admin While a strong Headstand practice is wonderful for calming the mind and strengthening the core, building towards that practice can be a pretty stressful challenge! It requires patience with your body, strength in your core, spine, and shoulders, balance and focus, confidence, and purposeful alignment. It would be best if you built up a solid daily practice before you start throwing yourself up into a headstand. If you’re new to the practice and you want to work on your patience, the free 30-Day Yoga Challenge will help you gain strength and confidence, so flipping your perspective won’t seem so intimidating.
You can work on these areas every time you do a Headstand to reduce the amount of stress and help you achieve a stable one.
Build Your Core
It’s not just about your abdominal strength. However, adding Bicycles or Boats will help! In order to develop a core for inversions, you need to squeeze everything up towards your midline.
Try using an Extended Mountain Pose. Here’s how to engage your body when doing a Headstand.
Start in Mountain Pose and squeeze your ankles, then your thighs.
Then, bring your ribs forward and your hips slightly.
Reach your arms above your head and squeeze your palms.
Try to hold your balance for five breaths while standing on your toes.
This action can be done in any of your poses, including Side Planks, Planks, Crescent Lunges, Eagle, Tree, and Chair Poses.
Shoulder and Spinal Stalling
Plank Work: A strong plan will help you achieve a stable and strong Headstand. Your shoulders will be in great shape if you can hold Plank or Low Plank (or Chaturanga-Dandasana) for at least ten breaths.
Forearm Planks are also useful for a Forearm Headstand. Keep your elbows under your shoulders and your hands interlaced. Start training now by squeezing your arms towards your midline.
Planks can also be used to align your spine and strengthen your core in Headstand. You will get “Sway Back” if you do not have proper spinal alignment in your Headstand and your core is not engaged. Your lower back will be deeply curved and unsupported. Your hold will be weaker as your spine has not been stacked properly. Take your Plank alignment very seriously to prevent “Sway Back” and become strong.
If you are feeling wobbly or your hips are falling towards the ground in any Plank variation, pull your stomach all the way in.
Drop your knees if this doesn’t work. If you notice a sagging, it means that your core is weak. It would be best if you strengthened this before you can improve your posture.
Stacking your joints will help you to maintain a strong upper back and shoulders. In Chaturanga, make sure that your elbows and wrists are stacked in Plank.
Keep your upper arms engaged by externally rotating your triceps (the inner soft part of the elbow joint should face forward).
Dolphins Swimming: To prepare for Headstands, you should practice Dolphin Pose (Down Dog with your arms on the floor) as often as possible. The Dolphin Pose helps to build shoulder strength and stacks your hips over your ears. As much as possible, practice what I call “Swimming Dolphins.”
Hold Dolphin for three breaths. Squeeze your elbows together and lift your shoulders away.
Lift one leg straight with toes spread out, and you will ignite your leg muscles.
Then, for three breaths, lift your foot higher each time you inhale.
Repeat this twice on each side.
This helps your body to learn how you can stack your hips above your shoulders. This also allows your shoulders to get used to supporting your weight, so you don’t have to rely on your neck and head in your Headstand.
Place a block beneath your feet to encourage your hips to be a bit higher so that they are over your ears.
Conquer your Fear
Headstand fear is caused by two factors: the fear of being upside down and of falling.
Play upside-down as much as possible. The more you practice upside-down holds such as Down Dog, Shoulder Stand, or Wheel, the more you’ll gain confidence in moving your body upside-down.
Fear of falling can be overcome by using strength and flexibility when lifting. We often start by lifting our legs. It’s fine to do this, but it can cause you to “over-leap” and fall backward. This will slow you down and make you tire more quickly.
Four ways are available to fight this.
1. As you get more comfortable with your balance, you can step away from the wall.
2. You can practice your Wheel Pose so that you are less afraid of falling backward, knowing your Wheel Pose will catch you.
3. You can learn to balance your torso by practicing a “Running Man Headstand.” Once you’re confident that you won’t fall backward, slowly straighten both legs.
4. You can deepen your Forward fold. The more flexible you are, the less likely you will have to jump your legs up off the floor. This will give you more control when you lift your legs to a Headstand. You will feel more confident and more likely to try any pose if you feel safer.
