Handstand (Adho Mukha Vrksasana)

Pronunciation and meaning

Adho Mukha Vrksasana: AH-doh MOO-kuh vrik-SHAHS-uh-nuh.

Handstand is an inversion where you balance upside down on your hands, arms straight and legs reaching up. The Sanskrit name means downward-facing tree: adho is downward, mukha is face, vrksa is tree. The safe way to learn it is in stages at a wall, building the shoulders and wrists before you ever kick up.

How to do Handstand

1. Warm the wrists on hands and knees, then hold Downward-Facing Dog for five breaths with the fingers spread wide.
2. Stage one, the L at the wall: sit with your back to the wall, legs straight, and mark where your heels reach. Place your hands at that mark.
3. From Downward Dog, walk your feet up the wall until the legs are level with the hips and the body makes an L. Stay for three to five breaths, then walk down.
4. Stage two, once the L has felt steady for some weeks: place your hands a hand's length from the wall, facing it, in a short Downward Dog.
5. Lift one leg, bend the other knee and give a small, soft hop so the hips rise over the shoulders and the heels find the wall. Stay a few breaths.
6. Come down one leg at a time and rest, kneeling, with the forehead on the mat. Never kick up in the middle of a room until a teacher has seen you at the wall.

Make it easier

• Stay with the L at the wall for as long as you like. It is a full pose in its own right, not a lesser one.
• Dolphin Pose, Downward Dog on the forearms, builds the shoulders without loading the wrists.

Pregnancy and after birth

Pregnancy. Avoid. Do not learn or practise handstand in pregnancy. Balance and blood pressure both change, and a fall is a real risk. Gentle shoulder work on hands and knees is a kinder way to stay strong; check with your OB or midwife before you start.

After birth. Avoid. Leave inversions until your doctor or midwife has cleared you and your core, pelvic floor and upper body strength have come back. Rebuild with Downward Dog and Dolphin first, and go back to the wall stages slowly.

Expecting? Joahnna Lee Yoga has notes on adapting each trimester.

Common mistakes

• Kicking up hard from far away, which throws you past the balance point and into the wall or onto the back.
• Bending the elbows or letting the shoulders sink toward the floor, so the neck and wrists take the load.
• Practising without a wall, a clear floor and a plan for coming down.

Handstand is the pose people ask about most and need least. It is a lovely thing to learn, but it is a long project, and the useful work happens at the wall, weeks before the feet leave it.

It is worth building towards only in a Vinyasa practice that works at the wall, after the shoulders and wrists have had time to get strong in Down Dog, held for longer each week.

Before you try it

Handstand puts your full weight on the wrists and shoulders and turns you upside down. Leave it out with high blood pressure, glaucoma, a recent injury to the head, neck, wrists or shoulders, or if you feel dizzy upside down, and ask your doctor first if any of these apply. Clear the space around you, practise on a mat against a solid wall, and stop at any sharp pain.

Once Handstand and Forearm Stand are steady, a few students go on to Scorpion Pose, a forearm balance with a deep backbend.