Salamba Sirsasana

Pronunciation: (sah-LOM-bah shear-SHAWS-annah)

Translation:  Salamba means with support, Sirsa means head, and asana means "pose" in Sanskrit.

Sirsasana can be challenging for those who have not yet mastered the basics of this pose. But it is worth learning, preferably with a teacher’s guidance, because of the benefits it confers. When sirsasana is included in your regular yoga practice, it produces a wonderful and lasting sense of well-being.  When finished practicing sirsasana well, it feels as if one has just had a draught of the most wonderful of elixirs.

A significant physical benefit of this pose is that it feeds a supply of fresh oxygen-rich blood to the brain cells as well as to the pituitary and pineal glands. This enhances one’s thinking power and creates a sense of physical and emotional well-being. 

Many consider sirsasana to be the single most important and beneficial asana in yoga.   As a consequence, this pose has often been referred to as the “king” of the asanas. The shoulderstand, sarvangasana, is considered the “queen” of the asanas.  Sirsasana excites the nervous system while sarvangasana calms it down.  So, Yoga masters recommend that you practice sarvangasana after sirsasana for at least an equal length of time to the time you have practiced sirsasana.

There are two important things to keep firmly in mind throughout your work on this pose.

The first is to keep the maximum possible distance between your shoulders and your ears throughout the pose.  The shoulders tend to creep up towards the ears causing the cervical vertebrae in your neck to become compressed.  Prolonged compression of these vertebrae can lead to neck injury.  Keeping distance between your cervical vertebrae will protect your neck during the pose. 

Secondly, your body and spine should be aligned just as they are in tadasana, the simple standing "mountain" pose.  Your skeleton should be aligned so that your weight is primarily supported by your bones rather than by your muscles.  This means that the ears, outer shoulders, outer hips, outer knees, and outer ankles are all on a line that is perpendicular to the floor.  The lower back should have its normal concave arch.  Too deep an arching of the lower back is unhealthy because it compresses the lumbar vertebrae and requires excessive muscular exertion to hold the pose.
  
If you are new to the pose place your mat with a folded blanket on it near the wall. The purpose of the blanket is to cushion the head if the pressure on the head is too great. 

Avoid too many layers of folded blanket.  Multiple blanket layers can create a non-firm "spongy"surface that can produce unsteadiness in your pose.  Repeated practice of sirsasana tends to produce a callus on the top of the head.  This allows many practitioners to eventually dispense with using the soft blanket and to comfortably do sirsasana on the firm surface of a folded yoga mat.

Kneel facing the wall, and place your clasped hands with interlocking fingers and forearms on the blanket. They should make a triangle shape. The fingers should be deeply interlocked but avoid pressing them together during the pose as this will cut off blood circulation in the fingers.  The back of your head should be smugly cradled in the curve of your interlaced fingers.

Raise your buttocks in the air into a modified dog-pose.  The weight on your head should be on the place of your fontanel, the flat spot at the top of your head.  The fontanel is the soft spot on a newborn baby’s head.

Make sure that the elbows are shoulder width apart and the head equidistant from each elbow.  If the elbows are wider than your shoulder width the pose becomes more difficult and less stable. 

Start to walk the feet towards your head keeping the spine as straight as possible.  Do not walk the feet in beyond the point where there is full weight on the elbows.  Avoid rounding the back spine as you walk the feet towards the head.  If you loose weight on the elbows they have a tendency to "float" up from the blanket and to widen beyond shoulder width.  Some beginners find it useful to use a yoga belt looped between their upper arms just above the elbows to stop the arms from floating apart as they go into sirsasana. 

At this point as well as later in the pose it is important to be mindful of keeping your shoulders open to avoiding compression of the vertebrae in the cervical spine in your neck.  Maintain this openness by rolling the forearms down towards each other as you widen and raise the shoulders up from the floor.

When your feet are as close to your head as possible with a straight spine and the weight kept on the elbows bring your knees up to your chest and your heels close to your buttocks.  For most, assuming this new balancing position requires a small jump.  Some, with well extended leg muscles, can just lift the legs to the balance.  Most will find this a relatively easy balance to hold. 

If this initial balance is difficult for you, than practice the pose close to a wall so that you cannot fall backwards.  Do not attempt to go further into the competed pose until you can easily and comfortably assume and hold this initial balance.

The next stage on the way to the final pose is to bring the bent leg knees up so that the groins open and the knees face the sky.  Be sure to keep the legs together as you raise the knees towards the sky.  Continue to be mindful of rolling your inner forearms down and opening your shoulders.  Practice near the wall if you feel insecure maintaining your balance while going into or holding this bent leg position.  The wall assures that you will not tumble backwards onto the floor.

After you can hold this second balance comfortably it is a relatively simple matter to assume the final position by unfolding the legs so that they point straight up towards the sky.

Eventually you should be able to hold the pose safely and comfortably for at least ten minutes.  However, it is important that you build up to holding the pose for long periods of time slowly.  A key to knowing when it is time for you to come down from the pose is provided by observing your shoulders.  As soon as you can no longer hold your shoulders open stopping them from collapsing towards your ears and compressing your neck, it is time to come out of the pose.

When you do come out of the pose do so in the exact reverse of the stages you went through in assuming the pose.  First, bend the legs so that the heels come back towards the buttocks while keeping your groins open.  Secondly, fold the bent legs down and bring the knees towards the chest.  Finally, straighten the legs and bring the toes to the floor.  Try to keep the shoulders as open as possible through each of these stages.

There are many things to work on while you hold the completed pose. 

Be mindful of your alignment and your extension.  Are your ears, your shoulders, hips, knees and anklebones in a straight line if somebody looked at you from the side?  Think of the pose as an upside down tadasana. Is the weight evenly balanced on the center of your head and between your arms?   Press down through your elbows so that you almost feel as if you are going to topple over backwards. 

Extend the legs up towards the ceiling.  Observe your feet.  Many people tend to collapse the inner feet so that they are lower than the outer feet.  If this is happening with you it can be corrected by raising the big toe and inner heel sides of the foot up so that if the feet held a pencil between them it would be raised up towards the sky. 

Observe your ankles.  Many people tend to collapse the back ankles as they extend their toes up opening the front ankles.  Attempt to achieve equal extension of the front and the back ankles.

Just as it is important not to sag the shoulders down towards the ears, it is also important not to overarch the back putting pressure on your lumbar spine.  Keep your feet from creeping back from the pelvis and stop any tendency for the pelvis to start moving forward out of alignment with the shoulders. 

Keep the legs active using the quadriceps muscles to pull the kneecaps towards the hips.

Beginners Tip

Keep those shoulders away from the ears. Make sure weight is on your elbows, forearms, and head, forming a strong tripod for your pose. Use the wall at first and shift so that you come a little away from it in the pose. Start with 30 seconds in the pose and build up your duration over time. It is challenging but something most people can learn.
 

Benefits

Brings fresh blood to the brain
Rests the heart and other organs with change of blood flow
Relieves pressure on the lower back
Helps relive varicosities
Deepens breath
Improves physical balance
By reversing the normal effects of gravity, it rests the heart, aids circulation
Improves memory and concentration
Deepens breathing
Helps relieve stress and mild depression Stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands
Strengthens the extremities and the spine 
Improves digestion
Assists in relief of the symptoms of menopause
Considered therapeutic for asthma, infertility, insomnia, and sinusitis
 

Contraindications and Cautions

Don’t do this pose if you have any of these conditions: neck injuries, osteoporosis in the cervical vertebrae, or high or low blood pressure. glaucoma, detached retina or other eye disease. Those with back injury, headache, heart conditions, menstruation, or pregnancy shouldn’t do this pose. It is okay to do in late pregnancy if you have been doing the pose prior to pregnancy and you are healthy.

Thanks to Victor Oppenheimer for lending expertise and editing to this article.

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