Is Headstand Really Safe?

Transcript of: Is headstand really safe?

Hey everyone! Welcome to this month’s question of the month. I’m David Keil. I answer a question every month. If you’ve got a question that you’d like to submit, go to: yoganatomy.com/myquestion. So, this month’s question comes from Martina. She has a question about headstand, a lot of questions about headstand. Is headstand really safe is her question number one, a big question!

The Question:

“I read some opinions about how risky it can be for [the] neck. I understand that weight should be mostly on [the] arms, not [the] head, but still when I try to get into headstand even [a] small amount of pressure on [my] head feels very uncomfortable. Is it maybe better first [to] try to learn handstand or forearmstand? Thanks.”

The Answer:

Martina, good question. Is headstand safe? Well, if you have pre-existing conditions—let’s always stipulate that if you have pre-existing conditions, whether it is something like glaucoma or cervical injury, like herniated discs that you know of—then there’s a larger question of how safe is it and what type of techniques should you do. Maybe you can use a headstanding chair or something like that. I would say handstand doesn’t replace headstand. Forearm balance gets closer. But that pose brings other issues into play around balance and arm strength.

Headstand research

So, there was a research paper—I should have it with me actually—where they did evaluations of people going into and out of headstand. They measured the amount of pressure on the head and neck. Without a doubt, the transition phase is where you see a peak of force and pressure going into the head and neck. If I’m not mistaken, they used pressure plates where they could measure how much force ends up going into something. So, it peaked in the transition phase. That research was interesting. They had a different variety of practitioners. And, they had people enter headstand in a few different ways, with bent knees, one leg at a time I think, and then the third one was with straight legs. The straight legs had the least amount of pressure on the head.

Having said that, I would be curious—that doesn’t mean that straight legs is always better than bent knees. It’s not always possible. I don’t know, but it’s possible that the people who went up with straight legs were more advanced practitioners because that is typically a harder way to get into headstand. More advanced practitioners are probably going to maintain more weight on their forearms and elbows. What would be interesting to me is to have the same practitioners go into headstand in three different ways and take measurements. That is, have the same people do it in three different ways. That way you eliminate the potential for practitioner level to be a factor.

Preparation work for headstand

So, is headstand safe? Again, sometimes walking across the street is not safe. So, it’s a relatively safe posture. We do not normally hear about people getting injured in headstand. Does it happen? Of course, it happens. Every posture has the potential to create injury. But, it’s not the most common. What I would say is stick with doing more preparatory work so you can maintain more pressure on your forearms and elbows, like dolphin, that kind of stuff. Or, walk your feet up the wall and not so high to be sure you can press down. I’ve got loads of articles about serratus anterior as it relates to headstand as well. That’s a possibility.

Proportions in headstand

And I’ll just mention one last thing, which is that proportions can matter, sometimes in headstand, especially when it comes to the amount of pressure going into your head and neck. If you have a, relatively speaking, long neck and head compared to your upper arms, which is where it has to fit inside of—if that’s the case—you’re more likely to have more weight on your head and find it harder to maintain it in the elbows. Whereas, if you had longer upper arms and your head and neck were, relatively speaking, shorter, it would be easier to keep your head away from the floor. So, it’s another possibility that you should keep in mind. You’d have to take pictures or take a video and look at how everything fits together.

Alright? I hope that helped a little bit and answered some of those questions. Anybody else, if you’ve got a question, you know what to do. Go to yoganatomy.com/myquestion.