Viparita Karani (Legs Up the Wall Pose)

Viparita Karani is the practice of lying on the back with the legs raised, most simply with the legs resting up a wall and the head and shoulders on the floor. Viparita means inverted or reversed and karani means an action or a doing, so the name describes a reversed action rather than a shape, and in the older texts it is often called a mudra rather than an asana.

There are two quite different things taught under this name, and it is worth separating them. The version described on this page is the restful one: legs up a wall, head on the floor, one folded blanket under the pelvis at most, held for several minutes with nothing to do. The other is a supported half shoulder stand, with the pelvis lifted high on bolsters and the weight partly on the shoulders, which is a considerably stronger inversion and belongs with Sarvangasana rather than here.

It is not Sarvangasana and it is not Sirsasana. In the shoulder stand the body is vertical and the weight is on the shoulders and the back of the neck; in the headstand it is on the head and arms. In this pose the whole trunk lies on the floor and the wall holds the legs, so nothing is balanced, nothing is compressed and no weight goes anywhere near the neck. That is the entire reason it is on this site as a beginner's pose while the other two carry long warnings.

It is also not a stretch. If your hamstrings are pulling, the pose is doing the wrong thing: bend the knees or move the hips away from the wall. The point is that the legs are unloaded and the body is being allowed to stop, which is why it goes at the end of a practice, in the bedtime sequence, or entirely on its own after a long day.

Two small decisions make this pose comfortable, and comfort is the whole content of it.

How far from the wall. Right against it gives vertical legs and the strongest pull on the hamstrings. Fifteen or twenty centimetres away lets the legs slope and takes that pull off entirely. There is no correct answer: the correct distance is the one where your lower back is settled and your legs are resting rather than being stretched. Most people who sit at a desk want to be further away than they expect.

How much under the pelvis. One folded blanket is comfortable for most people, and none is perfectly fine. What I would discourage is the high stack of bolsters, because that turns a resting pose into a steep inversion, puts noticeably more pressure into the head and chest, and quietly changes the pose into something with a longer list of cautions. If you want that version, learn it from a teacher in person.

• Folded towel under the head if the chin tips back.
• Knees softly bent, never locked.
• Arms wide with the palms up, or resting on the abdomen.
• Eyes closed, or covered with a cloth, which makes a bigger difference than it sounds.
• Come out by bending the knees and rolling onto one side.

Arranging a pose so that a body can genuinely rest in it, rather than hold itself in a shape, is the logic of the whole restorative approach described on the yin versus restorative page.

Being honest about this matters more than being encouraging. When the legs are above the heart, pressure in the head, and specifically in the eyes, rises. That is why the caution list on this page mentions glaucoma and recent eye operations, and why anybody in either category should ask their doctor and use the legs on a chair version, which barely inverts you at all.

Blood pressure deserves the same care. This site's yoga for high blood pressure page rules out the shoulder stand, the headstand and the plough, and keeps the standing poses and the breathing practices. Viparita Karani sits between those two groups: it is far milder than a shoulder stand and it is still an inversion. My practice at the hall is to give the legs on a chair version to anybody whose pressure is not settled, and to ask them to check with their doctor before they lie with their legs up a wall for ten minutes.

The often repeated claim that this pose lowers blood pressure deserves a straight answer. The restorative practice it belongs to has been tested: in the PRYSMS trial, 180 adults with the metabolic syndrome practised restorative yoga or stretching over 48 weeks, and while fasting glucose fell more in the yoga group at twelve months, there was no difference in blood pressure between the groups. So I would not tell you that lying with your legs up a wall treats hypertension. What I will tell you, from four decades of classes, is that people get up from it calmer than they lay down, and that the students who use it are the ones who keep practising through busy years.

The other honest thing to say is about sleep. A meta analysis of nineteen randomised trials in 1,832 women with sleep problems found yoga improved sleep quality on the Pittsburgh scale, while the three trials that measured insomnia severity found no significant effect, and no serious adverse events were reported. That is a good reason to put this pose in an evening and a poor reason to call it a treatment for insomnia.

This is the longest hold on the site, because nothing is being worked and the useful part is in the second half.

Daily is fine, and in the evening is best. If you have ten minutes and no inclination to practise, this is what to do with them. Always come out by bending the knees and rolling to one side, which the guidance in how often should you do yoga would call the least glamorous and most important instruction on the page.

At the end, or on its own. In a practice it goes after everything else and before Savasana, which is the counter pose and the natural next thing: bend the knees, slide down away from the wall, and lie flat for three minutes. Doing both takes fifteen minutes and it is the best fifteen minutes in the practice for most people.

It pairs particularly well with the reclining twist. Two minutes a side of Supta Matsyendrasana, then five minutes here, then a few minutes of Savasana, is a complete evening practice that asks nothing of you and is worth more than a hurried session of standing poses at nine at night. That is the shape of the bedtime sequence.

It is also the pose to put after a long standing practice, or after any day spent on your feet. The legs feel different within three minutes. And it is a good place to be before a breathing practice, though not immediately before: lie flat for a minute in between, and then sit up slowly to practise Bhramari or Yoga Nidra, which is really the same intention at greater length.

What it should not follow is a hard abdominal pose or a deep backbend, done immediately. Give it a minute of lying with the knees hugged in first, so the lower back is neutral before the legs go up.

This is the gentlest pose in the library and it still has a real caution list, because it is an inversion.

• Eyes. Glaucoma, a recent eye operation or a detached retina: ask your doctor, and use the legs on a chair version in the meantime. Pressure in the head rises when the legs are above the heart, and that is not a thing to guess about.
• Blood pressure. If it is not settled, use the chair version and ask your doctor about the wall. See yoga for high blood pressure for how this site treats the inversions generally.
• Pregnancy. After the first trimester, lying flat on the back for several minutes is not recommended. Use the side lying rest, and ask your doctor or midwife.
• Neck. Folded towel under the head so the chin does not tip back. Ten minutes is a long time for a neck to be extended, and the general principle is on yoga for neck and shoulder pain.
• Reflux or a hiatus hernia. Try it briefly and stop if it makes things worse.
• Periods. Many teachers and many women leave inversions out on those days. The chair version is a comfortable alternative if you would rather not stop altogether.

For everybody else this is the pose I would most like you to actually do. Not the hardest one, not the impressive one: the one where you put your legs up a wall, cover your eyes and stay for five minutes. If you want to be shown how the blanket and the distance work, come to a class, or start with a first class.