Handstandअधोमुख वृक्षासन
Adho Mukha Vṛkṣāsana — an advanced inversion that works the shoulders, abdominals, wrists.
10–40SECONDS HELD
One line on the timetable. Handstand is held 10–40 seconds, with the breath moving throughout — and no set practice here is built around it — it is held on its own.
SOURCE·YogaPath sequence data — stay times as taught·one breath ≈ 5 s at an even pace·REVIEWED JUL 2026
How to do Handstand
Read all of it before starting, and read the cautions further down before starting at all.
Place the hands shoulder-width apart about a hand's length from a wall, fingers spread wide.
Step one foot forward into a short lunge with the shoulders already stacked over the wrists.
Press the floor away and swing the back leg up, following with the second leg.
Once the heels touch the wall, straighten the arms fully and draw the front ribs in.
Hold while the shoulders stay strong, then lower one leg at a time and rest in a forward fold.
Hold: 10–40 seconds. Keep the breath moving throughout — if you are holding it, the pose is too much for today.
Muscles worked
Where the effort and the lengthening land. Primary groups do most of the work; secondary groups assist or are stretched.
What Handstand does
Described mechanically — what the movement does to muscle and joint. Not a list of conditions it treats, because a pose does not treat conditions.
- Loads the entire body weight through straight arms with the shoulders overhead.
- Builds wrist, shoulder and trunk strength in one vertical stack.
- Trains fine balance corrections through the fingers and forearms.
Handstand is one of 20 inversions in this library and one of 61 poses rated advanced. Poses where the head sits below the heart. The group that needs the most care and the most teaching.
Who should skip Handstand, or change it
- Glaucoma or raised eye pressure, and uncontrolled high blood pressure.
- Neck or cervical spine injury, and any shoulder injury that limits full overhead range.
- Pregnancy — do not begin handstand work in pregnancy; whether to continue an established practice is a decision for you and your doctor.
- Menstruation: many traditions leave inversions out then, a personal choice rather than a medical rule.
- Recent ear infection, wrist injury or carpal tunnel problems — and the requirement to learn handstand with a qualified teacher spotting, not from a page.
General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts. If you are pregnant, recovering from surgery or managing any health condition, ask your doctor before starting a practice, and learn the pose itself from a qualified teacher who can see you move.
Common mistakes in Handstand
What tends to go wrong, and the specific correction — not "engage your core".
MistakeKicking up hard with the hands too far from the wall.
FixSet the hands a hand's length from the wall and press up rather than launching.
MistakeRibs flaring into a banana shape with the low back arched.
FixDraw the front ribs down, firm the glutes and reach the heels straight up.
How the energy figure on a yoga timetable is reached
- Nobody has measured a single asana in a metabolic cart, so no per-pose figure is published here — not by this site and not by anyone.
- The pose is matched to the nearest style of practice in the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Handstand sits at code 02175, yoga, Power, 4 MET.
- That MET value is put through the standard ACSM relationship for a stated reference adult of 70 kg.
- The result is the cost of a practice of that kind for as long as you practise — not the cost of holding this one shape.
- Scale it to yourself: the relationship is linear in body mass, so multiply by your own weight in kilograms and divide by 70.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × kg ÷ 200
= 4 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200
= 4.90 kcal per minute
The same practice, hour by hour
Read it the way you would read a timetable: pick the length of session you actually sit down for, and that is the figure.
| Time practising | 10 min | 20 min | 30 min | 45 min | 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 49 | 98 | 147 | 221 | 294 |
SOURCE·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·code 02175 · 4 MET · 70 kg reference adult·REVIEWED JUL 2026
The whole activity dataset, including everything that is not yoga, is at BurnLab.
Asked before class
How do you do Handstand?
Place the hands shoulder-width apart about a hand's length from a wall, fingers spread wide. Step one foot forward into a short lunge with the shoulders already stacked over the wrists. Press the floor away and swing the back leg up, following with the second leg. Once the heels touch the wall, straighten the arms fully and draw the front ribs in. Hold while the shoulders stay strong, then lower one leg at a time and rest in a forward fold. Hold for 10–40 seconds.
What does Handstand work?
Primarily the shoulders, abdominals, wrists, with the triceps, upper back, glutes assisting or lengthening. In mechanical terms: loads the entire body weight through straight arms with the shoulders overhead.
Who should not do Handstand?
Glaucoma or raised eye pressure, and uncontrolled high blood pressure. Neck or cervical spine injury, and any shoulder injury that limits full overhead range. Pregnancy — do not begin handstand work in pregnancy; whether to continue an established practice is a decision for you and your doctor. Menstruation: many traditions leave inversions out then, a personal choice rather than a medical rule. Recent ear infection, wrist injury or carpal tunnel problems — and the requirement to learn handstand with a qualified teacher spotting, not from a page. This is general information, not medical advice — if any of these apply to you, ask your doctor and learn the pose with a qualified teacher rather than from a page.
Is Handstand suitable for beginners?
No. Handstand is rated advanced. The shape itself is rarely the problem — arriving at it years too early is. Work through the beginner and intermediate inversions poses on this site and learn this one in person.
How many calories does Handstand burn?
The honest answer is that nobody has measured a single asana. The 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities publishes MET values for styles of yoga, not for individual poses. Handstand sits closest to Compendium code 02175, yoga, Power, at 4 MET — about 147 kcal for 30 minutes of that kind of practice for a 70 kg adult. Holding one pose for a minute is a rounding error either way.
The rest of the inversions on the wall
More inversions — first at the same level, then the rest of the family.
Asana names are traditional. Every step, benefit and caution on this page is written for YogaPath rather than reproduced from any book, studio or other library — see how this site is written and what it is written from. General information only — not medical advice. Some asanas are unsuitable during pregnancy, injury or specific conditions. Learn from a qualified teacher and stop if anything hurts.
SOURCE·Published asana references·asana names, alignment and cautions as taught·REVIEWED JUL 2026
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