Salamba Sarvangasana, commonly known as shoulder-stand with its direct translation being ‘all limbs pose or full body’ benefits the whole body and it is considered the mother of the poses.
While the pose was practiced for many years without shoulder support, and currently is being taught without shoulder support in many Yoga systems; there are many good reasons for choosing to practice it with support like the Iyengar method is suggesting (insisting); The most important reason for practicing it with support is of course to protect your neck from injury and in this article I am focusing on this specific reason.
NECK
The way Roger Cole (a certified Iyengar practitioner) puts it is that the neck has seven vertebrates; apart from the first two that are connected the rest of them are separated by disks. The disks allow the neck to turn and bend. The structure of the back of the neck curves inward which allows the neck to bear the head weight more efficiently. This inward curve of the neck it is supported by a ligament that runs lengthwise down the back of the neck, this elastic ligament springs back right after the neck is stretched to restore the inward curve. In Salamba sarvangasana the neck bends forward into a flexion.
Before I move on into explaining the importance of the support, I want to clarify that there are ways to approach the pose without support and still keep the neck safe, one of these variations is Viparita karani.
However, if you are attempting the pose trying to lift the spine and chest into complete vertical position with the shoulders and head flat on the floor then you are probably forcing your neck into extreme flexion; not only that, you also have your body weight applying extra pressure. Some advance practitioners could still be able to do this safely, but most people's necks simply cannot bend this far without causing either subtle or obvious damage, also the damage will not happen immediate it can be the result of repeated attempts of the pose without support.
THE USE OF SHOULDER SUPPORT
In Salamba sarvangasana you are positioned on the top bony part of the shoulders, when we add a shoulder support shoulders lift higher and the head is at a lower level, this is creating space between the neck and the body keeping the neck free to lengthen and the amount of flexion of the neck is also reduced. The support makes it also possible to balance on the top outer edges of the shoulders rather than on the upper back allowing practitioners to perform shoulderstand more vertically without neck strain.
Note: In this article we will focus only on the use of support and thus I am not going into details about the variations; however if you are interested to know more about your options when you don’t have props, please send me a massage for a follow up article on that.