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Gaining the ability to correctly execute a handstand enhances the yoga student's confidence while overcoming fears and inhibitions. The pose is actually safer for the neck than either the Headstand or Shoulderstand although individuals who have suffered arm or wrist, neck, shoulder, or upper back injuries should be medically evaluated before attempting a handstand.

Yoga handstands for beginners require gradually building one's abilities with the appropriate guided assistance. While many people start their yoga journey with illustrated books or videos, most find that when they progress past the most simple positions, they need personal instruction to achieve the correct breathing techniques and to prevent inappropriate tensing of the muscles. In the case of the handstand, for instance, this kind of mistake would manifest itself in the arms and shoulders.

Benefits of Yoga Handstands

Yoga handstands for beginners actually represent a breakthrough in a novice practitioner's skill level and as such can be an exciting as well as beneficial achievement. Any kind of inversion pose that places the head beneath the level of the heart carries multiple benefits including:

• alleviating the effect of gravity on the coronary muscle,
• achieving decompression of the spine,
• enhancing circulation, and
• providing a boost to the endocrine system.

Executing safe and beneficial handstands is achieved through mastering a series of progressive sequences that give the individual greater control of their body. Frequent practice is important and if you begin to feel discomfort, you should revert to your previous skill set until your body is ready to move forward.

Performing Yoga Handstands

As with all yoga postures and positions, the correct execution of a handstand is best achieved with the assistance of a professional. To get a sense of yoga handstands for beginners, however, a video tutorial on YouTube offers a good visual overview of the progression from the basic "level 1" to a full handstand. (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhVi0ljFLuQ)

At the most rudimentary level, you are simply standing with good posture holding your hands in front of your chest and bending from the waist. At level two, however, you are moving through a series of six postures ending with Downward Dog:

1. reach for the sky, bend downward while exhaling
2. hold a hamstring stretch, then press the hands on the knees
3. decompress the spine
4. ham stretch
5. lunge with the right foot back, left food forward
6. Downward Dog

As illustrated in the video, the practitioner next masters a progressively difficult series of flutter kicks before gaining the control to reach a full handstand. (By searching for the phrase "yoga handstand" on the YouTube site, you can easily find some 70 videos on the subject.)

Approaching the topic of yoga handstands for beginners from another angle, Yoga Journal provides a step by step tutorial. (See: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/788) This explanation points to the most significant hurdle the practitioner faces in perfecting the pose - fear of falling. In the absence of injury, however, and given a sound state of physical conditioning built by your existing yoga routine, the handstand simply represents the next step in your yoga journey, one that is both healthy and that feels good.