Sarvangāsan-Shoulder Stand

What This Does For You:

1. Acts on the Thyroid glands and thus helps in weight management.
2. Improves blood circulation.
3. Allows many vital organs revert to their proper positions.
4. Relaxes the legs and other strained areas through a relief of pressure.

How To Do The Technique

1. Lie on your back with your arms resting on your sides, palms facing the ceiling.
   Close your eyes, relax and breathe normally.
2. Now turn your palms downward, bring your legs together and tense your leg and abdominal muscles.
3. Very slowly raise your legs up until they are at 90˚. Do not bend your knees.
4. Pressing down on the floor with your palms, give a slight swing to your legs so that they go backwards over your head. See picture.(preparing)
5. This will enable you to raise the lower part of your back from the floor. Now you can support the lower back with your palms, while the elbows are pressing against the floor.
6. Slowly with the help of your hands try to straighten yourself as far as possible to a vertical position.
7. Stop wherever you feel the strain. The ultimate position will be as in the picture(Final position). Hold the extreme position for the prescribed duration.
8. Do not hold your body rigid or tense when in vertical position. On the contrary you should relax once in the final position.
9. To return to normal position first bend your legs at the knees and bring them close to your forehead. Now place your hands on the floor supporting yourself. Roll forward, keeping the back and the head on the floor while coming back. For this you will need to arch your neck while rolling forward.
10. When your back is resting fully on the floor straighten your legs up in the air and then slowly lower them to the floor.
11. Let your body go absolutely limp.
12. Rest for about 60 seconds.

Time To Hold The Extreme Position

Begin with 1 minute and keep adding seconds gradually until you reach 3 minutes.
You can increase the maximum limit to 5 minutes or more if you feel no strain.

Number Of Times
once

Time Of The Day
- Any time

Important Things To Remember

1. Always raise your legs slowly and stiffly from the floor-this will tone the abdominal muscles.
2. Do not fidget while in shoulder stand. Keep your eyes shut and enjoy the posture.
3. Do not come out of the position in a jerk, as many people make a mistake of coming out of the position in a jerk.
4. Always rest in the reclining position for at least one minute.

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