“Sirshasana is really a blessing and a nectar. Words will fail to adequately describe its beneficial results and effects. In this Asana alone, the brain can draw plenty of Prana and blood. This acts against the force of gravity and draws an abundance of blood from the heart. Memory increases admirably. Lawyers, occultists, and thinkers will highly appreciate this Asana. This leads to natural Pranayama and Samadhi by itself. No other effort is necessary.”
— Swami Sivananda, in Yoga Asanas, pp. 15–16.
To be “stood on your head” is to be surprised and shocked, and this is the essence of the headstand—turning the world topsy-turvey and adjusting to being upended. To launch this jolt to our spirit, we balance on the top of a spheroidal surface—the cranium—which can be likened to balancing the pointed end of an egg on a button. The headstand not only inverts our vision of the world, it inverts the pattern of blood pressure in the body—increasing it in the head and dropping it to practically nothing in the feet. And because the increase in blood pressure in the head may be the first deciding ingredient in whether or not it is prudent to try the headstand, we’ll begin with a discussion of the cardiovascular system. Most of the rest of the chapter focuses on the musculoskeletal anatomy of the headstand and related postures: two techniques for doing the headstand and how each of them affects the neck and body; the anatomy of the upper extremities and methods for developing the strength needed for coming into the headstand safely; correction of front-to-back imbalances; breathing adaptations for inverted postures in general and the headstand in particular; and combining the headstand with backbending, forward bending, and twisting. Finally we’ll examine the question of how long one can remain in the posture.
THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
When you stand on your head the first thing you feel is pressure—pressure on top of the head, pressure in the arteries and veins, and pressure in the soft tissues of the head and neck. And along with these comes more subtle aspects of pressure—the demand for maintaining your balance and the psychological urge to come out of the posture. These physical and psychological pressures affect every system in the body in one way or another: musculoskeletal, nervous, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, urinary, immune, and reproductive. We’ll concentrate here on the most obvious one, which is circulation.
The heart pumps blood through two sequential circuits—pulmonary and systemic—from the right ventricle to the lungs and back to the left atrium in the pulmonary circulation, and then from the left ventricle to the body and back to the right atrium in the systemic circulation. In the pulmonary circulation blood picks up oxygen in the lungs and releases carbon dioxide; in the systemic circulation blood picks up carbon dioxide from the tissues of the body and releases oxygen. The flow of blood is unidirectional—from right atrium to right ventricle, to pulmonary artery, lungs, pulmonary vein, left atrium, left ventricle, aorta, body as a whole, veins, and back to the right atrium—around and around continuously from birth to death (fig. 2.1).
Each circuit contains arteries, capillaries, and veins. The pulmonary circulation to the lungs is a low-pressure (22/8 mm Hg), low-resistance circuit; the systemic circulation to the body is a high-pressure(120/80 mm Hg), high-resistance circuit. They are both affected by inverted postures, but we’ll concentrate on the systemic circulation first because most of our interest is in how the headstand affects the body as a whole.
BLOOD PRESSURE AND FLOW IN THE SYSTEMIC CIRCULATION
Any time someone says they have a blood pressure problem, what they are talking about is blood pressure in the arteries of their systemic circulation. Like atmospheric pressure, alveolar gas pressures, and blood gases (chapter 2), blood pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). When we say, “Normal blood pressure is 120 over 80 mm Hg,” or more simply 120/80, we are referring to the pressure of the blood against the inner walls of medium-sized arteries of the systemic circulation, usually measured in the arm when we are either sitting quietly in a chair or lying down (fig. 8.1). As pressures go these are low—the equivalent to about 2 pounds per square inch of air pressure in the tires of your car.
The two figures are significant. The blood pressure in an artery of the arm rises to 120 mm Hg as the heart pumps blood from its contracting left ventricle; this is the systolic pressure, which is named after the Greek word meaning “contraction.” Between contractions the pressure drops to 80 mm Hg as the left ventricle fills; this is the diastolic pressure, or the pressure between contractions. Blood pressure in an artery of the arm is only a small part of a bigger picture, however. From the left ventricle, blood is propelled successively through the aorta to large arteries, medium-sized arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, and veins, and blood pressure decreases from segment to segment. Within the heart itself—in the left ventricle—systolic blood pressure is 120 mm Hg and diastolic pressure is a mere 10 mm Hg, because the latter drops almost to nothing while the ventricle is filling with blood. The textbook standard of blood pressure is 120/80 mm Hg between the aorta and small arteries, and beyond the arterioles in the capillary bed it drops to about 15 mm Hg. On the venous side of the systemic circulation, blood pressure continues to drop in the venules and veins, and it is essentially 0 in the vena cava where that vessel opens into the right atrium of the heart (fig. 8.1).
Blood pressure in medium-sized arteries depends both on the heart acting as a pump and on peripheral resistance. The importance of the pump is obvious: a harder-working heart creates more pressure in the system. But the resistance to flow in the arterioles is just as important: as peripheral resistance increases, blood pressure in the arteries also increases. There are many neurological, hormonal, and other physiological factors that influence the heartbeat and peripheral resistance, but they are beyond the scope of this book; here we’ll note only that any time you become especially active or anxious, the sympathetic nervous system and hormones from the adrenal gland increase blood pressure by increasing both peripheral resistance and the strength and rate of the heartbeat.
Figure 8.1. This graph shows blood pressure in different parts of the systemic circulation at heart level. The continuous curves in the portions of the graph for large arteries, small arteries, and arterioles represent variations in systolic (top) and diastolic (bottom) blood pressure, and the dashed curve in the same regions represents averages (for example, about 100 mm Hg in large arteries). Systolic and diastolic pressures are no longer detected separately in capillaries and veins, and blood pressure drops essentially to 0 mm Hg where the vena cava empties into the right atrium (Dodd).
Blood pressure also varies in different parts of the body. It increases below the heart and decreases above the heart because the weight of the column of blood in an artery adds to (or subtracts from) the pressure generated by the heart and by peripheral resistance. In a standing position with blood pressure in medium-sized arteries at 120/80 mm Hg at heart level, blood pressure will be about 210/170 mm Hg in the arteries of the feet and about 100/60 mm Hg in the brain (fig. 8.2a). The only circumstances under which we’ll see blood pressure equalized throughout the body at 120/80 mm Hg is if we neutralize the effect of gravity by lying prone or supine, by submerging ourselves in water, or by taking up residence in a space capsule that is orbiting earth.
Turning upside down in the headstand reverses the figures seen standing in a straightforward fashion. Blood pressure will remain at 120/80 at heart level, at least if you are not under too much stress, but the pressure in the arm will rise to about 140/100 mm Hg because the arm is alongside the head and below the heart instead of level with it. We can calculate that blood pressure will only be about 40/0 mm Hg in the feet, with diastolic blood pressure dropping to zero, and with the systolic blood pressure of 40 mm Hg barely sufficing to perfuse the capillaries. Even then it’s marginal, which is why your feet may “go to sleep” and get pins-and-needles sensations if you remain in the headstand for a long time.
Figure 8.2a. Arterial blood pressure in a standing posture in muscular arteries in different parts of the body.
Figure 8.2b. Calculated arterial blood pressure in the headstand in muscular arteries in different parts of the body.
We can calculate that blood pressure at the top of the head increases from 100/60 mm Hg in a standing position to 150/110 mm Hg in the headstand (fig. 8.2b), or even higher if you are not confident of the posture. The headstand is therefore contraindicated for anyone who has abnormally high blood pressure for the simplest of reasons: the posture can increase blood pressure in the brain to dangerous levels—perhaps well above 150/110 mm Hg. Conservative medical opinion also recommends that you avoid the headstand even if high blood pressure is brought to a normal level with medication.
As important as blood pressure is, we can’t understand the cardiovascular responses to inverted postures without also considering the flow of blood through the system—both bulk flow through the major segments of the system and the rate of flow though specific vessels. Since it’s a one-way circuit, the same volume of blood per unit of time (about 5 liters per minute at rest) has to flow through each segment of the cardiovascular system. And there is also the question of rate of flow through individual arteries, capillaries, and veins. Just as a river carries water sluggishly where the river is wide, and briskly where it is constrained by tubes and by turbines that generate electricity, so does the rate of flow vary in the vascular system. The flow is speediest through arterioles, where it is choked off the most as well. It is slowest in the capillaries, and it flows at an intermediate rate through the veins, which carry blood back to the heart.
THE VENOUS RETURN
If the capillary beds and veins were static tubes with fixed diameters, blood would stream from the arterioles into the capillaries, pour from the capillaries into the veins, and be pushed all the way back to the heart by arterial pressure. But this is not the way the system operates. The capillaries and veins are expandable: they could easily accommodate all the blood in the body. And this can create a serious problem because within certain limits the amount of blood brought to the heart per minute (the venous return) regulates the volume of blood pumped by the heart per minute (the cardiac output). Here is what happens: As venous return increases, the additional blood stretches the walls of the ventricles, and when that happens, the stretched muscle fibers in the ventricles automatically pump more strongly, thus increasing cardiac output; as venous return decreases, the ventricles pump less vigorously, thus decreasing cardiac output. Therefore, the mechanisms for moving blood from capillaries, venules, and veins back to the heart are critical. If too much blood stagnates in those parts of the system, which can happen for many reasons, cardiac output decreases and the heart may not receive enough blood to pump to the brain and other vital organs.
When we are in a normal upright posture, the venous return from veins located above the heart is unimpeded, and blood drops like a waterfall to the right atrium. And at heart level (in the middle segment of the arm, for example) venous pressure is about 15 mm Hg. Since this is more than the 0 mm Hg where the blood enters the right atrium, it is still pushed easily back into the heart. The lower extremities are another story, however, and to get blood back to the heart from the feet, at least in an upright posture, the venous return has to overcome a pressure of about 140 mm Hg, which reflects the height of a static column of venous blood below the heart.
The mechanism for getting blood back to the heart from the lower extremities is beautiful in its simplicity and elegance. The veins below the heart contain one-way valves, and contraction of the skeletal muscles surrounding these valves acts as a “muscle pump” to squeeze blood through them and back toward the heart. When the muscles relax, the valves close to prevent backflow, insuring that the flow is unidirectional (fig. 8.3). Drill instructors in the military may not be aware of this mechanism, but they know that skeletal muscular activity is needed to get blood back to the heart, and that is why they instruct new recruits who are standing at attention on a hot day to isometrically contract and then relax the postural muscles of their lower extremities, which keeps them from fainting.
Figure 8.3. Skeletal muscle pump for venous return. On the left the muscle contracts, and blood can escape this segment of the vein only by being pushed through the upper valve. On the right, the muscle relaxes, and the upper valve is closed by venous back-pressure. As skeletal muscles become active throughout the body, alternately contracting and then relaxing, blood is pushed back to the heart mechanically (Dodd).
There are no valves in the head and neck: our upright posture has rendered them irrelevant. But when you are standing upright, a pool of blood courses slowly through the veins in the lower half of the body, waiting to be pumped back toward the heart by muscular activity. And if you are chronically inactive, fluids move so sluggishly out of this region that the processes of cellular nourishment and elimination are compromised. This gravity-induced congestion can affect any organ or tissue below the heart. Lying down for a night’s sleep helps correct the situation, but we still often see the effects of gravity in chronically swollen ankles, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids. One remedy is vigorous movement in which muscles alternately contract and relax in order to propel blood through the venous valves. And this is one reason nurses try to get people up and about as soon as possible after surgery and why health practitioners constantly preach the benefits of exercise. Yoga teachers do not disagree, but suggest another alternative—inverted postures.
What happens specifically when you turn upside down? In the first moments of the headstand blood pools in the capillary beds and veins in the region of the body superior to the heart—in the head, neck, and shoulders—where it is kept until arterial pressure forces it back around to the heart. And because there are no valves in the veins of this region, skeletal muscle contraction cannot assist its return. This is not very important if you stay in the headstand only 2–5 minutes, but if you want to extend your time in the posture it can become a problem. We’ll come back to this issue toward the end of the chapter.
[Technical note: There are many ways to affect venous return. Without naming the phenomenon, we looked in chapter 2 at the effects of a Valsalva maneuver—holding the breath and straining after an inhalation—in conjunction with hyperventilation. It also sometimes happens that X-ray technicians ask patients to hold their breath after an inhalation in order to get a more elongated and accurate profile of the heart, and if the patient gets overenthusiastic about this after locking the glottis, or if the technician dawdles, the unintentioned Valsalva maneuver impedes the venous return. If you hold the breath in this manner after a deep inhalation, the profile of the heart in a roentgenogram shrinks dramatically, and after 10-15 seconds, depending on how purposely you strain, the venous return is inhibited enough to cause you to pass out. One would not ordinarily think of trying the Valsalva maneuver in the headstand, and it’s plainly inadvisable. It won’t result in fainting because the inverted posture sends blood preferentially to the head, but it certainly causes a sharp and immediate rise in blood pressure. This is felt mostly prominently in the face, where it is disagreeable although probably not harmful—but for the brain and for the retina of the eye, look out: it is assuredly dangerous.]
THE PULMONARY CIRCULATION
The oxygenated blood that is pumped to the body from the left ventricle will be cycled straight back to the right side of the heart, and from there the passage of blood into the pulmonary circulation is like a slow-moving flood—5 liters per minute to the lungs. This pulmonary flow is the constant companion to the systemic circulation—5 liters per minute to the body. Inverted postures affect the pulmonary circulation very differently from the systemic circulation, and to understand how and why, we’ll need a few more details.
If blood pressure in the pulmonary circuit were 120/80 mm Hg, as it is in the systemic circulation, blood would perfuse through all parts of the lungs fairly equally, but pressure in the pulmonary circuit is much lower—only 22/8 mm Hg—and because of this the pull of gravity will markedly affect the pulmonary flow and distribution of blood. As we discussed in chapter 2, if you are sitting or standing quietly in an upright posture, the lower parts of the lung are perfused with blood efficiently and the upper parts of the lung are perfused sluggishly. Although studies of pulmonary arterial pressure relationships and blood flow in inverted yoga postures have not been published, it seems certain that the patterns of pressure and flow of blood in the lungs will be reversed, and that inversion will cause the upper rather than the lower parts of the lungs to be perfused with blood most efficiently. Deep breathing in the headstand (to be examined in detail later in this chapter) can remedy this because it ventilates the lungs generously from top to bottom and insures that minor variations in circulation are insignificant.
BARORECEPTORS
In chapter 2 we looked at oxygen-sensitive peripheral chemoreceptors in the large arteries that lead from the heart to the head. We also have baroreceptors at those same sites for detecting blood pressure. Increased blood pressure in any posture stimulates the baroreceptors, which in turn affects both limbs of the autonomic nervous system: it increases parasympathetic nervous system input to the heart, and it reduces sympathetic nervous system input to both the heart and the arterioles—all of which tend to lower blood pressure. This is called reflex hypotension, and some people are especially sensitive to its effects, possibly even experiencing enough of a drop in blood pressure to produce fainting from the pressure of a tight collar or from mild pressure of someone’s hands against the neck.
These reactions are pertinent to this chapter for several reasons. First of all, in the headstand, the baroreceptors are below instead of above the heart and will be subject to, and stimulated by, increased blood pressure. If you are entirely comfortable in the headstand, the input of the baroreceptors to the central nervous system will generally produce a lower heart rate and blood pressure than what is assumed simply on the basis of fluid dynamics. Second, if you have a general sensitivity to reflex hypotension, you might have an exaggerated response in the headstand and should approach it with caution and only after a lot of experimentation and preparation. Third, someone who has slightly elevated blood pressure in an upright posture might see that drop when they come into a comfortable headstand. Under such conditions, we would expect blood pressure to become elevated again upon standing. Last, if you are anxious and uncomfortable in the headstand, the accompanying increase in activity of the sympathetic nervous system could stimulate the heart, increase peripheral resistance, and elevate blood pressure excessively. These possibilities can only be checked out with a blood pressure cuff. In any case, unless you have a medical practitioner who is willing to take responsibility for advising you, the headstand is still contraindicated if you have elevated blood pressure in upright postures.
THE RECOVERY
If you stand up quickly after coming out of the headstand, you will feel a surge of blood falling from the veins in the upper half of the body. This will not hurt someone in good health, but conservative medical advice is to reverse these pressure and flow dynamics more slowly. Some instructors even recommend relaxing for a short time in the corpse posture (figs. 1.14 and 10.2) before standing. Whether you stand up immediately or cautiously, however, many authorities recommend that you remain upright, whether standing still, doing standing postures, or walking, for as long as you held the headstand.
CARDIOVASCULAR BENEFITS OF THE HEADSTAND
The literature on hatha yoga waxes eloquent on the wonders of the headstand. Kuvalayananda maintains that the posture benefits the special senses, the endocrine glands, and the digestive system, to name only a few, and Sivananda, in his usual style, calls the headstand “a panacea, a cure-all for all diseases.” Anyone who has had a lot of experience with the headstand will agree that it’s a marvelous posture, but it is not clear why this is. For a possible answer, the most obvious place to look is the inverted circulatory system. First, it is plain that when we are inverted, the venous return from the lower extremities is determined by the amount of blood pumped through the capillary beds, because once it gets into the venules it is quickly recirculated by the force of gravity. If you can remain in an inverted posture for just 3–5 minutes, blood will not only drain quickly to the heart from the lower extremities and the abdominal and pelvic organs, but tissue fluids will flow more efficiently into the veins and lymph channels, and this will make for a healthier exchange of nutrients and wastes between cells and capillaries.
It is also obvious that inversion increases blood pressure in the head and neck, the regions of the body that are filled with the body’s regulatory mechanisms: the brain’s hypothalamus, which regulates the autonomic nervous system and pituitary gland; the pituitary gland, which regulates many other endocrine glands; and the brain itself, which carries out all aspects of mental functioning. This region also contains the special senses that are so important in our interactions with the world: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and the sense of equilibrium.
Considered in isolation, the significance of this increased blood pressure in the head is uncertain. If peripheral arteriolar resistance were to remain constant when you come into a headstand, increased pressure would push more blood per minute into the capillary beds, increasing local blood flow, but without data to prove the point we cannot assume that will happen, because the increase in blood pressure might well be accompanied by enough increased peripheral resistance to keep blood flow the same. We do know that mental exercises and aerobic activities such as running increase blood flow to the brain, and if future research shows that the headstand produces the same result, it might help explain the intense but subjective feelings of well-being that accompany this posture.
THE TWO HEADSTANDS
If you were to watch a hundred hatha yoga teachers all doing the headstand at the same time, you would notice that they were not all doing it the same way. Some would be perfectly vertical, their eyes directed along a path parallel to the floor, their backs straight, and taking care to be balanced on the top of their heads. The other group, probably a minority, would be more relaxed, their eyes directed to the floor, their lumbar regions arched, and their heads balanced on a point a little more to the front than those in the first group.
These differences are lost on beginning students. When they first try to come into the headstand they are likely to be struggling, and one of the symptoms of their exertion is that they tend to balance much of their weight on their forearms with excess muscular tension in their arms and shoulders. Under those circumstances, where they position their heads against the floor is not critical. But after gaining more experience and building up their time in the posture beyond 1–2 minutes, they tire of supporting themselves so much with their upper extremities, and the question of where to position the head against the floor becomes more important. Many teachers are picky about this matter, some saying that the weight must be placed directly on the top of the head, and others saying that the weight should be placed more forward. Neither school of thought is incorrect. There are two ways to do the headstand, and these yield such different results that the two postures warrant separate names: the crown headstand and the bregma headstand.
For the crown headstand we place the weight of the body directly on the crown of the head, which is the topmost point of the cranium. For the bregma headstand we adjust the hand position slightly forward so the weight of the body is on a spot called the bregma, which is an inch or so in front of the crown, at the meeting point of the sagittal and coronal sutures (fig. 8.4). The sutures are fibrous joints: the sagittal suture links the two parietal bones in the midsagittal plane of the body, and the coronal suture links the two parietal bones to the frontal bone. Interestingly, the site in the head of a newborn baby where these two sutures have yet to meet and grow together is the soft spot—the anterior fontanelle—and the future bregma.
EXPLORING THE TWO POSSIBILITIES
Come into a kneeling position on a well-padded carpet or folded blanket, place the top of the head down, and brace it in the rear with the interlaced fingers. The forearms should be at about an 80° angle from one another. Now gently roll your head around and explore the possible spots on which you could place your weight. Notice that as you roll the forehead down, bringing the nose toward the floor and extending the head and neck, you tend to follow the rolling of the head with your interlaced fingers, and that if you place weight on the crown you move your hands more to the rear. To further explore, lift up the hips and walk the feet forward, keeping the knees bent as much as hamstring limitations require, and try different hand and head positions, supporting your weight only on the head and the feet. Now sit up and feel the top of the head. Sit perfectly straight and locate the highest point. This is the crown. Move the fingers forward about an inch. This is on or near the bregma. Behind the crown the cranium immediately rounds.
Figure 8.4. Human skull, viewed from the front (on the left) and from the side (on the right). For the crown headstand the weight of the inverted body is placed on the crown, the highest point of the cranium, and for the bregma headstand the weight is placed on the bregma, which is located about an inch in front of the crown at the intersection of the coronal and parietal sutures (Sappey).
[Technical note: Notice that you probably have a clear preference for how to interlace the fingers, both in the headstand and in daily life. You will automatically place each of the fingers of the right hand on top of their counterparts on the left hand, or vice versa. In the headstand you should make sure that you alternate the interlacing, because always holding the fingers the same way will create subtle imbalances.]
The next thing to do, especially if you are a beginner, is to find a sandy beach or a spongy grass surface and practice turning somersaults. Do a few child’s somersaults with the hands at the sides of the head, and then do them with the fingers laced behind the head and well to the rear. Notice that you do not need to make many adjustments in the head position as you roll over. Then try placing your weight on the crown. As you go into the somersault from this position you will find that you flex the head slightly before you flip over. Finally, place your weight on the bregma. Now you have to make a big adjustment in order to roll over. You have to either move your hands and flex the head forward, thus shifting the point of contact to the back of the head just before you roll into the somersault, or you will plop over backward instead of rolling. In the latter case you will have the option of falling flat on your back, which may not be comfortable even on a sandy beach, or of quickly extending the hips and flexing the knees as you start to fall, thus breaking the fall with your feet. The point of these experiments is to reduce your fear of the headstand by teaching you to roll down out of the posture gracefully if and when the need arises.
When you start to experiment with the headstand itself, it will become obvious that your main concern is that you might tip over backward. Even if practice somersaults have removed your fear of tipping over to the rear when you have to, you will still not do it by choice. So until you become confident, don’t hesitate to come part way up over and over again, and each time drop back forward on your toes the same way you started up.
THE CROWN HEADSTAND
Although either posture can be learned first, the crown headstand is more elementary and simpler to explain than the bregma headstand. So even though there is a greater tendency to somersault in the crown headstand, try this one first. To do it, come into the preparatory kneeling position and adjust the forearms at an 80° angle from the clasped hands. This is important because if the forearms are placed at an obtuse angle (greater than 90°), your weight will be distributed over a base that is too short from front to back, and the posture will be unstable. And since the tendency to fall to the side in the headstand is not as great as the tendency to fall forward or backward, a long front-to-back base is more desirable than a wide side-to-side base. You can approximate the correct angle by placing the elbows alongside the knees, planting your head directly on the crown, and bracing the interlocked fingers just underneath the back of the head to maintain the position.
The headstand is best learned in four stages. To come into stage one, lift the buttocks and start walking the feet forward. Advanced students who are able to fold their chests down against their thighs with their knees straight in the posterior stretch may want to keep their knees extended for approaching this stage of the headstand (fig. 8.5), but most people will not have long enough hamstrings to allow this. So flexing the knees as necessary, walk toward your head, then tiptoe. Keep coming until less than 5% of your weight is still supported by the feet. Your back is probably rounded, you are close to the point of tipping over, almost no weight is on the elbows, and the tiniest nudge from the big toes could lift you off (fig. 8.6a). This is stage one, an inverted posture that is worth practicing in its own right—a forward bend with an inverted torso.
Going from stage one to stage two is difficult because now the hips have to be raised, the back has to become flattened, and the feet have to be lifted off the floor—all while the lower extremities are positioned well to the front of your future axis for balancing. It is a problem comparable to standing up and reaching forward at shoulder height to lift a weight straight up. In that case even a light weight would be difficult to lift because of your poor mechanical advantage. Here, when you are going from stage one to stage two, all of the burden is on your back and forearms. During the course of this transit the lumbar region will be rounded, much of the weight of the lower extremities will be to the front of the abdomen, and you will have to support the posture with the forearms as you are coming up. Fortunately, the situation is only temporary. When you finally settle into a relatively stable position in stage two, the lumbar region will be flatter, and depending on your hip flexibility, the thighs will end up at a 45–90° angle from the pelvis (that is, flexed 90–135°; fig. 8.6b).
Figure 8.5. Stage one of the headstand with the knees straight. This is a useful starting position for those who have excellent hip flexibility and lengthy enough hamstrings, but impossible for those who do not.
Poor hip flexibility is the main obstacle when you are going from stage one to stage two. With the toes barely on the floor and the knees partially extended in stage one, short hamstring muscles keep tension on the pelvis and keep the back rounded posteriorly, and this prevents you from easily distributing the main bulk of your body weight above the head. The less flexible the hips, the more weight you will have to support on the forearms as you lift the feet. If you are quite strong this may not be a problem, but the average student will find it the most serious challenge to learning to do the headstand in stages.
In stage three you extend the hips, lifting the knees toward the ceiling while keeping them flexed. This is easy. As you extend the thighs the weight of the feet and legs shifts to the rear, and the lumbar region arches forward enough to maintain your balance (fig. 8.6c).
Figure 8.6a. Stage one of the headstand with the knees bent, a more realistic starting position for the average student. Keep walking your toes forward until you are almost ready to tip over. At this point only a slight nudge would cause you to somersault onto your back.
Figure 8.6b. Stage two of the headstand. This is a difficult stage to remain in for any length of time, because the weight of your lower extremities has to be supported by your deep back muscles.
The fourth and last step is to extend the knees. As you do this, the lumbar region will flatten as necessary to compensate for the fact that the feet and legs are now in line with the torso and thighs. You will gradually shift your weight off the forearms and balance on your head as you develop confidence in the final posture (fig. 8.6d).
Summarizing the four stages, first come into the preparatory position and walk forward until you are prepared to lift off without losing your balance; second, lift the feet and extend the back enough to bring the thighs to a 45–90° angle from the pelvis; third, extend the thighs while keeping the knees flexed and notice how this produces a pronounced lumbar arch; fourth, extend the legs while noticing that the lumbar arch decreases, and balance as much of your weight on the head as feels secure.
Figure 8.6c. Stage three of the headstand with the hips extended is very stable, and you can stay in it as easily as in the headstand itself. Notice, however, that the flexed knee position drops the feet to the rear, and that keeping your balance will require a more prominent lumbar lordosis than stage four. Wearing ankle weights or heavy shoes will make this plain.
Figure 8.6d. Stage four of the crown headstand with the knees extended is a balancing posture with only a little extra weight on the elbows. Shifting more weight to the forearms can be accomplished conveniently only by thrusting the pelvis forward and the feet to the rear, thus increasing the lumbar curve.
Most hatha yoga teachers recommend coming up into the headstand in stages because they know that by doing this students will master each step in sequence and maintain control throughout the process. But if you have tried this for some time and are frustrated because you are not making progress, there is an alternative. Walk the feet forward as much as you can, and then simply lift one foot into the air at a time, coming into stage three with the hips extended and the knees flexed. From there it is easy to come into the final posture.
Even if you come up into the headstand one foot at a time you can still work on coming down in stages. Notice how your weight shifts when you flex the knees for stage three. Next, as you flex the hips for stage two, notice that your weight shifts forward as the knees come to the front and that you have to place extra weight on the forearms or lose your balance. At this point you may drop quickly to the floor. It takes a strong back to stop coming down and keep your balance when the thighs are flexed, but as soon as you are able to go back and forth between stages three and two, and even more obviously between stages two and one, you will have all the strength you need to come into the headstand using this four-part sequence. These efforts are particularly important for the many beginners who, without some preliminary coaching, will tend to come up tippy all the way, maintaining a shaky balance from beginning to end.
Finally, after you have had a year or two of experience with the headstand, try the four stages of the posture wearing heavy shoes or light ankle weights. This will show you clearly how shifting the pelvis and lower extremities in stages two, three, and four affects your balance.
THE BREGMA HEADSTAND
You come into the bregma headstand in the same four stages you used for the crown headstand, but this version is easier for many students because the head is more firmly supported. Plant your head on the bregma and cup your interlocked fingers underneath the head rather than posterior to it. From this position it is easy to thrust the upper back posteriorly as you walk the feet forward into stage one. There will be little tendency to somersault. And after you have learned the bregma headstand (fig. 8.7), you may find it to be more stable than the crown headstand.
CONTRAINDICATIONS
We have already discussed why the headstand is contraindicated for those who have elevated blood pressure. They usually become aware of discomfort as soon as they place the top of their head against the floor in preparation for stage one. And if the instructor has properly cautioned everyone against doing any posture which causes unusual discomfort, there will not be any question in the student’s mind that they ought not complete even stage one, much less continue beyond that.
Most teachers also suggest that the headstand not be done during menstruation. Chronic or acute neck pain, excess weight, and osteoporosis are other obvious contraindications, as are glaucoma and other eye problems. We’ll discuss the headstand in relation to right-to-left musculoskeletal imbalances later in this chapter.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE NECK
Many teachers favor the crown headstand, feeling that placing the weight further forward creates hyperextension and strain in the neck. Others claim that this is erroneous, that placing the weight forward need not have adverse effects on the neck at all. To explore the subtle differences between the two postures, and to decide which is most suitable for your own personal practice, we must look more closely at the structure of the neck.
The neck is different from the rest of the vertebral column in several ways: it permits extensive twisting as well as forward, backward, and side bending; it contains only synovial joints between the skull and C2 (figs. 4.8, 4.10, 4.13a, and 7.1–2); it ordinarily supports only the head; and its vertebral bodies and intervertebral disks are relatively small. These features might lead an unbiased observer to caution against doing the headstand at all. And yet, we know that the posture is perfectly safe for those who are adequately prepared for it.
Figure 8.7. The bregma headstand is characterized by having the hands a little more underneath the head than for the crown headstand, and this rotates the atlas (and with the atlas the rest of the body) on the cranium just enough to place the weight of the body about an inch in front of the crown at the bregma, the intersection point of the parietal and coronal sutures. This posture also pitches the pelvis forward, and one will have to arch the lumbar region more than in the case of the crown headstand to remain balanced.
What is it, then, that allows the cervical spine of the well-prepared and average healthy person to bear the weight of the inverted body? Our first guess might be that the vertebral bodies and intervertebral disks support our weight by acting as a stack of building blocks. That point of view, from classical anatomy as it was understood until the mid-twentieth century, is now recognized as incomplete. The modern view is that in a healthy person without disk degeneration, it is the entire complex of vertebral bodies, intervertebral disks, vertebral arches, joints, muscles, and connective tissue restraints that is responsible for bearing the weight of the body. In that light, the relatively small size of the cervical vertebral bodies and intervertebral disks does not seem so critical, especially since the vertebral column as a whole in this region has considerable breadth (fig. 4.8).
To become aware of the total width of the cervical vertebrae, locate the lower rear corners of the mandible (the lower jaw) with your index fingers, find the mastoid processes just underneath the ears, and press deeply enough to find a bony point on each side between the mastoid process and the corner of the mandible. This is probably painful. The bony protuberance is the tip of the transverse process of Cl (chapters 4 and 7), and that’s how wide the vertebral column is at that site. Watch yourself in a mirror as you locate both of these points, and you’ll see that C1 is almost as wide as the neck (also refer to the drawing from the roentgenograms in fig. 4.8). Moving inferiorly, the transverse processes of C2 and below do not extend as far laterally as those for C1, but it’s still impressive to feel how wide the vertebral column is in this region. The architecture of the cervical spine is more than capable of safely supporting the headstand.
As far as hyperextending the neck is concerned, remember from chapter 7 that we can extend the head almost 20° by rotating the skull on the atlas alone, and that we can do this without extending the spine between C1 and T1. In the bregma headstand, that 20° is more than enough to allow us to balance without additional bending in the cervical region (fig. 8.7). Unless someone is ignoring signals such as chronic pain and discomfort, worries about the neck’s ability to withstand the stress of the headstand are usually misplaced.
THE CROWN VS. THE BREGMA HEADSTAND
The crown headstand is associated with a certain poise; the bregma headstand is associated with a certain zip. And the whole body seems to respond differently to the two postures. The natural response to the crown headstand is to hold the body straight, to keep the lower back flat, and to look straight ahead (fig. 8.6d). The sacroiliac joints will be in a neutral position between nutation and counternutation, or will be favoring counternutation. In the bregma headstand it is more natural to permit the lower back to relax and arch forward, allowing gravity to increase the lumbar lordosis (fig. 8.7) and to slip the sacroiliac joints into maximum nutation. The head and neck are slightly extended, and if you look straight ahead your eyes are directed toward the floor at a point several inches away from the head. You can also feel the extension of the head on the atlas that is so easily misinterpreted as extension of the neck between C2 and T1.
The bregma headstand has a more dynamic effect on your consciousness than the crown headstand. Its expression of energy seems to be related to the relaxed and arched lumbar region, which gives the bregma headstand the character of an inverted backbending posture. If you compare it to the crown headstand, which you can explore by moving your weight to the top of the head and flattening the back, the difference is obvious—the crown headstand is calm and poised; the bregma headstand is more dynamic.
Once you have learned both postures the bregma headstand is less tippy than the crown headstand. This is mainly because the fingers are braced under the back of the head and also because you do not have to maintain as much balance and tone in the postural muscles in the trunk to stay in the posture. You simply relax and allow moderate backbending to take place rather than keeping the lower back flattened with tension in the abdominal muscles. But be watchful. If you already have excellent flexibility for backbending, remaining passively in this posture for more than a minute or two can create lower back discomfort. The test: If you come out of the bregma headstand and have an urgent appetite for forward bends, it will probably be better for you to work mostly with the crown headstand.
THE UPPER EXTREMITIES
We know that the lower extremities form the foundation for standing postures: numerous muscles and ligaments attach the pelvic bones reliably to the sacrum and lumbar spine (figs. 3.4 and 3.7); the muscles of the hips, thighs, and legs flex and extend the hip joints, knees, and ankles; and the feet contact the earth. By contrast, the upper extremities are designed for touching, embracing, and handling tools. They are not foundations for any part of the body. Instead, it’s the other way around: the torso is the foundation for the upper extremities, starting with the shoulder girdle.
THE SHOULDER GIRDLE
The shoulder girdle is formed from front to back by the sternum, the clavicles, and the scapulae (figs. 4.3–4). But unlike the pelvic girdle, whose pubic bones unite with one another at the pubic symphysis anteriorly and whose ilia unite with the sacrum posteriorly, the shoulder girdle is incomplete. The scapulae do not mate with or even come very close to one another posteriorly, and they have only tenuous and indirect connections to the sternum in the form of the small acromio-clavicular joints between each scapula and clavicle, along with the small sterno-clavicular joints between each clavicle and the sternum (chapter 4). Unlike the solid pelvic bowl and its appendicular-axial articulations that hold a tight rein on, and yet permit nutation and counternutation, the shoulder girdle is merely a framework. Even so, it still acts as a foundation for the arms, forearms, and hands; and for coming into the headstand that foundation must support the weight of the body. How can it do this? The scapula is the key.
THE SCAPULAE
The connection between the scapula and the torso is almost entirely muscular. This means that when we turn upside down for the headstand and expect the upper extremities to support that posture, we have to depend on muscular strength and flexibility rather than on robust bones and joints designed for bearing the weight of the body. It is thus not surprising to find that inflexibility, discomfort, and weakness in the shoulders, arms, and forearms prevent many people from getting very far in the headstand.
Envision two flat, triangular scapulae (shoulderblades) floating on the upper back. Each one provides a stable socket (figs. 1.13, 4.3–4, and 8.14) for the head of the humerus, a socket that is stabilized almost entirely through the agency of five muscles on each side of the body: the trapezius, the rhomboid muscles, the levator scapulae, the pectoralis minor, and the serratus anterior. Then envision flexor, extensor, abductor, adductor, and rotator muscles taking origin from the scapula and inserting on the humerus, much as comparable muscles take origin from the pelvis and insert on the femur. There’s one big difference, however: while the pelvis is bound to the spine at the sacroiliac joints and forms a relatively immovable source from which muscles can move the thighs, the scapulae themselves participate in movements of the arms. Accordingly, its movements are critical for understanding all inverted and semi-inverted postures that are partially supported by the upper extremities.
To see how the scapula is held in place on the back of the chest wall, we’ll work from the inside out, starting with the deepest muscles, two on the front side of the chest and three on the back. The serratus anterior muscle takes origin from a broad area on the front of the chest (fig. 8.11), runs laterally around the rib cage (fig. 8.9), passes underneath the scapula to insert on its medial border (fig. 8.12), and acts to abduct it, that is, to pull it laterally. This action of the serratus anterior is crucial for many postures, as in holding the scapula in place for completing the peacock (fig 3.23d), where its serrated edge often becomes sharply outlined, especially in body-builders. One more scapular supporting muscle, the pectoralis minor, also takes origin from the front side of the chest, but this one inserts on the acromion of the scapula (fig. 8.11), and from that position pulls it forward.
The rhomboids and the levator scapulae stabilize the scapulae posteriorly. The rhomboid muscles adduct the scapula, pulling its medial border toward the midline from its origin on the thoracic spine (fig. 8.12), and the levator scapulae elevates the scapula, as its name implies, pulling on its upper border (fig. 8.12) from an origin on the transverse processes of C1–4.
The most superficial muscle that supports the scapula is the trapezius, so-named because the two trapezius muscles viewed together from the rear form a trapezoid (fig. 8.10). Each muscle is flat and triangular-shaped, takes origin medially from a line that runs from the skull to T12, and inserts on the clavicle and the spine of the scapula, the hard bony ridge you can feel on your upper back (fig. 8.10). Depending on which fibers of the muscle are active, the trapezius exerts traction to pull the scapula up, down, medially, or all three at the same time.
These five muscles not only stabilize the scapula, making a dependable foundation for movements of the arms, they move the scapula around on the surface of the back. The scapula can be moved laterally (the serratus anterior) and medially (the rhomboids); it can be elevated (the levator scapulae) or depressed (the lower fibers of the trapezius); and its pointed lower angle can be rotated out and upward (the trapezius and serratus anterior) or in and downward (the rhomboids, pectoralis minor, and levator scapulae). All of these movements are crucial to inverted postures and to the exercises that prepare us for them.
To check for yourself how the scapula works, ask someone who is slender, lightly muscled, and flexible to stand with their arms hanging alongside their thighs. Then trace the borders of both scapulae visually and by feel. The medial borders for each of these triangular bones are parallel to one another, an inch or so to either side of the midline, and the lateral borders angle up and laterally. The prominent bony landmark on top is the scapular spine. Next, while feeling the inferior angle of each scapula (its lowermost tip), ask your subject to slowly lift both hands overhead. Notice that as the arms are lifted each scapula rotates on an axis that runs roughly through the middle of the scapular spine, and from that axis you can feel that the inferior angle is carried in an arc out and up. This is called upward rotation. If this movement is constrained it will be harder to do the headstand, not to mention any other posture requiring an overhead stretch. Now ask your subject to lower both arms, spread the tops of the shoulders, and at the same time pull the inferior angles of the scapulae toward the midline of the body. This is the opposite movement—rotation of the inferior angle of the scapula down and medially, or downward rotation.
Other movements are self-explanatory. Still feeling the scapulae, ask your subject to do shoulder rotations. Watching carefully, notice that lifting the shoulders elevates the scapulae, pulling the shoulders downward depresses them, pulling the shoulders to the rear adducts them, and pulling the shoulders forward abducts them.
THE PECTORALIS MAJOR AND LATISSIMUS DORSI
Although most of the muscles that act on the arm take origin from the scapula and insert on the humerus, there are two major exceptions—the pectoralis major and the latissimus dorsi—both of which bypass the scapula on their way to insert on the humerus. The pectoralis major is the largest muscle that takes origin from the front of the chest (figs. 8.8–9). If you press your left hand against the side of your head with the arm angled out to the side, brace your left elbow with your right hand, and try to pull your left elbow forward and to the right, the pectoralis major tendon will tighten just above the axilla as it passes laterally to insert on the humerus. Its most powerful action is to pull the arm forward from behind, as when you try to do a push-up with the hands spread out laterally from the chest.
The latissimus dorsi takes a broad origin from the lower thoracic and lumbar spine, the sacrum, and the crest of the ilium (fig. 8.10), and from there it courses around the chest wall just lateral to the scapula (fig. 8.9), runs through the axilla, and inserts on the front of the humerus. It’s unique—the only muscle in the body that connects the lower and upper extremities; its most powerful action is extension—pulling the arm down from above as in swimming, or lifting the body in a chin-up (chapter 1).
SEVEN MUSCLES THAT ACT ON THE ARM
Seven muscles take origin from the scapula and insert on the humerus. The middle segment of the deltoid (figs. 8.8–10) and the supraspinatus (figs. 1.1 and 8.12) abduct the arm, lifting it to the side. The teres major, acting synergistically with the latissimus dorsi, extends the arm, pulling it down and back (figs. 1.1, 8.12 and 8.14). The coracobrachialis, acting synergistically with the pectoralis major, is a flexor and acts to pull the arm forward (figs. 8.11 and 8.13). The infraspinatus and teres minor (figs. 1.1 and 8.12) pass to the rear of the head of the humerus and serve lateral rotation, and the subscapularis (figs. 1.13, 2.8, 8.11, and 8.13) passes from the underneath side of the scapula to the front of the head of the humerus. There the subscapularis serves as an agonist for accomplishing medial rotation of the arm (which also happens to be another powerful action of the latissimus dorsi that can be sensed—along with extension—in a swimming stroke).
Figure 8.8. Superficial muscles of the body (anterior view; Heck)
Figure 8.9. Superficial muscles of the body (side view: Heck)
Figure 8.10. Superficial muscles of the body (posterior view; Heck)
Figure 8.11. Intermediate layer of muscles (anterior view; Heck)
Figure 8.12. Intermediate layer of muscles (posterior view; Heck)
Figure 8.13. Deep muscles of the body (anterior view; Heck)
Figure 8.14. Deep muscles of the body (posterior view; Heck)
Four of these seven muscles—the teres minor, the supraspinatus, the infraspinatus (figs. 1.1, 1.13, and 8.12), and the subscapularis (figs. 1.13, 2.8, and 8.13)—form the well-known and important rotator cuff, which stabilizes the head of the humerus in the glenoid cavity (figs. 1.13 and 8.13). Without these, the action of other powerful muscles such as the pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi would quickly dislocate the shoulder. The rotator cuff muscles, in addition to acting from the scapula to the humerus, can also act in the opposite direction—from the arm to the scapula—assisting the trapezius, rhomboids, levator scapulae, pectoralis minor, and serratus anterior in stabilizing the scapula from one of the many fixed arm positions in the headstand and other inverted postures.
THE FOREARM, WRIST, AND HAND
The muscles that act throughout the rest of the upper extremity are easy to envision. The biceps brachii originates from the front of the arm and inserts on the forearm (figs. 1.1, 8.8–9, 8.11, and 8.13); its action is to flex the elbow concentrically, or resist its extension eccentrically. It is this muscle that powerfully resists extension of the forearm as you come forward into the peacock posture (fig. 3.23d). The triceps brachii originates from the back of the arm and inserts on the olecranon (figs. 1.1, 8.9–10, and 8.12); it acts to extend the elbow and resist its flexion. In the headstand it limits forearm flexion, and in the scorpion it contracts isometrically, keeping the elbows from collapsing (fig. 8.31). Other muscles in the forearm supinate (fig. 8.13) and pronate (fig. 8.8) the forearm. Movements of the wrists, hands, and fingers are accomplished by flexors on the anterior side of the forearm and hand (fig. 8.11), and by extensors on the posterior side of the forearm and hand (fig. 8.10). The flexors are activated any time you make a fist or plant your hands on the floor for postures such as the down-facing dog (figs. 6.17 and 8.26), the upward-facing dog (figs. 5.13–14), or the plank posture (fig. 6.16).
THE MOVEMENTS OF THE ARM
The movements of the arms at the shoulder joint are more complicated than the movements of the thigh at the hip joint because the range of possible movements is greater, and also because the separation of the shoulders by the width of the rib cage allows the arms to be pulled across the chest in a manner that has no counterpart in the lower extremities.
In their simplest form flexion and extension of the arms are movements in a sagittal (front-to-back) plane of the body, abduction and adduction are movements of the arms in a frontal (side-to-side) plane of the body, and medial and lateral rotation of the arms are movements of axial rotation. These can all be superimposed onto one another: you can flex, adduct, and rotate the arm all at the same time. And because the scapulae are also involved, the movements can best be understood by checking out the accompanying shifts of the scapulae on a partner.
FLEXION AND EXTENSION
First considering flexion, if you start from the anatomical position (fig 4.2) with the hands alongside the thighs and then lift your arms up and forward until they are straight out in front of you, you will be flexing them 90° (fig. 8.16), and you can continue this movement (flexion) up through an arc of 180° overhead, stopping anywhere along the way. Next considering extension, if you pull the arms straight to the rear from the anatomical position, you will be extending them. This movement does not occur in isolation, however; it also requires adduction of the scapulae (pulling them toward one another medially). Most people can extend their arms in a sagittal plane about 45° to the rear from a neutral position alongside the chest (fig. 8.15; figure also shows adduction superimposed on extension).
ABDUCTION AND ADDUCTION
For abduction, first envision a frontal plane running through the ears, shoulders, chest, and lower extremities. Moving the arms from the anatomical position within such a plane, they will have been abducted 90° if you lift them straight out to the sides (fig. 8.17). Then if you continue to lift them until they are straight overhead, they will have been abducted 180°, in the same final position, incidentally, as when they are in 180° of flexion. The 180° of abduction and/or flexion, strictly speaking, always includes 60° of upward rotation of the scapula, which we considered earlier.
Depending on your starting position, adduction is more complicated than flexion or extension. In the simplest situation, if you start with the arms straight out to the sides and then drop them down to a neutral position alongside the chest, you will be adducting them 90°. And if you start from 180° overhead, as in the final position for the tree (chapter 4), adduction will first swing the arms away from overhead to the spread-eagled 90° position (straight out to the sides) before coming back to the fully adducted position alongside the chest.
Adduction can also be superimposed on other movements. You can start with the arms flexed forward 90° (straight out in front) and then adduct them across the chest past one another, bringing the elbows together (fig. 8.18). You can also start with the arms abducted 90° and then adduct them, not only straight back down into the anatomical position, just described, but toward one another behind your back, at least minimally (fig. 8.19). Adduction of the arms to the front from a flexed position also rounds the shoulders, which includes abduction of the scapulae (fig. 8.18); adduction of the arms to the rear from an abducted (fig. 8.19) or extended (fig. 8.15) position includes pulling the shoulders to the rear, which in turn includes adduction of the scapulae.
CIRCUMDUCTION
You can combine flexion and extension of the arm with abduction and adduction to yield the sequential movement called circumduction (see chapter 6 for circumduction of the thigh). For circumduction of the arm, flex it forward 90° while adducting it toward the midline, lift it overhead 180°, pull it around to the rear in an extended and adducted position, and then return it to a neutral position alongside the chest. Feel how circumduction of the arm affects the scapula: in the above sequence, circumduction of the arm first abducts the scapula as a result of flexing the arm forward and pulling it across the chest, then it elevates the scapula by lifting the arm overhead, adducts the scapula by pulling the arm to the rear, and depresses the scapula by bringing the arm back alongside the chest.
Figure 8.18. Arms flexed 90?, then adducted.
Figure 8.19. Arms first abducted 90° (as in fig. 8.17), then adducted by pulling to the rear.
MEDIAL AND LATERAL ROTATION
Medial and lateral rotation of the arms in the shoulder joint is comparable to medial and lateral rotation of the thighs; they are movements of axial rotation around an imaginary line through the center of the humerus. If you stand in the anatomical position with the elbows extended and rotate the arms so that the palms face to the sides as much as possible, you will be rotating the arms laterally about 30°. Medial rotation of 60° is also possible but harder to isolate because it is easily confused with pronation of the forearms.
Medial and lateral rotation of the arms can be carried out in any position in combination with flexion, extension, abduction, or adduction. For example, let’s say you abduct the arms 90° straight out to the side. Next, to avoid confusing arm rotation with supination and pronation of the forearms, flex the elbows 90°, pointing your hands straight to the front. Now swing the hands down through an arc of 30°: this motion has just medially rotated the arms that amount. Or, swing the hands up, with the fingers pointed toward the ceiling (the “get your hands up” gesture in a grade B Western). This motion has just laterally rotated the arms 90°. Notice that the scapulae participate extensively in all of these movements.
COMING INTO THE HEADSTAND
Now we can describe the movements of the upper extremities as we come into the headstand. The forearms remain flexed throughout, but the position of the arms varies: they are flexed about 90° in the starting position, about 165° in stage one (fig. 8.6a), and about 135–150° in stages two, three, and four (figs. 8.6b–d). These figures reflect the need to balance the weight of the lower extremities by adjusting the angle of the torso to the floor. At one extreme (stage one) the torso is pitched backward maximally, and at the other extreme (stage three) the position of the feet hanging to the rear requires the torso to be pitched slightly forward. When you are balanced in a straight line from head to toe in stage four and the arms are no longer supporting much weight, they are flexed about 150°.
As expected, flexion of the arms in the headstand is accompanied by shifts in the positions of the scapulae. If someone both watches and feels your back as you walk your feet forward toward stage one of the headstand (that is, as your arms go from 90° of flexion to 165° of flexion), they will notice that the scapulae become abducted, depressed, and rotated upward. Then, as you initiate the effort to move from stage one toward stage two, they will notice a gathering of strength in all the muscles that attach to the scapulae in the form of a rippling effect that accompanies the act of lifting the lower extremities off the floor toward stage two. Most of the weight of the body is now being supported by the scapulae and their surrounding muscles. The effort subsides slightly in stage two but does not diminish markedly until stage three. Finally, in stage four you are balancing with the least effort. If you are an experienced student, only slight adjustments and moderate isometric tension in the muscles are needed to maintain the final posture. If you start to tip backward, the tension eases, and if you start to tip forward, placing more weight on the forearms, more isometric tension develops.
Beginning students should be watched carefully as they are learning the headstand because they tend to allow the scapulae to become elevated and adducted rather than depressed and abducted. And they often have trouble achieving enough upward rotation of the scapulae, which is essential for the abducted arm position in the headstand. Any of these errors or deficiencies produce an unattractive, inelegant posture. Instructors make corrections by saying “support the posture with conscious tension in the shoulders,” or “lift the body away from the floor with the shoulders.” But once the scapulae are stabilized in their final position, the isometric tension can be eased.
STRUCTURAL IMBALANCES
When yoga instructors talk about structural misalignments of the body, they usually mean side-to-side imbalances—distortions of our bilateral symmetry. And for this reason they often suggest that students either practice in front of a mirror to search out right-left discrepancies, or feel experientially if they can bend or twist to one side more easily than the other. Only when teachers make such comments as, “Square your shoulders, stand up straight, pull your head more to the rear, tuck the pelvis, or don’t tuck the pelvis,” are they referring to front-to-back imbalances. You can’t see those yourself except with a set of mirrors arranged to allow you to watch your posture from the side. Until now almost all of our focus has been on side-to-side imbalances, but we must be concerned with both possibilities when we consider the headstand.
SIDE-TO-SIDE IMBALANCES
The headstand is a balancing pose, and as such, it is not designed to correct side-to-side imbalances. That is best accomplished by postures in which you use a whole-body muscular effort. Watch yourself in a mirror while you are doing the headstand. If your head is at an angle, if one hand is covering your ear on one side, or if you see plainly that your body is tilting to one side, you have side-to-side imbalances and should forget about the head-stand until these have been corrected by other postures. The headstand will only make them worse, and a close look at the muscles of the neck will make the reason for this plain.
THE SUBOCCIPITAL MUSCLES
Working from the inside out, the deepest muscles of the neck and shoulders are four pairs of suboccipital muscles (fig. 8.20): the rectus capitis posterior major runs from the spinous process of the axis (C2) somewhat laterally up to the skull; the obliquus capitis superior runs from the skull to the transverse process of the atlas (C1); the obliquus capitis inferior, which completes the suboccipital triangle, runs from the transverse process of C1 to the spinus process of C2; and the rectus capitis posterior minor runs straight up from the spinous process of the axis to the skull.
These muscles are responsible for the small movements at the top of the neck which we explored in chapter 7. For example, tipping the head to the right 5°, rotating to the right another 5°, and then extending the head back 5° are all accomplished between the cranium and C2 by concentric shortening of the suboccipital muscles on the right side and by eccentric lengthening of those on the left. In the headstand these muscles all become isometrically active as extensile ligaments, and if you come into the headstand with the head always tipped off axis in the same direction, even a little, the suboccipital muscles will dutifully hold you in that position and accentuate the imbalance.
Figure 8.20. A deep dissection of the back of the upper cervical region showing the suboccipital muscles. The trapezius and large strap muscles of the neck have all been removed. Starting with an awareness of the movements possible at the joints between the cranium and the atlas, and between the atlas and the axis (chapter 7), the actions of the suboccipital muscles can be inferred by their anatomical arrangements. For example, the two rectus capitis posterior major muscles acting in unity with the two obliquus capitis superior muscles can only rotate the cranium backward on the atlas. Another example is that the right obliquus capitis inferior acting alone (but probably resisted by the left obliquus capitis inferior) can only rotate the atlas (and with the atlas the entire head) on the axis to the right, making use of the dens as a pivot joint. A last and more complex example is that the right rectus capitis posterior major acting across two joints between the cranium and the spinous process of the axis will combine two actions: it will rotate the head to the right (which is a result of the atlas and therefore the head as a whole rotating around the axis), and at the same time it will lift the chin and drop the back of the head to the rear (which is a result of the cranium as a whole rotating on the atlas). (from Sappey).
THE STRAP MUSCLES OF THE NECK
Superficial to the suboccipital muscles are the larger strap muscles of the neck (figs. 4.14 and 5.5). Three of the big ones are the semispinalis capitis (fig. 5.5), which runs from the transverse processes of C7–T6 straight up to the skull, the splenius capitis (fig. 5.5), which runs from the spinous processes of C7–T6 to the mastoid process (the bony protuberance just below the earlobe), and the sternocleidomastoid muscle (fig. 8.11), which runs from the sternum and clavicle up to the mastoid process. The first two of these are visible posteriorly, and the last is visible anteriorly.
The strap muscles of the neck also act as extensile ligaments in the headstand and react like the suboccipital muscles to harden right-left imbalances and make them even more deeply ingrained. One way to know if this is happening is if you feel soreness or tension more on one side than the other after you come out of the posture. Balanced, the paired muscles act equally for maintaining the pose, and if they get sore they get equally sore on both sides. The paired sternocleidomastoid muscles, for example, act together in an upright posture to pull the head forward. These muscles resist extension in the bregma headstand and get stronger if you practice that posture regularly. But if they get imbalanced, unilateral stress becomes apparent, and the headstand will only make the situation worse.
FRONT-TO-BACK IMBALANCES
Front-to-back imbalances are another matter, and making a conscious choice to correct them with one or other of the two headstands makes a lot of sense. If the back is relatively flat, with a lumbar lordosis that barely arches forward in the upright posture, you can gradually correct this by relaxing in the bregma headstand every day as a part of a balanced practice. Over time the lumbar region will gradually increase its arch. The opposite problem is swayback, in which the lower back is overly arched to begin with, and under those circumstances the bregma headstand is contraindicated and the crown headstand will be more useful.
BREATHING ISSUES
For those who can do it easily, the headstand is the best possible training posture for abdominal (abdomino-diaphragmatic) and diaphragmatic (thoraco-diaphragmatic) breathing (chapter 2). It invokes the most complete use of the diaphragm of any posture, and it does so automatically because the headstand both encourages abdominal breathing and restricts chest breathing.
THORACIC AND PARADOXICAL BREATHING
We saw in chapter 2 that the first requirement for learning abdominal and diaphragmatic breathing is to discard the habits of chronic chest and paradoxical breathing, and the headstand makes this possible. If you are familiar with the four methods of breathing in upright postures, and if you practice the headstand regularly, come up in the posture and try to breathe thoracically and then paradoxically. It’s not so easy, because the rib cage is held in place by isometric contraction of muscles throughout the torso. Even the intercostal muscles participate in stabilizing the headstand isometrically, and it is difficult for them to do that and at the same time mobilize the rib cage for chest breathing. What is more, four of the five muscles that hold the scapula in place (excepting only the levator scapulae) have their origins on the chest and tend to hold it in a fixed position. And finally, the pectoralis major stabilizes the chest from the front, and the latissimus dorsi envelops it from behind. Taken together, these restrictions bind the rib cage so firmly that lifting it toward the floor for chest and paradoxical breathing would be unthinkable.
ABDOMINAL AND DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING
If the headstand prevents thoracic and paradoxical breathing, it necessitates abdominal and diaphragmatic breathing by default. Abdominal breathing should be the initial choice for novices. At the end of exhalation the abdominal organs are pushed superiorly (toward the floor) by the force of gravity, and this lengthens the muscle fibers of the diaphragm nearly to their working maximum. This means that the inhalations that follow will be deep and satisfying. The diaphragm will not only be drawing air into the lungs, it will be pressing the abdominal organs to a more inferior position in the trunk (toward the ceiling) from fixed origins on the base of the rib cage and the lumbar lordosis. And even though it is working against the force of gravity, this is the easiest way you can inhale. It’s also extra exercise, it strengthens the diaphragm, and it creates the purest form of abdomino-diaphragmatic breathing.
What about diaphragmatic (thoraco-diaphragmatic) breathing in the headstand? This happens if you take deep inhalations: if you take as few as three breaths per minute, which is easy in the headstand as well as rewarding for anyone who has good respiratory health, you will feel the diaphragm flare the base of the chest during the last half or third of inhalation, which is the defining characteristic of diaphragmatic breathing (chapter 2). This is feasible because the muscles that suppress expansion of the rib cage from above in thoracic and paradoxical breathing do not provide nearly as many restrictions to its expansion from below.
When you exhale in inverted postures, the muscle fibers of the diaphragm don’t just relax and allow its dome to move passively as usually happens when you exhale in upright postures (chapter 2). Upside down, the diaphragm stays in a state of eccentric contraction throughout exhalation to restrain the abdominal organs from a free fall toward the head.
You can see this for yourself if you come into the headstand (or shoulderstand) and observe your cycle of breathing. Just focus on breathing evenly and naturally. Then at the end of a normal inhalation, relax suddenly. What you notice on your own will also be apparent if you ask a room full of students to try the same experiment. You, and most of them, will exhale with a sudden whooshing sound as the diaphragm relaxes, the organs drop toward the floor, and the lungs deflate. This does not happen in normal upside-down exhalations because the more fundamental impulse in the headstand, at least in a yoga practice, is to restrain exhalation.
THE FUNCTIONAL RESIDUAL CAPACITY
Because the muscle fibers of the diaphragm are lengthened to their working maximum during an inverted exhalation, the functional residual capacity of the lungs (chapter 2) will be substantially reduced. You can test this if you first sit upright and breathe in and out the tidal volume associated with normal relaxed breathing. Then, at the end of exhalation breathe out as much as you can (your expiratory reserve volume). In chapter 2 we estimated this to be around about 1,000 ml, or about two pints.
To continue the experiment, come into the headstand (or shoulderstand) and breathe normally for a minute or so to establish equilibrium. Then, at the end of a normal exhalation try breathing out as much as you can. You will see instantly that you cannot breathe out nearly as much as you could in the upright position. Your tidal inhalations and exhalations have shifted much closer to your residual volume, closer even than we saw in the corpse posture (chapter 2). Let’s say for illustration that your tidal volume when you are upside down is a standard 500 ml, and that your expiratory reserve volume decreases to 200 ml (instead of 1,000 ml in an upright posture and 500 ml in the corpse posture). Your resulting functional residual capacity will be 1,400 ml instead of the 2,000 ml in an upright posture and the 1,700 ml in the corpse posture (fig. 8.21). What all this means is that a constant alveolar ventilation of 4,200 ml/minute will be more efficient in transferring oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the blood in the headstand than in an upright posture or in the corpse posture. Inverted, you will either transfer gases more efficiently, thus increasing blood oxygen and decreasing blood carbon dioxide, or you will slow down the rate and or the depth of your breathing to keep your blood gases within a normal range (fig. 8.21).
The richness associated with how one tends to breathe in the headstand probably accounts at least partially for why the posture is praised so fulsomely by experienced teachers in the literature of hatha yoga. In the headstand the diaphragm is in a state of contraction during both inhalation and exhalation; it acts from a mildly stretched position at the end of deep exhalations; it operates as a piston smoothly and independently within the chest wall; and it is exercised more than usual because it has to push the abdominal organs toward the ceiling in addition to drawing air into the lungs. Even students with the worst breathing habits in upright postures will have to use their diaphragm for respiration in the headstand.
Figure 8.21. Simulated ventilation, sitting upright (far left in above figure, and repeated from first panel in fig. 2.14), and three possible modes of breathing in the headstand.
DEVELOPING STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY
Many people practice and even teach hatha yoga for years without being able to do the headstand themselves. Women generally face two challenges: less upper body strength than men and a greater proportion of their weight in their hips and thighs. To manage and balance this weight they will have to develop more strength in their upper extremities, back, and abdomen. For men the commonest challenge is poor hip flexibility, which makes it difficult to lift up into the posture in stages. So men can try to develop more hip flexibility, and both men and women can offset their respective limitations with more strength in the shoulders and torso.
HIP FLEXIBILITY
We can analyze the problem of hip flexibility by looking at two extremes, first at how difficult it would be to come up in the headstand if you had no hip flexibility at all. If the thighs and pelvis were in a cast that held them in the same plane so that you could flex only the spine, knees, and ankles, the only way you could get up in a headstand would be to place your head on the floor, bend as much as possible in the vertebral column, and, with a stupendous effort from your ankle and knee extensors, throw yourself up into the air. With enough practice—probably after thumping over onto your back several hundred times—you might be able to do it.
To envision the other extreme, think how easy it would be to come into the headstand if you had 180° of hip flexibility with the knees extended, and if the length of your combined torso, head, and neck were exactly equal to the lengths of your thighs, legs, and feet. You could plant your head on the floor and walk yourself into a folded head-foot stand with your toes on the floor near the forehead. Then you would only have to tiptoe enough further forward to balance on your head and come up into stages two, three, and four of the headstand—all with minimal abdominal and back strength, and with minimal help from the upper extremities.
Between the two extremes your work is cut out for you. Any posture that develops strength in the abdomen, back, and upper extremities, and any posture that improves hip flexibility will bring you closer to a successful headstand. Dozens of postures are helpful, some for strength, some for flexibility. Backbending and prone boats, forward bending and sitting boats, standing twists and bends, standing triangles and lunges, leglifting, hip-opening exercises, and sitting spinal twists are all helpful. The peacock and wheel will do wonders. Certain shoulderstand variations (chapter 9) will also be helpful, such as coming slowly into and out of the bridge from the shoulderstand, and coming slowly into and out of the plow.
SELECTED STANDING POSTURES
If you have come to an impasse as far as progress toward the headstand is concerned, a good place to begin is with two of the arm positions in the series of standing twists and bends outlined in chapter 7 (figs. 7.17–18). Both the position with the forearms interlocked behind the head (fig. 7.18b) and the cow-face hand position (fig. 7.18e) are excellent exercises for developing mobility of the shoulders and arms and for preparing you to place them confidently when you negotiate the four stages of the headstand. These postures, as well as the rest of that series, also develop much needed hip flexibility, as well as back and abdominal strength.
For right-left balance, repeat both arm positions alternating the way the right and left upper extremities are placed. This is obviously crucial for the cow-face position. If you can’t reach far enough to interlock the fingers in that posture, hang a washcloth or hand towel from the hand reaching down from above, and grab it from below with the other hand. Last, if the exercise is easier on one side than the other, do it repeatedly as a three-part series—difficult side, easy side, and difficult side again. Don’t be obsessed or impatient, however, because if you traumatize the elbow joint on the tight side with repetitive stress, it could set you back for a year or more.
THE CROW
Now we turn to a series of postures that build strength in the upper exremities, starting with the crow, a moderately inverted balancing posture. Start with the hands on the floor about eight inches apart, the wrists extended 90°, and the elbows locked. Most of the weight of the body is on the balls of the feet; the ankles, knees, and hips are all flexed; and the thighs are moderately abducted with the lateral sides of the elbows against the medial sides of the knees (fig. 8.22a). To come into the posture, lift the hips, bend the elbows, and take your weight forward. As you do that the knees will remain flexed, the feet will be lifted off the floor, and you will end up balancing in a plane that passes through the hands, the mid-section of the arms, and the upper parts of the legs just below the knees (fig. 8.22b).
Figure 8.22. Crow posture (b) and starting position for the crow (a). The crow is a moderately inverted balancing posture that will develop strength in the upper extremities, get you accustomed to inversion of the torso, and give you confidence to begin work with the headstand.
Like the headstand, the crow requires courage, flexibility, and strength—courage to risk falling on your nose, enough hip flexibility to bring the thighs alongside the chest, and enough upper body strength to support yourself entirely with the upper extremities. To do it you have to have good strength in the triceps brachii, the five muscles that stabilize the scapula, the seven muscles that stabilize the posture between the arms and the scapula, and the pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi. As with the headstand, the chest is immobilized so much that you can only breathe abdominally.
THE STICK POSTURES AND THE TWO-HANDED COBRA
It is plain that good hip flexibility and upper body strength are needed for the headstand, but this posture also requires all-around strength in the torso. More specifically, going from stage one to stage two, as well as remaining in stage two for more than a moment, requires superb back strength. But back strength in isolation is not enough. To keep excess tension off the intervertebral disks we have to maintain intra-abdominal pressure, and this means that back strength must always be matched by strength in the abdominal muscles and in the respiratory and pelvic diaphragms—if it ever happens that you have a sore abdominal wall, you will find that you have little zest for the headstand. Numerous postures and exercises for developing abdominopelvic strength were outlined in the first half of chapter 3, but here are three more: the stick pose, the two-handed cobra, and the celibate’s pose.
Figure 8.23. The stick pose is an isometric whole-body exercise without movement, with special emphasis on the upper and lower extremities, sacroiliac nutation, 90° of hip flexibility, and scapulae that are adducted and depressed. If your arms are not long enough for the heels of your hands to reach the floor even with the scapulae depressed, you can use a thin block under your hands for a prop.
To do the stick pose (fig. 8.23), sit on the floor with the thighs flexed 90°, the knees, ankles, and toes extended, and the feet together. Place the hands alongside the hips with the wrists extended 90° and the elbows locked. Pull the shoulders to the rear by adducting and depressing the scapulae, thus pressing the heels of the hands against the floor. Arch the lumbar region forward, establish your limits of nutation for the sacroiliac joints, and lift and thrust the chest forward as much as possible, immobilizing it in that position with all the muscles of the upper extremity. This is another pose in which you can only breathe abdominally, but even that is a challenge because now the abdominal wall is taut. The stick pose seems simple, but settling into it properly requires isometric contraction of most of the muscles of the upper extremity, a full 90° of hip flexibility, and intense concentration—all skills that are helpful for the headstand.
The two-handed cobra is a natural extension of the stick posture in that it requires even more strength in the abdomen as well as excellent hip flexibility and long hamstrings. The simplest starting position is to squat with the feet about eighteen inches apart, placing the palms on the floor between the thighs and as far to the rear as possible (fig. 8.24a). Keeping the elbows extended, lean the upper body forward by bending at the hips enough to support your weight on your arms while you lift the feet (fig. 8.24b). This will require abducting the thighs beyond their starting position of moderate abduction, and it will require extending the knees. This is a difficult combination because as you start to extend the knees you will have to lean further forward to keep from falling to the rear, which in turn brings the hamstrings under even more tension and makes hip flexion even more problematical.
Figure 8.24. The two-handed cobra (b) and its starting position (a) are excellent preparations for the headstand because they require a combination of balance, courage, hip flexibility, and upper body strength. The key requirement for completing the posture is leaning forward as you extend the knees, and the key to leaning forward under these circumstances is good hip flexibility. Although this posture looks simple, it’s a big surprise to many people who think of themselves as accomplished all-around athletes. In general, the moment they try to lift their feet they fall onto their backsides.
The two-handed cobra, like the headstand, requires a practical working combination of hip flexibility and upper body strength. If your hip flexibility is minimal you will not be able to lean forward enough to keep your balance, and the strongest person in the world cannot compensate for that deficit. If on the other hand you have the ability to flex your hips 120°, the posture is not much more difficult than the crow. If you are somewhere in between, your upper body strength makes all the difference in your ability to complete the posture.
The lifted stick, or the celibate’s pose, is the most challenging of these three postures. Starting in the stick position, depress the scapulae enough to lift all of your weight off the floor. What first happens is that you can lift the buttocks easily but you can’t even begin to lift the heels. You will have to do several things at the same time: lean slightly forward while keeping your back ramrod straight and bending perhaps 110° at the hips; keep the knees fully extended while lifting the thighs, legs, and feet with the iliacus, psoas, and quadriceps femoris muscles; and place your hands as far forward as necessary for supporting all of your body weight (fig. 8.25).
The celibate’s pose is difficult for at least five reasons: you have to have excellent hip flexibility because the extended knees keep the hamstrings stretched to their limits; you have to have exceptionally strong hip flexors to lift the extended legs and feet from a pelvis that is floating in mid-air; you have to have a strong back to keep yourself sitting upright, again in mid-air; you have to have strong respiratory and pelvic diaphragms as well as strong abdominal muscles to support the effort with the back muscles; and you have to have excellent strength in the upper extremities to hold yourself in the posture. If you can do all of that, you will certainly be able to do the headstand.
Figure 8.25. The lifted stick, or celibate’s pose, challenges your abdominal muscles, as well as your pelvic and respiratory diaphragms, like no other posture. Like many other poses, this one is impossible unless you are capable of at least 90° of hip flexibility.
THE DOWN-FACING DOG AND VARIATIONS
After the intense abdominal work with the two-handed cobra and the lifted stick postures, everyone will be ready to do something that provides a modicum of relief, and one of the best postures for this is the down-facing dog (see also chapter 6). Along with the crow, this pose is another excellent semi-inverted training posture for the headstand. The arms end up flexed 180° overhead, or even a little more, and this movement is accompanied by about 60° of upward rotation of the scapulae. And since the scapulae are supporting much of the weight of the upraised body, the five muscular attachments between it and torso must all be actively engaged. Allowing them to relax will cause adduction and elevation of the scapulae, as well as an unsightly jamming of the shoulders toward the floor. To counteract this tendency, instructors usually urge students to press the hands strongly against the floor, lift the buttocks, flatten the back, and press the shoulders toward the feet (fig. 8.26). They may not recognize it, but those adjustments also abduct and depress the scapulae as well as hold them isometrically in their upwardly rotated positions, and this happens to be exactly what is needed for coming up into the headstand. To compromise the posture, bend the knees and lift the heels rather than relax the shoulder muscles (fig. 8.27).
Textbooks usually discuss movements of the arm in reference to muscles that insert on the humerus, but in the down-facing dog the arm is relatively fixed and acts as an origin instead of an insertion. The teres major muscle (figs. 1.1, 8.12, and 8.14), for example, is ordinarily listed as an arm extensor, taking origin from the lateral border of the scapula and inserting on the humerus. But in the down-facing dog the teres major acts to abduct the scapula laterally and rotate it upward from a stabilized arm instead of acting as an arm extensor from a fixed scapula.
Figure 8.26. The down-facing dog posture, in its ideal form with 45° of ankle flexion and 110° of hip flexion (see fig. 6.17 for an intermediate-level pose). The isometric contraction of the muscles needed for stabilizing the scapulae in their correct positions comprise excellent training for the headstand.
The rotator cuff muscles are also important in the down-facing dog. Again, with their origins and insertions reversed, they abduct the scapulae from fixed arm positions while taking nothing away from their classic role in stabilizing the head of the humerus in the glenoid cavity. The subscapularis muscle (figs. 8.11 and 8.13) has a slightly different action from the other three rotator cuff muscles. Since it attaches to the front of the humerus rather than to its posterior side, it also acts to pull the scapula anteriorly as well as abducting it laterally, which assists in keeping it flat against the chest wall.
In the down-facing dog one other muscle, the serratus anterior, acts to pull the medial border of the scapula laterally—not from the arm, but from the front of the chest—and this action is especially helpful because it slides the scapula directly against the chest wall rather than pulling it to the side. And since the serratus anterior attaches near the inferior angle of the scapula (figs. 8.9 and 8.11), it is positioned to powerfully assist upward rotation by pulling the inferior angle of the scapula laterally.
Although the simple down-facing dog is by itself a good preparation for the headstand, a variation that will develop arm and shoulder strength through the ranges of movement needed for the headstand is to first come into the basic posture and then slowly lower the shoulders, slide your nose forward close to the floor, straighten the knees, and hold the posture isometrically in whatever position is especially difficult for you (fig. 8.28). Finally, let the elbows swing out, and (with considerable relief, at least for most of us) extend the elbows slowly into a simple upward-facing dog supported between the hands and the flexed toes (fig. 5.14).
Figure 8.27. This easy down-facing dog pose is within reach of almost everyone, and looks better as hip and ankle flexibility improve. Even from the beginning, however, it is important not to hang from the shoulders. To that end the serratus anterior muscles keep the scapulae rotated upward and stabilized.
DOLPHIN
If a hatha yoga instructor were to pick only one all-around training pose for students who are almost able to do the headstand, it would have to be the dolphin. This posture is related to the down-facing dog, but it is also a well-known posture in its own right. It’s helpful for developing upper body strength, hip flexibility, and abdominal and back strength. To do it, begin in the child’s pose (fig. 6.18) with the body folded onto itself on the floor. Then lift up enough to place the forearms on the floor in front of you with the hands interlocked. With the hips still resting near the heels, the forearms are positioned at a 90° angle from one another. Next, keeping the forearms on the floor, press up into a piked position ending with the hips flexed 90° (fig. 8.29).
Figure 8.28. Bringing the nose down and forward (and more importantly, coming back up) from the down-facing dog is an excellent floor exercise for building enough strength in the upper extremities to begin practice of the headstand. You’ll want to come forward only a little at first, so you can push yourself back up into the down-facing dog. This is no pushup—it’s much more difficult.
Figure 8.29. The dolphin posture is the most famous preparatory posture for the headstand. It strengthens all the muscles that stabilize the scapulae and arms, and does so from the V-shaped position of the forearms that is similar to the customary starting position for the headstand.
Coming into the dolphin is accomplished by a combination of whole-body muscular efforts: lifting the head, straightening the knees with the quadriceps femoris muscles, and then pushing your weight back with the shoulders and triceps brachii muscles until the head is in the V between the forearms. If the hamstrings are so tight that you cannot push back with the knees straight, bend the knees as much as necessary to permit the movement, or adjust the feet slightly to the rear.
If you are able to push back into the dolphin, you will be stabilizing the scapulae in upwardly-rotated positions with the same muscles that assist the down-facing dog: the teres major and minor, the infraspinatus, the sub-scapularis, and the serratus anterior. Pushing the torso back and keeping the arms braced in the 180° flexed position overhead is strongly resisted by the pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi, so this posture gives those muscles an excellent workout in the stretched position. Finally, the triceps brachii is strongly engaged for extension of the forearm.
To build strength for the headstand, lift the head over the hands and stretch forward enough to touch the nose or chin to the floor in front of the hands (fig. 8.30). If the feet were well back in the first place, the body will now be almost straight. This makes the exercise too easy, so come back to the first position with the head in the V made by the forearms and walk the feet forward to reemphasize the piked position. Repeat the exercise, lifting the head over the hands and then pulling it back behind them, over and over again. The closer the knees are to the elbows in the preparatory position, the more strength and hamstring flexibility you will need to accomplish the movement gracefully. Finally, as your strength and flexibility continue to improve, you can take the head even further forward, barely touching the floor with the chin.
Figure 8.30. Bringing the nose forward from the dolphin posture and then back up creates a different exercise than in the case of coming down and forward from the down-facing dog. This one is relatively easy if your feet are far enough back, but quite difficult if you start the dolphin with an acutely angled pike position, especially if you do not have the ability to flex your hip joints 90°.
ALTERNATING THE UPWARD- AND DOWN-FACING DOG
Another good upper-body exercise is to alternate between the upward-facing dog (fig. 5.14) and the downward-facing dog (figs. 6.17 and 8.26). The easiest way to do this is to do it fast, by using the hip flexors to quickly swing the hips up into the down-facing dog from the upward-facing dog and let gravity drop them back down. But that’s not so useful, and the better exercise is to do it slowly, maintaining abdominal tension at all times and never allowing the body to merely hang between the shoulders. And for another refinement that is custom designed to develop upper body strength, start with the upward-facing dog, slowly lower down into a straight push-up position with the body an inch or so from the floor, touching the floor only with the hands and the flexed toes, and then instead of using the powerful iliacus and psoas muscles to launch flexion of the hips into the down-facing dog, initiate the movement from the shoulders, pushing to the rear with the arms while sliding the nose along the floor until you are ready to complete the piked position. In this way you will be using the iliopsoas muscles as synergists for completing the posture instead of using them as prime movers to initiate it. Reverse everything to come back down, brushing the nose against the floor until you are again in a low push-up position (keep the body only an inch or so away from the floor) before lifting up into the upward-facing dog.
THE SCORPION
The scorpion posture looks like a scorpion, with a front pair of nipping claws and a long, slender, jointed tail ending in a curved poisonous stinger. The posture incorporates gravity-driven passive backbending with extreme hyperextension of the head and neck, and thus it requires more athletic ability than the headstand. Even a little practice of the scorpion will give the student enough confidence to try the headstand. And remaining in the posture for 30–60 seconds is a real wake-up—but it is not for the timid.
You can come into the scorpion in one of two ways: either by kicking up into the posture with the head lifted or coming into it from the headstand. Kicking up is more athletic. Start in the same position that you used for the dolphin, except that the forearms are at a 60–75° angle from one another and the palms are facing down with the thumbs touching (fig. 8.31a). You can also make the posture more difficult by keeping the forearms parallel. To come into the posture lift the pelvis up into the air, and kick up with both feet, one immediately after the other, adjusting the kick so that you get into the posture but do not overshoot and fall to the rear (fig. 8.31b). Be careful not to try this in a confined region where you might crash into something if you fall. The knees end up in a flexed position, which makes it easy for you to support your feet against a wall behind you until you gain confidence. In the final posture the weight is on the forearms, the head is lifted, the nose is fairly close to the hands, and the feet are as close to the head as the arch in your back permits.
The sacroiliac joints will be in full nutation for the scorpion, and the posture may not be comfortable for more than a few seconds for those who have a lot of sacroiliac mobility. In any case, anyone with good flexibility for backbending can easily touch their feet to their head. Come down by first straightening the body, then flexing the torso, and finally dropping forward onto the feet.
Figure 8.31. Scorpion (b) and starting position (a). To come into the posture by kicking up, you toss your feet up from the starting position and balance your weight making use of a substantial back-bend. Until learning how much energy to put into the initial kick, most people use a wall as a prop so as not to fall over backward. With more experience you can forgo the wall. For the final posture you can keep the knees straight, or you can bend your knees and drop your feet toward your head. You can also come into the scorpion from the headstand, but if you do that, don’t delay, because coming into the scorpion after being in the headstand for more than a few seconds creates excess pressure in the arterial circulation to the brain.
When you come into the scorpion from the headstand, you arch the back, flatten the palms against the floor, transfer your weight to the forearms, lift the head until you are looking forward, and bend the knees. If you take this route to the scorpion, however, do it quickly before too much blood and tissue fluid has accumulated in the head. If you stay in the headstand too long before converting that posture into the scorpion, the feeling of pressure in the head is greatly intensified: it’s much more pronounced than what you experience by simply kicking up, and it’s also unnerving.
BENDING AND TWISTING IN THE HEADSTAND
When you are in the headstand and the hip joints are bearing only the weight of the lower extremities, you can do much of what you can do standing, except more creatively. What is more, certain poses that involve complex combinations of hip flexion or extension with knee flexion and rotation can be done only in the headstand. In this posture you can selectively stretch the adductors and hamstrings; you can work with hip opening exercises when the adductors and hamstrings are not under tension; you can twist, flex, and extend the torso alone or in combination with many creative stretches for the lower extremities; or you can fold the lower extremities into the lotus posture and flex and extend the thighs from that position.
WORKING WITH THE ADDUCTORS
The various adductor muscles take origin all along the inferior pubic rami from the pubic symphysis to the ischial tuberosities (figs. 1.12, 2.8, and 8.13–14). We have generally been concerned with the adductors that take origin posteriorly, and have noted that these muscles have a hamstring character that limits forward bending (chapter 6). It is less common to find postures that are effective in stretching the adductors that take origin anteriorly. The only pose so far mentioned that does this involves a standing backbend (chapter 6) with the feet wide apart. To be successful, any such stretch must also require that the spiraled ischiofemoral, iliofemoral, and pubofemoral ligaments be slack enough to limit extension (fig. 3.6) only after the anterior-most adductors have come under tension. Although any such standing posture should be approached with care, in the headstand it is easy to bring these specific muscles under an intense but controllable stretch simply by extending the abducted thighs with the knees bent. The next three sequences all make use of a relaxed inverted backbending pose (fig. 8.23b) that accomplishes this aim, in addition to rotating the sacroiliac joints into full nutation. This home-base posture alternates with three positions that build strength in the deep back muscles and that shift the sacroiliac joints either into counternutation or less extreme nutation.
Because the next three sequences all involve backbending, they go best with the bregma headstand. To begin, come into the third stage, the one with the thighs extended and the knees flexed (fig. 8.6c). Start with a relaxed and neutral position with the legs more or less parallel to one another and with the feet and knees slightly apart. Without shifting the positions of the lower extremities too much, adjust your posture, including head position, so that you can produce the maximum lumbar lordosis. After appraising exactly how much of a lumbar curve this posture permits, abduct the thighs maximally while keeping the feet fairly close together, and then, keeping the knees flexed and the thighs both extended and abducted, let the feet come apart, sensing the position that permits the lumbar arch to become the most pronounced. The sacroiliac joints will be fully nutated in this relaxed position (fig. 8.32b). This is the home-base posture. As a passive lumbar backbend, this posture complements standing backbends in two ways: the lower extremities are not confined by static foot positions as they are in standing postures, and the knees are flexed maximally, which is obviously not possible when you are standing.
For the first sequence, from the home position in the modified bregma headstand (fig. 8.23b), adduct the thighs, bringing the knees and feet tightly together, and notice that this flattens the lumbar region and draws the knees forward (fig. 8.32a). You can go back and forth, abducting the extended thighs to deepen the lumbar lordosis and establish maximum nutation, and then adducting the extended thighs tightly to flatten the back and ease the sacroiliac joints back into counternutation. The adducted position is peculiar. It creates intense tension in the rectus femoris muscle as well as in the lateral portions of the quadriceps femoris muscles, and this is what, in a roundabout way, flattens the lumbar region. The abducted home position, on the other hand, places intense stretch on the adductors whose origins are located anteriorly along the inferior pubic rami.
The second alternative is to start with the same relaxed home position that permits the maximum lumbar arch (fig. 8.32b) and alternately flex and again hyperextend the thighs while keeping the knees flexed and the thighs abducted. This is similar to moving back and forth between stages two and three of the headstand except that now the thighs are kept fully abducted. To keep your bearings, you may wish to touch the big toes together for this particular back and forth sequence, especially as you flex the thighs forward. Extension of the abducted thighs (fig. 8.32b) makes this posture an easy one in which to rest. Flexion of the abducted thighs is more challenging and will probably be limited by your upper body strength because you have to support more of your weight with the forearms as you lower the knees forward (fig. 8.32c). This exercise is easier than moving back and forth between stage two and three of the headstand with the thighs in a more neutral adducted position, however, because some of the weight of your lower extremities is pitched out to the side rather than being held straight in front of you. Even so, flexing the abducted thighs while keeping the knees bent is one of the most rewarding exercises for developing strength in the deep back muscles that you can do in the headstand (fig 8.32c).
Last, come all the way up into stage four of the headstand, that is with the thighs and legs extended. Then abduct the thighs to the side, and hold the posture (fig. 8.33). Because the hips are not hyperextended, adductors that take origin posteriorly along the inferior pubic rami, as well as internal structures of the hip joint, limit this particular stretch. You can again alternate this pose with the home position in which the knees are flexed, and the thighs are abducted and extended (fig 8.32b). This latter position takes tension off the adductors that take their origin posteriorly, allows you to abduct the thighs more fully, and by default brings the stretch to the adductors that have their origin more anteriorly on the inferior pubic rami. Go back and forth repetitively for clarification of these principles.
Figure 8.32a–c. These three postures illustrate musculoskeletal dynamics and train you to be inverted and balanced under varying circumstances. In 8.32a, the combination of adducted thighs and flexed knees severely limits the lumbar lordosis. In 8.32b, allowing the knees to come apart (thighs abducted) permits extreme hyperextension of the thighs, the deepest possible lumbar curve, and maximum sacroiliac nutation. Go back and forth between 8.32a and 8.32b several times to feel and understand what happens and why. Shifting from 8.32b to 8.32c requires a major shift in awareness from an acute, maximum backbend (but one in which it is easy to balance) to the necessity of supporting much of your weight on the forearms, which is similar to stage two of the headstand except that this pose with the thighs abducted is easier. Again, go back and forth between b and c to both feel and understand what happens and why.
STRETCHING THE HAMSTRINGS
In the headstand you can stretch the hamstrings by extending one thigh posteriorly to approach the limits of hip extension and at the same time bring the other thigh forward to stretch the hamstrings. To come into this position you can either abduct the thighs and then swivel them around, which leaves you with one thigh extended and the other one flexed, or you can start from stage four of the headstand and hyperextend one thigh to the rear and flex the other one forward. If you also flex the back knee, this will drop more weight to the rear and you will not have to readjust your balance so much when you flex the other thigh (fig. 8.34). Then, as soon as you are balanced you can pull isometrically in opposite directions, allowing the forward knee to bend according to your capacity and inclination for stretching the hamstrings. Repeat on the other side.
Figure 8.33. This pose, which is stage four of the headstand except with the thighs abducted, stretches the adductors that originate posteriorly along the inferior pubic rami. To stretch the adductors that originate anteriorly along the inferior pubic rami, which is not so easy in standing postures (chapter 6, hip flexibility standing), go back and forth between this pose and the one with the knees flexed and the hips abducted and hyperextended (fig. 8.32b).
The headstand is one of the best postures in which to work with hamstring stretches because the tension on the base of the pelvis that results from hip flexion and from stretch of the hamstrings on one side is countered by hyperextension of the opposite hip. The resulting asymmetrical stretch keeps the pelvis more in line with the spine than the same stretches in standing forward bends, which often place unwelcome additional tension on a region that is already being stressed to its limits.
INVERTED TORSO TWISTS
When you are in the headstand you can do inverted torso twists that are limited only by your imagination, strength, and balance. You can start with a twist in a simple headstand and go from there to a twist with one thigh back and the other forward. Simple twists such as these can be done in the open, but placing yourself near a wall adds to the possibilities. One is to position the back of the head about two feet from the wall, come up into the headstand, and twist your lower body to the right so that the lateral edge of the right foot ends up against the wall. From that position you can pry yourself around even more. This brings the left hip closer to the wall and the right hip further away. The right thigh is hyperextended, the left thigh is flexed about 110°, and both knees are flexed comfortably. If you are fairly flexible you will be stretching the abductors on the lateral aspects of the thigh and working directly within the hip joint. Repeat the exercise on the other side. This is an excellent whole-body twist, and you can feel the results from the knees to the neck, although the most twist will be created in the chest, as expected from the discussion in chapter 7.
Figure 8.34. You can come into this pose easily from the one shown in fig. 8.33 by swinging one foot forward and the other one back. The asymmetrical stretch of the hamstrings in the flexed thigh is balanced by hyperextension of the opposite thigh and tension in its hip flexors, all of which keep the pelvis stable and the lower back protected.
TORSO EXTENSION AND HIP FLEXION
A wall is also a good prop for working with passive extension in the lumbar region. From a simple headstand again facing away from a wall you can place both feet against the wall and walk them slowly down, or you can simply hold them within your reasonable limits, making sure you don’t go so far down that you cannot comfortably walk them back up. Alternatively, you can stabilize one foot against the wall and bring the other one forward (away from the wall). If you pull down vigorously on the forward foot using the rectus femoris muscles and the hip flexors on that side while keeping the knee fairly straight with the quadriceps femoris muscle as a whole, you can stretch the forward hamstrings at your leisure; and unlike most standing and sitting forward bends, you can work with the stretch safely but insistently and without stressing the back in the slightest. Repeat the exercise on the other side.
THE LOTUS POSTURE IN THE HEADSTAND
If you are flexible enough to do the lotus posture in the headstand, you have many options for developing flexibility and a strong back. Just being in this posture stretches the adductors and makes the hip joint itself more flexible. An excellent exercise is to lift the knees as far as possible toward the ceiling to hyperextend the back (fig. 8.35a) and then slowly lower them as far as possible toward the floor (fig. 8.35b)—without falling, of course. This is similar to going back and forth between stages three and two of the headstand, except that it is easier because the legs and feet are folded in and because a smaller proportion of your lower body weight is carried forward. It is also rewarding to twist and bend from side to side in the lotus posture. With the knees up, whatever stretches you do along those lines will be combined with backbending, and with the knees down in a more neutral upside-down sitting lotus, whatever stretches you do will build strength in the back. Be sure to repeat all exercises you do in the lotus—no matter what the posture—by alternating the foot you fold in first.
EXTENDING YOUR TIME
When you are completely at home in the headstand, you may eventually want to increase your time in the posture. If done carefully and systematically this is safe, but because of the headstand’s special effects on the brain and circulation there are certain guidelines that should be followed, not the least of which is consultation with someone who is experienced in the practice.
THE SURFACE
The surface on which you do the headstand is not very important if you stay in the posture for less than five minutes, but if you are going to hold it for a longer time, the softer the surface the better so long as your forearms do not spring this way and that when you are trying to adjust. A 2-inch thickness of high-density foam rubber is so springy that it is hard to keep your balance, but a heavy woolen blanket folded three times (eight thicknesses) or a 1-inch thickness of high-density foam is fine. Mattresses are nearly always too springy. If you use a futon make sure that you place your head in a region that is flat. You will certainly create problems for yourself if you place your head on an irregular surface that always favors one side.
THE CRANIAL VAULT AND SUTURES
Anyone who is serious about doing the headstand should be aware of danger signals from their cranial bones and sutures (fig. 8.4). You should feel the top of the head for any localized soreness as soon as you come down from the posture. This may not be directly on the region where you rested your weight; it could be on one side or the other or it could even manifest as vague internal discomfort such as headache. If this is the case, you should either wait for the discomfort to pass before doing the headstand again or seek professional advice from any number of specialized therapists who are interested in such matters.
Figure 8.35. For anyone who can do the lotus posture comfortably, working with this pose in the headstand offers many possibilities for improving back strength and hip flexibility. Lifting the knees toward the ceiling (a) extends the back and stretches the quadriceps femoris muscles, and bringing your knees forward and down (b) strengthens the back muscles as in stage two of the headstand, except doing this in the lotus is easier because the feet are tucked in and are not necessitating that you support so much of your weight on the forearms. Like many other stretches, these can be done only in the headstand.
Another way to explore for excess sensitivity is to come into a hands-and-knees position on a soft surface and roll the head around from front to back and from side to side. Roll all the way forward, bringing the chin to the sternum, and then roll all the way back so the nose touches the floor. Roll from side to side, from ear to ear, diagonally, and around in a circle. If you do this routinely you will become sensitive to whether or not the headstand is creating difficulties. For example, you might have done the headstand fifty times in a row for five minutes each morning with no problems. Then one night you miss sleep, do the headstand the next morning in a cranky state of mind, and suddenly have a vague feeling that the posture doesn’t feel right. Under these circumstances, if you have been exploring for excess sensitivity routinely, you are likely to find some localized tenderness on your cranium. And if that is the case you can give yourself a day or two of rest for repair and recuperation.
PAIN AND DISCOMFORT
Any time you are not comfortable in the headstand you should come down. In twisting, forward bending, or backbending postures you can explore the edges of minor aches and pains without too much worry, but in the head-stand this is inadvisable because your frame of reference to what is normal is too fundamentally askew.
Pain in your shoulders usually means that you are making too much effort in the posture. If you slowly learn to balance and build strength and flexibility, shoulder pain should diminish. Pain in the neck region is always disquieting. It may be caused by imbalances in muscular tension or inflammation of vertebral joints. If you feel deep pain, stop doing the head-stand until it has gone away. Muscles usually respond to joint problems by tensing at the fulcrum of the joint—if you turn your head to a certain point and find that it is painful to move it further, it indicates that your nervous system is objecting. So be conservative, listen to the body, and stop doing the headstand until you can turn your head freely through a normal range of motion. Get help from knowledgeable therapists if the problem does not go away of its own accord.
A recurring theme in the oral (as well as written) tradition of hatha yoga is that any extensive practice of the headstand should always be followed by the shoulderstand and related postures. Commentators tell us that practicing the headstand alone results in an imbalance that manifests as edginess and irritability. They also say that if you practice the headstand for more than twenty minutes, it is good to have some food afterward, or at least some hot, boiled milk. If you don’t, they tell us, you are likely to experience a raw, uncomfortable feeling in the abdomen later in the day.
Another caution: the headstand does not work well after aerobic exercise. Hatha yoga postures are fine, but not dozens of sun salutations, walking briskly, or running. If you do the headstand regularly for more than five minutes during the course of a regular hatha practice, and then try it sometime after aerobic exercise, you will quickly sense an impulse to come down, an impulse it will be wise to follow. An old hatha yogi—a centenarian—from India once told me in utter seriousness that doing the headstand regularly after aerobic exercise would cause the skull to soften. Yes? And? The biological basis for such observations (assuming they might be valid) is uncertain. What is certain is that you should use common sense with this posture and honor all input from the senses that tells you to be moderate or even not do it at all.
EXTRACELLULAR FLUID AND MUCUS
When you are in the headstand, extracellular fluid accumulates in the tissues of your head and neck, and as you begin to hold the pose for longer periods, these tissues start to swell. You’ll turn red in the face, which is obvious, but the swelling also starts to impede the flow of air through the nose and pharynx, making your breathing more labored and either forcing you to breathe through the mouth or come out of the posture. This is usually temporary. If you continue to practice the headstand every day, the swelling becomes less of a problem and you will be able to breathe easily in the posture for longer times. And once you have acclimated to staying in the posture for ten minutes or so you may find that you can continue to increase your time. Mucus is a separate but related problem. If you have a tendency toward colds or to chronic respiratory problems, doing the headstand for even a minute may be uncomfortable. Don’t press the issue. If you have too much mucus, solve that problem first, and then come back to the headstand.
HOW LONG TO HOLD THE HEADSTAND
I used to have a habit of asking instructors publicly how long the headstand could be held, and their answers, appropriately enough, reflected the level and experience of their audience. For a general class of young but inexperienced pupils, experts will ordinarily advise a 1- or 2-minute maximum, or they will avoid the issue by saying that you get most of the important benefits in 3–5 minutes. One yogi traditionalist suggested two minutes maximum for householders (an Indian euphemism for those who are sexually active), and any length of time for those who are perfectly celibate. Many classical texts affirm this, hinting not only that orgasm and frequent headstands do not mix well, but that doing the headstand for long periods of time helps to maintain celibacy for those who wish to practice that discipline. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika extols the ability to hold the headstand for three hours. And finally, yet another elderly hatha yogi from India had a brilliant answer to my question. He said that you can do the headstand for any length of time—three hours, six hours, and that you can even sleep in the posture—but he added cagily that there should never be the slightest discomfort.
BENEFITS
The headstand lifts your spirits wonderfully. If something is drawing you down, turn upside down, and voila—the downward flow is upended into your head. The headstand is also a great morning wake-up. It increases digestive fire, counters depression, and fills you with enthusiasm for meeting your day. But doing this posture to excess is like increasing the voltage in an electrical circuit. Be careful.
“If you watch the breath, you will notice that it becomes finer and finer. In the beginning of practice, there will be slight difficulty in breathing. As you advance in practice, this vanishes entirely. You will find real pleasure, exhilaration of spirit, in this Asana.”
— Swami Sivananda, in Yoga Asanas, p. 16.