How to learn to stand on your head. Headstand - benefits, harm and technique Strengthening the muscle corset

One of the main yoga asanas, the benefits of which for the body are difficult to overestimate, is the headstand. It goes without saying that to an unprepared person it seems like something transcendental that he cannot reproduce. However, you can learn to stand on your head - all you have to do is follow certain instructions.

Preparing for a headstand

Fold your yoga mat into 4 layers and place it close to the wall. Get down on all fours next to him, stretch forward, clasp your elbows with your fingers and place them on the mat a short distance from the wall. Without changing the position of your elbows relative to each other, clasp your hands and, close to the crossed fingers, lower your head to the top of your head. The back of your head should fit snugly against your hands. Straighten your knees whenever possible and move closer to the wall so that your back touches the entire length of it.

The main task of the student is to push off the floor with his elbows with all his might so that the weight in no case falls on the neck. Your weight should be evenly distributed between each of your elbows and the palm lock you use to push off the mat. At the same time, direct the trapezius muscles upward, towards the pelvis, so that the neck does not become pinched.

How to master a headstand

Once you have mastered the headstand, you can increase its duration to 3.5 or even 10 minutes - as long as you can stay in an inverted position without feeling discomfort. Gradually try to do a headstand not only near the wall, but also in the middle of the room. This pose, like no other, heals and rejuvenates the body.

Headstand is one of the most popular poses used in yoga teaching. The benefits of this pose, which was invented by the ancient Indians, are legendary, but nothing beats personal experience.

Benefits of headstand

Before you understand how to learn to stand on your head, you need to find out what the positive effect of this pose is? For starters, you benefit from having your body in an inverted position. From physics we know that the force of gravity acts constantly, but if you are in this stance, there will be a significant difference, which is that this position is not natural. Therefore, the force of gravity increases blood circulation, unloading the heart muscle, thereby allowing it to rest.

When you also take deep breaths, the blood will be more saturated with oxygen. Oxygenated blood, in turn, flows to the brain, thereby improving its functioning. And when the brain receives nourishment, it gets tired less, you will have the ability to improve memory, concentration, and perseverance. Naturally, this pose also has an impact on the spine. So, for example, its flexibility returns and tension is relieved in the lower back.

Yogis say this about this stance: this exercise allows you to be inspired and cheerful all day, gives positive thinking, which is an important part of a successful person.

Only practice will show whether this is true, but before you begin this exercise, we advise you to read the tips on how to stand on your head correctly.

Headstand technique

1. You need to concentrate, but not be tense. Sit on your heels, close your chest with your knees so that your forehead can touch the floor.
2. Then you need to fold your elbows and place them in front of you. By adopting this position, you will be able to maintain the balance necessary for a headstand.
3. Now you need to rise up and touch your intertwined fingers with the top of your head. You should not bend your torso, but straighten your knees.
4. Then, as slowly as possible, step your feet towards your head. It is necessary to ensure that the spine is perpendicular to the floor.
5. The weight should be placed on your elbows and your knees bent. Once this is done, lift your feet off the floor. Then pull them towards your chest. In this position it is important not to lose balance. To do this, simply spread your hips to the sides.
6. Pull your toes up and straighten your knees.

Errors when performing this stance

• Don't relax your muscles. If you relax them, you will put more stress on your spine.
• Don't keep your legs apart. To control your balance, keep your feet together.
• Don't spread your elbows wide.
• Don't put your body weight on your head.

How long should you stand on your head?

For beginner yogis, it is advised to stay in this stance for no more than 20 seconds. But slowly increase the time you spend in this pose.

Video lessons

The question of how to learn to stand on your head is asked by many. It, especially for those who are just starting their journey in, may seem prohibitive to perform asana. Still, I would like to note that mastering it is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Further in the article we will talk about the headstand, determine what benefits and harm it can bring, and also find out how to learn how to perform it and how many minutes a person can stand in this position.

Benefit

First of all, you need to determine: is standing on your head beneficial or harmful?

1. This position can improve your ability to concentrate.
2. Also, by performing this asana, you can significantly train your vestibular apparatus and learn to maintain excellent balance under any circumstances and become more dexterous.
3. When in this position, blood flows in large quantities to the head and leaves the lower part of the body. In this regard, cerebral blood circulation noticeably increases, memory may improve, mental stress will go away, and clarity will become clearer.
4. After mastering this pose, the quality of the digestive system can improve.

How to learn this?

The headstand, the technique of which we will consider further, requires some preparation.

1. The first thing you should do is strengthen, since a fairly high load will be placed on it. Failure to do so may result in the risk of other injury. To strengthen your neck, you should lie on your back, then lift your head literally 1 cm above the floor. In this position, to begin with, you need to try to hold out for about 30 seconds, and then gradually increase the time to one minute or longer. When you can easily hold this position for about 3-5 minutes, this will mean that your neck is ready for subsequent loads.
2. An equally strong load will also be placed on the head. Therefore very it is important to choose the area on which you will stand in the future. In order to determine the most correct place from a physiological point of view, you should take a book and put it on your head. The part of the head that will touch the book is exactly the right place that will be in contact with the floor during the stand.
3. It is also recommended to perform asanas, which imply an inverted position of the body. For example, the downward-facing dog position. To perform it, you should stand on all fours, placing your knees, palms and feet shoulder-width apart. Your hips and arms should be perpendicular to the floor. Then you should bend in the lumbar region, push off the floor with your hands and lift. The neck, arms and back should be straightened, forming one line. The heels are pressed to the floor, the knees are straightened. To begin with, you need to stand for about a minute, increasing this time over time.

Headstand technique

We provide an algorithm of actions that explains in detail how to stand on your head at home.

1. You need to lay a blanket or soft yoga mat on the floor.
2. Elbows and forearms should be placed approximately in the center of the blanket or rug, fingers should be clasped (this is how they will be positioned all the time). Elbows should be shoulder width apart from each other.
3. You need to place your head on the mat in the place that was determined using the book. In this case, the back of the head should touch the clasped palms. Your forehead should not touch the floor.
4. You should lift your knees off the mat and bring your toes closer to your head.
5. As you exhale, you need to lift your legs off the floor, continuing to hold them in a bent position. It is better to do this in a jerk, but both legs must come off the surface at the same time.
6. Then carefully and slowly you need to stretch your legs up, while maintaining overall balance.
7. You should stand in this position for 1 to 3 minutes.
8. The legs gently bend at the knees and return to the floor.

Did you know?In the United States Army, yoga has been introduced as a compulsory morning exercise instead of exercise. In Russia, yoga is used during the training of astronauts, rescuers, submariners and reconnaissance officers.

Typical beginner mistakes

If we talk about headstand for beginners, there are a number of mistakes that should not be made.

• You shouldn’t remove your hands; at first you won’t be able to stand without them;
• You don’t need to pull your toes, just point them up;
• You can’t put pressure on the back of your head with your palms.

Important! The rug or blanket should not be too soft. The material should be quite dense.

When performing a headstand for beginners in yoga experts recommend the following:

1. At first, it is not recommended to try to perform the asana without support or without the help of a partner.
2. There is no need to be afraid of falling. If you experience a feeling of loss of balance, you just need to bend your knees, relax and begin to remove your hands from the floor. In this case, you will simply roll onto your side or back.
3. The legs, torso and head should form a straight line perpendicular to the mat.
4. There's no need to rush. You need to do the stand slowly and gradually.

Is there any harm?

It is worth noting that performing a headstand incorrectly can cause harm. Incorrect positioning of the body, as well as excessive tension, can also cause.

Contraindications and precautions

There are a number of contraindications and precautions that cannot be ignored:

• heart diseases: heart failure, ischemia, hypertension, etc.;
• eye diseases: glaucoma, conjunctivitis, increased eye pressure, cataracts;
• P for atherosclerosis and thrombosis You shouldn’t do a stand either;
• ENT diseases, for example, otitis media;
• tendency to various types of bleeding, especially to the nasals;
• severe chronic diseases and pathologies, infectious acute diseases;
• elevated body temperature;
• colds and flu;
• any spinal diseases(vertebral displacement, osteochondrosis, intervertebral hernia).

Immediately after eating, you should also not do this exercise; you need to wait at least 2 hours. After intense physical activity, as well as women during menstruation, there is also no need to do a headstand.

Sirsasana is the queen of asanas. According to many authoritative sources of yoga, its healing properties combine the effectiveness of all 84 hundred thousand poses.

Headstand is not just for experienced yogis. Anyone can learn to do it. If you are still afraid of Sirsasana, our arguments will make you throw away fear and finally “turn upside down.”

So hthis happens thanks to Shirshasana:

1. Blood supply to the brain improves, which allows for faster recovery from mental stress. At the same time, the ability to concentrate improves.
2. The body's metabolic processes are stimulated, which, in turn, prevents and treats metabolic diseases.
3. Since the body is in an inverted position, the force of gravity is directed in the opposite direction from normal. Thus, staying in the pose helps to gradually cure diseases associated with subsidence of the body, prolapse of organs, aging and bodily fatigue.
4. The endocrine and lymphatic systems of the body are stimulated, the immune system and overall well-being are strengthened, which helps to maintain health and vigor at any period of life.
5. In Shirshasana, your perception of yourself completely changes. The skill of controlling movement in a position that is unusual for the body will make you conscious, exceptionally coordinated, self-confident and stress-resistant.

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Lesson leader Maria Shatlanova: “Shirshasana is the queen of asanas. Its impact can be therapeutic or, on the contrary, destructive and traumatic if the actions are performed incorrectly or hastily. In the course we will look at the criteria for this pose to be safe and stable. What does that require? Extension, not subsidence of the spine, maintaining it in an elongated state when entering, exiting and while in a pose. The practice of Iyengar yoga has comprehensive instructions for creating the correct force, movement and overall condition. Sirsasana is one of those asanas that does not tolerate illusions and lack of alertness. Nevertheless, mastering it in all aspects is quite realistic and not very difficult. This is what we will do in class.”

Maria Shatlanova– practicing teacher of the BKS Iyengar method. She has been following this direction for 17 years, 14 of which she has been teaching in the Yoga Practika network. Every year he trains with the Iyengar family at the RIMYI Institute in Pune. Has an international Junior Intermediate 2 certificate.

What are the advantages of the video lesson “Headstand - easy and safe”?

1. Anatomical approach. This training is based on knowledge of the anatomy and dynamics of body movement.
2. Correct flow of energies. The information provided in the preparation promotes the correct flow of energy in the body, which will make your Sirsasana therapeutically accurate and optimizing your condition.
3. Various implementation options. The available options for performing Shirshasana for people with problems in the cervical spine are considered.
4. Absolute safety. The emphasis is on the development of postural movement, which makes the asana safe even if there are obstacles such as muscle weakness, stiffness, scoliosis, and joint hypermobility.
5. Analysis of errors. During the lesson, common mistakes and corrections are discussed.

Headstand is one of the asanas in yoga. Before you start performing the stance, you should figure out how to do it correctly, where to start and how to get out of the situation. You can learn to stand on your head on your own, but it is worth considering some factors that may affect the execution of the exercise.

Benefits of headstand

A headstand has great benefits not only for the spine, but also for the body as a whole. This position is often used in yoga, but only those who have been practicing for a long time can perform it. Learning to hold a headstand means mastering most inverted asanas.

A headstand is a completely unnatural position for the human body, so at first it will experience some kind of stress. Due to this, metabolic processes will accelerate.

Blood circulation increases due to the inverted position of the body, blood flows out of the heart, it is unloaded and begins its work correctly.

If you learn to add breathing exercises to a headstand, this will have the effect of saturating the blood with oxygen. In addition, this position enhances concentration and improves memory, due to the rush of blood to the head.

One of the reasons why it is better to learn to stand on your head is to improve the flow of internal energy. A person’s chakras open up and begin to work more harmoniously.

Thanks to the inverted state of the body, skin tone improves, the skin tightens and complexion improves due to the rush of blood to the head.

Since blood flows to the brain intensively in this position, the hypothalamus begins to regulate the activity of the thyroid gland and adrenal glands, more actively than in the usual position, reproductive function improves, especially in women, due to the outflow of blood from the pelvis.

A significant benefit of the headstand is the improvement of venous outflow when the veins dilate, especially in the lower extremities. Digestion also improves and problems with bowel movements go away.

Headstand improves blood circulation, thereby promoting increased hair growth. Hair follicles receive more nutrition than usual. Thanks to this, hair begins to grow by more than 2 cm per month. In addition, dormant bulbs wake up. Therefore, the hair will become thicker.

Headstand technique

While performing the exercise, you should be as relaxed as possible. If you feel tension in the cervical region, or there are contraindications, then it is not recommended to start a headstand.

First, you need to take a sitting position on your knees against the wall, then place your elbows in front of you on the floor and try to maintain balance on your elbows.

If this preparation is successfully completed, you can try to transfer the weight of your body onto your fingers and touch them with the top of your head. Gradually you can begin to straighten your knees, but initially you should be grouped so that if you fail, you can quickly return to a sitting position.

At home, without using special auxiliary objects, it will be more difficult to learn to stand on your head, but it is also possible. At first, you should perform the exercise near a wall to make it easier to rest your feet on it if you have difficulty with balance. But in the future it will be possible to perform the asana anywhere, even without support.

To properly stand on your head, you need to gradually move your legs towards your head, performing a flip onto your hands. In this case, the torso should be in balance. If you lose it, you can carefully return to the starting position and try to start all over again.

At first, it will be convenient to train in a free corner of the room. Such a place will allow you to concentrate your sensations and support your body with your legs, leaning against one or the other wall. You should always take into account that you may want to fall backwards. This should be avoided at all costs to prevent injury.

When your arms are tired enough or you feel weakness and discomfort in your spine or neck, you should stop the exercise and reschedule it the next day.

Errors when performing this stance

If you completely relax your limbs while doing a headstand, your muscles may not be able to keep your body in balance. Therefore, you should constantly control your movements. This position puts a lot of stress on the spine, so people who have problems with the spinal column do not need to start headstand.

If you spread your legs wide apart at height, it will be more difficult to maintain balance, so it is better to keep them together.

How long should you stand on your head?

At first, to learn how to stand on your head, it will take about half an hour for the entire workout. However, you should not be too zealous so as not to get the opposite effect from the exercise.

For the headstand itself, about 20 - 30 seconds are usually enough. From just one minute those who have been practicing yoga for a long time can already stand. The time spent in this position should be increased gradually, from time to time. From the first seconds it is worth catching your condition. If you feel unwell or have other problems, you should stop performing the stance.

Signs of mastering the asana

In order to quickly learn how to perform a headstand, you should start with simple inverted asanas so that the body and the body as a whole get used to this position.

When a person has learned to stand on his head, he will feel relief when his body is in an inverted state, he will be able to maintain his balance without any particular problems, and stay in this state for a large amount of time.

If a person does not feel the load on the spine, his body is relaxed, he stands on his head easily, then he has mastered this practice.

Is there any harm

It must be remembered that the headstand has its own characteristics. During the inverted position, blood flows to the head and brain, so people suffering from diseases of the nervous system should not start this practice.

Blood pressure may increase during a headstand, so those with high blood pressure should be careful. For some time during the inverted asana, a state of deafness may appear. It gradually passes. This occurs due to increased blood flow.

If you have any ailments, you must consult with a specialist so that he agrees to master the technique on the head. It must be remembered that during menstruation it is better to refrain from inverted asanas.

Contraindications and precautions

The headstand, in addition to many advantages, has contraindications. They should be followed carefully so as not to harm your body. These include high blood pressure, diseases of the cardiovascular system, diseases of the spine, including hernias, conditions after heart attacks and strokes, as well as colds and high fever.

If you adhere to some rules, standing on your head will only benefit the performer and will not harm your health.

The first few times it is better to perform the stand with a professional instructor, so that he can correct the technique of performing the exercise. The stand carries quite a serious load on the body, so it is important to follow simple recommendations. This exercise should not be performed by pregnant women. This position carries enormous risks for the development and health of the fetus. Even in the early stages, execution is prohibited.

Learn to stand on your head yoga exercises for advanced

To learn how to perform this asana, you should take into account some of the characteristics of your body. A weak muscle corset will not allow you to maintain balance for a sufficiently long period of time, so first you need to start strengthening your muscles.

In addition, pain in the back, for example, pain due to osteochondrosis, will hamper movement to some extent, which will become an obstacle to high-quality performance of the stance.

Not only advanced performers, but also beginners can learn to stand on their heads. Although this exercise is quite complex, once you start practicing, the result will come quite quickly.

In order to take this position, you should start performing it in a position with your knees bent, placing your hands with your palms under your head. Next, you need to gradually straighten your legs, achieving balance in every movement.

After a person learns to balance in an inverted position with his knees bent, he will be able to straighten his legs faster and faster. Over time, the implementation of this technique will become increasingly easier and it will be possible to adopt it very quickly and without any particular problems.

First, you need to use the support of another person or even a wall so that you can catch your balance with your feet in case they move to the other side. Your partner will be able to guide and hold your legs in the desired position.

Stand on head sequence of asanas

All movements during this asana should be slow and measured. Sudden movements should be avoided. First, you should try inverted asanas without using your head. You can try with the most basic types.

The first step is to strengthen the neck muscles, since with a weak muscle corset you can seriously damage the spine, especially the cervical region.

You first need to study and learn how to perform. After a person has learned to hold his head for several minutes, he can proceed directly to the headstand.

It’s worth finding the right point on the head on which you can rest during the position. To do this, you can first help yourself using a simple method with a book. The book must be placed on your head parallel to the floor. The place where the head comes into contact with the book will be the fulcrum during inverted asanas on the head.

You can use it, which involves resting your feet on the wall. It would also be appropriate to start with shvanasana, which is in no way inferior in effect to a headstand.

Those people who want to master inverted asanas, in particular, headstand, need to be extremely careful. Be sure to listen carefully to your own feelings, since if unpleasant symptoms occur, it would be best to stop performing the asana.

With gradual and measured performance of inverted asanas, including headstands, the effect will not be long in coming. The result of the stance is not only to improve blood circulation, activate the activity of many internal organs and strengthen the muscle corset, but also to cleanse the chakras. The inverted state of the body is stressful for the body, so you will need to learn carefully and gradually, without making sudden movements.