see the shoulder stand card.
• Head-free inversions with props (headstand benches, ropes): some teachers use them to take the weight off the neck; learn them with a teacher.

Contraindications

• Neck injury, neck pain, cervical arthritis, osteoporosis: do not practise.
• Glaucoma, detached retina, recent eye surgery: avoid.
• High blood pressure, heart disease, history of stroke, epilepsy: avoid.
• Pregnancy: do not begin; ask your midwife or doctor.
• Headache, ear infection, sinus congestion: wait.
• Menstruation: several Indian traditions advise avoiding inversions during the period; this is a traditional recommendation, presented as such.

In the texts

The headstand, as taught today, is a modern posture. Neither the Hatha Yoga Pradipika nor the Gheranda Samhita lists it among their postures. They describe turning the body upside down as a mudrā, viparīta karaṇī, "the reversing technique", which places "the sun" (at the navel) above "the moon" (at the palate). The Hatha Yoga Pradipika gives the method of learning as clearly as the technique:

अधःशिराश्चोर्ध्वपादः क्षणं स्यात्प्रथमे दिने । क्षणाच्च किंचिदधिकमभ्यसेच्च दिने दिने ॥

adhaḥ-śirāś cordhva-pādaḥ kṣaṇaṃ syāt prathame dine | kṣaṇāc ca kiṃcid adhikam abhyasec ca dine dine ||

Head down and feet up, let one stay a moment on the first day; then, a little longer than a moment, one should practise day after day.

The same passage says the technique is learned "from the teaching of a guru, not from millions of treatises" (3.78). The text then promises that wrinkles and grey hair disappear after six months; that is its own claim, not a medical one. What remains valid is the method: a teacher, a moment on the first day, a little more each day.

Related postures

Prepare with downward-facing dog and the dolphin, build strength with plank and the crow. The other great inversion is the shoulder stand. Rest afterwards in child's pose and śavāsana. Read also is yoga safe? All the cards: the asanas chapter.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Baskaran M, Raman K, Ramani KK et al. Intraocular pressure changes and ocular biometry during Sirsasana (headstand posture) in yoga practitioners. Ophthalmology, 2006 DOI 10.1016/j.ophtha.2006.02.063 PMID 16806478 checked October 16, 2026
2. Gallardo MJ, Aggarwal N, Cavanagh HD et al. Progression of glaucoma associated with the Sirsasana (headstand) yoga posture. Advances in Therapy, 2006 DOI 10.1007/BF02850214 PMID 17276961 checked October 16, 2026
3. Cramer H, Krucoff C, Dobos G. Adverse events associated with yoga: a systematic review of published case reports and case series. PLoS One, 2013 DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0075515 PMID 24146758 checked October 16, 2026
4. Cramer H, Quinker D, Schumann D et al. Adverse effects of yoga: a national cross-sectional survey. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2019 DOI 10.1186/s12906-019-2612-7 PMID 31357980 checked October 16, 2026
5. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated by Pancham Sinh (Allahabad, Panini Office, 1914), Internet Archive checked October 16, 2026

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