Salamba Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand): How to Do It Step by Step

Salamba Sarvangasana (Supported Shoulder Stand) is an inversion in which you lie on your back and lift your hips and legs straight up over your shoulders, with your hands on your back for support. Your weight rests on the tops of the shoulders and the upper arms, never on the neck or the head. It is usually practised near the end of a class, together with Halasana (Plow Pose).

Pose type: inversion. Level: intermediate, with a wall version for beginners. Props: two or three firm folded blankets under the shoulders, a wall if you are new to the pose.

What Salamba Sarvangasana means

The name has three parts. Salamba means with support (sa, with, and alamba, support). Sarvanga means the whole body (sarva, all, and anga, limb). Asana is seat or posture. The pose uses all of you: the arms hold the back, the back lifts the hips, and the legs reach for the ceiling.

In English it goes by Shoulder Stand, Shoulderstand or Supported Shoulder Stand. Many teachers call it the candle, because the straight body looks like one. B.K.S. Iyengar called it the mother of the asanas, and it is often called the queen, next to Sirsasana (Headstand) as the king.

How to do Shoulder Stand, step by step

Set up first. Fold two or three blankets into a firm, even stack with a clean edge. Lie down with your shoulders on the stack, about two fingers from the edge, and your head on the floor beyond it. The height leaves a small natural curve in your neck, so the neck does not have to bend as far.

1. Lie on your back with your legs straight and your arms beside you, palms down. Check that your head, neck and spine are in one straight line.
2. Bend your knees and bring your feet close to your hips. Breathe in.
3. Breathe out, press your arms into the floor and roll your hips up, knees toward your forehead. Use your belly, not a kick.
4. Place your hands on your back, fingers pointing up toward the hips. Draw your elbows in toward each other, about shoulder width apart.
5. Walk your hands up your back toward your shoulder blades and lift your hips until they sit over your shoulders.
6. Straighten your legs toward the ceiling, one at a time if that helps. Press the inner edges of the feet up and lengthen through the heels.
7. Keep your head still and look toward your chest. Your chin comes toward your chest on its own. Leave space between the two, and never turn your head while you are up.
8. Breathe slowly through the nose. Start with 5 to 10 breaths, about 30 seconds.
9. To come out, lower your knees toward your forehead, keep your hands on your back and roll down one vertebra at a time. Keep your head on the floor until your hips are down, then lie still for a few breaths.

The wall version for beginners

Lie on your back with your hips a leg's length from a wall and your shoulders on the blankets. Bend your knees and put your feet flat on the wall. Press into the wall to lift your hips, and bring your hands to your back. From there you can take one foot off the wall, then the other. To come down, put your feet back on the wall first. The wall lets you feel how the pose sits on your neck before you hold your whole body up.

Benefits of Shoulder Stand

What you can count on is what you feel in the pose.

• Shoulders and upper back: the upper arms press into the floor and the back of the shoulders carries weight, which builds strength in the muscles that draw the shoulder blades together.
• Core and back: holding the legs straight over the hips takes steady work from the abdominal muscles and the long muscles along the spine.
• Legs: with the legs above the heart, blood from the legs drains back toward the chest. Many people like the light feeling in the legs afterward.

Most people also find Shoulder Stand calming near the end of a class, as the breath slows and the eyes close. Two claims are repeated in almost every article on this pose: that it stimulates the thyroid gland, and that it balances hormones. They come from the idea that the chin pressing toward the chest squeezes the throat. No good study shows either effect, so we leave them out of the benefits.

Who should skip or modify Shoulder Stand

In Shoulder Stand the neck is bent forward and part of your body weight sits close to it. That is the risk in this pose. Most neck strain comes from doing it flat on the floor, from letting the hips drop behind the shoulders, and from moving the head while you are up.

• Skip it if you have a neck injury, a disc problem in the neck or upper back, or pain or tingling that spreads into the arms.
• Skip it if you have osteoporosis or low bone density. Loaded forward bending of the spine is linked to compression fractures of the vertebrae.
• Ask your doctor first if you have glaucoma, a detached retina, or high blood pressure or a heart condition that is not under control. Turning upside down raises the pressure in the head and the eyes.
• Modify in pregnancy. If you did not practise Shoulder Stand before, do not start now. Legs up a wall with your back on the floor gives you the rest without the load.
• Come out if you feel pain in the neck, pressure building in the head or ears, or tingling in the hands.

Some teachers advise against inversions during menstruation. That rule comes from yoga tradition, not from medical evidence, so the choice is yours. For more on staying safe on the mat, read our 10 tips to avoid yoga injuries.

Common mistakes

• No blankets. Flat on the floor, the neck has to bend further and takes more of the load. Use a firm stack under the shoulders.
• Turning the head. Looking to the side while the neck carries weight twists it under load. Keep the head centred. Come down if you need to look around.
• Hips behind the shoulders. A banana-shaped body sends the weight toward the neck. Walk the hands higher on the back and lift the hips.
• Elbows sliding out. Wide elbows collapse the base. Draw them in to shoulder width. A strap around the upper arms helps.
• Kicking up. Swinging the legs over with momentum lands the weight on the neck. Roll up with control, or use the wall.
• Dropping down. Coming out fast makes the spine hit the floor. Roll down slowly with your hands on your back.

Preparatory poses

Shoulder Stand asks for open shoulders, a strong back and hamstrings that let you fold. These poses build each part:

• Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose): lifts the hips from the same shoulder base and teaches you to roll the shoulders under you.
• Pavanamuktasana (Wind-Relieving Pose): knees to chest, the same rounding of the lower back you need to roll up.
• Paripurna Navasana (Boat Pose): the abdominal strength that lifts the hips without a kick.
• Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog): a first taste of having the head below the hips.

Our guide to the trapezius and yoga explains the muscles that carry the weight at the top of your back.

Follow-up poses

• Halasana (Plow Pose): lower the straight legs behind your head. In most sequences it comes straight after Shoulder Stand.
• Matsyasana (Fish Pose): the classic counterpose. The chest lifts and the neck moves the other way.
• Balasana (Child's Pose): a quiet fold if Fish is too much for your neck.
• Savasana (Corpse Pose): lie flat and let the back settle before you get up.

Shoulder Stand variations

• Viparita Karani (Legs Up the Wall): the back stays on the floor and the legs rest on a wall. The gentlest version, and a pose in its own right in restorative yoga.
• Half Shoulder Stand: the hips stay behind the shoulders at an angle and the legs point up or over the head. Less load on the neck, and a good step on the way.
• Eka Pada Sarvangasana (One-Legged Shoulder Stand): from the full pose, lower one straight leg toward the floor behind your head, keep the other one vertical, then change legs.
• Niralamba Sarvangasana (Unsupported Shoulder Stand): the hands leave the back and the arms reach up alongside the legs. It takes strong control and belongs to experienced students.
• Urdhva Padmasana: the legs fold into Lotus while you are up. Only if Padmasana (Lotus Pose) is easy for you on the ground.

Where Shoulder Stand comes from

The 15th-century Hatha Yoga Pradipika describes Viparita Karani, the inverted action: the head down, the feet up, held as a practice of its own. It is the closest older relative of Shoulder Stand. The name Sarvangasana is younger. It appears in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda (1934), and his students spread it. Iyengar gave it long holds and the blanket setup in Light on Yoga (1966). In the Ashtanga Primary Series, Salamba Sarvangasana opens the closing sequence, held for 25 breaths with the gaze toward the tip of the nose. Read more about that in our guide to drishti, the yoga gaze. The chin moving toward the chest is described in both traditions as Jalandhara Bandha, the chin lock.

To practise Shoulder Stand where it belongs, at the end of a full sequence, follow the class The Finishing Sequence in Ashtanga Yoga or start with our Ashtanga Fundamentals program.

Frequently asked questions

How do you do a Shoulder Stand step by step?

Lie with your shoulders on folded blankets and your head on the floor. Bend your knees, roll your hips up with your belly and put your hands on your back. Walk the hands toward the shoulder blades, lift the hips over the shoulders and straighten the legs. Keep the head still. Roll down slowly to come out.

Who should avoid Shoulder Stand?

Skip it if you have a neck injury, a disc problem in the neck or upper back, or osteoporosis. Ask your doctor first if you have glaucoma, a detached retina, or uncontrolled high blood pressure or heart disease. In pregnancy, do not start it if it is new to you. Legs up a wall is a safe alternative.

What is the difference between Headstand and Shoulder Stand?

In Headstand (Sirsasana) you balance on your forearms and the crown of the head, and the neck stays straight. In Shoulder Stand your weight rests on the shoulders and upper arms, the neck is bent forward and the hands support the back. Shoulder Stand is usually easier to learn. Both put load near the neck and need a careful setup.

What is the Sanskrit name for Shoulder Stand?

Salamba Sarvangasana. Salamba means supported, sarvanga means the whole body and asana means posture. You will also see it written as Sarvangasana alone, which usually means the same supported pose.

How long should you hold Shoulder Stand?

Start with 5 to 10 slow breaths, around 30 seconds, and add time as the pose gets steady. The Ashtanga closing sequence holds it for 25 breaths. Iyengar students with a good setup stay for several minutes. Come down as soon as you feel neck pain or pressure in the head.

Is Shoulder Stand bad for your neck?

It can be when it is done flat on the floor, with the hips dropped behind the shoulders or with the head turning. Fold blankets under your shoulders with your head off the edge, keep your elbows in and your hands high on your back, and keep your head still. If your neck still complains, practise legs up the wall.

Does Shoulder Stand help the thyroid?

That claim is common in yoga books, based on the chin pressing toward the throat. No good study shows that Shoulder Stand changes how the thyroid works. If you have a thyroid condition, the pose will not treat it. Enjoy it for the strength and the calm, and follow your doctor for the rest.