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).

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.
------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for reading! More about how to Prop Up Inversions in Yoga:
About Inversion in Yoga - Halasana: Plow Pose
Shoulder Stand - Salamba Sarvanganasana
Handstand in Yoga - Adho Mukha Vrkasana
Sirsasana - Tripod Headstand
Sirsasana - ¨Traditional¨ Headstand
See how I use basic Yoga props to do ANY Yoga poses in my Prop Up Project:
Yoga Poses in the Sun Salutations
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!
Do you find the post helpful? Share to your social media!