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Prop Up: Shoulder Stand in Yoga - Salamba Sarvanganasana

Shoulder Stand and Plow Pose in Yoga share a similar foundation: Holding body weight on the shoulders with deep flexion in the neck (cervical spine).



In Shoulder Stand, I also choose to use a blanket to elevate and support my shoulders, so that my body weight will not press down to my neck. The blanket also give more spaces and elevation so that I can hold a straighter Shoulder Stand.


You can see how the shoulder foundation is the same as in Plow Pose (Halasana) so we can choose to interlace hands and press arms down to the floor (above) or use hands to support at the back (below).



One interesting way, but a bit complicated in preparation, is to use a strap to wrap around the upper arms, right above the elbows. Make the loop smaller than the shoulders. The strap keeps the elbows hugging towards each other and not going away from each other. This is a temporary way to prop Shoulder Stand up, when you are new to Yoga and haven't got the control and strength to draw your shoulder blades together (retraction) and extend your shoulders, or in other words, ¨hug your elbows towards each other¨.


An awesome way to do Shoulder Stand: do it with the wall.



  • Start with your back on the floor, with your toes pointing towards the wall

  • Bend knees and put the feet on the floor like in Bridge pose. Keep the toes close or even touch the wall.

  • Start walking the feet on the wall and push to raise the hips up and above the shoulders. Now, it's Shoulder Stand. Choose a position for your arms.

  • You can choose to straighten one or both knees to do full Shoulder Stand, or stay on the wall and pay more attention to your shoulders position.


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Thank you for reading! More about how to Prop Up Inversions in Yoga:


See how I use basic Yoga props to do ANY Yoga poses in my Prop Up Project:

  1. Grounding Poses in Yoga

  2. Yoga Poses in the Sun Salutations

  3. Basic Standing Poses

  4. Standing Balance Poses

  5. Core Yoga Poses

  6. Backbends in Yoga

  7. Twists in Yoga

  8. Forward Bends in Yoga

  9. Arm Balance in Yoga

  10. Inversion in Yoga


Prop Up Project from Ha My Yoga to help you do more than 80 Yoga poses easier and more effectively with simple Yoga props like block, strap, wall, blanket, bolster, etc. So you can really enjoy doing Yoga!


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