December 2024

Waterfall / Legs-Up-The-Wall

Viparita Karani

From our teaching team · Jen Villegas

Jen likes to tell people, "If you have no time to do anything else, do Legs-Up-The-Wall." Try it every day for 5–10 minutes. There are so many benefits — and it teaches us that positive results can come from doing less, not more.

Practice safely

These guides are for general education and are not medical advice or a substitute for in-person instruction. Yoga is physical, and every body is different: practice at your own risk, move within your own limits, and stop if something hurts. Talk with your physician before starting any new physical practice, especially if you are pregnant, injured, or managing a health condition. The safest place to learn any of these poses is in the room with a teacher who can see you, and our teachers adjust for every level in every class.

A little history (Yoga Journal)

Viparita Karani is often called Legs-up-the-Wall Pose, but viparita means "inverted" and karani means "in action" — the pose inverts the typical actions that happen in the body when we sit and stand.

  • With the pelvis elevated on a folded blanket, lymph and other fluids that lead to swollen ankles, tired knees, and congested pelvic organs flow into the lower belly — refreshing the legs and the reproductive area.
  • It gives blood circulation a gentle boost toward the upper body and head — especially refreshing if you're stressed, fatigued, or jet-lagged.
  • Its true greatness: it teaches experientially that positive results can come from doing less, not more. When you relax with your legs up the wall, you are practicing receptivity — the polar opposite of activity.

Setting up the pose

  • Use the wall.
  • Use a block under the sacrum in the middle of the room.

Notes from our teachers

  • Also called “inverted lake” for the way blood pools into the pelvic and abdominal regions.
  • Reduces fatigue in the legs and feet while rejuvenating the lungs and brain.
  • Calms the nervous system by activating the parasympathetic side, the counterpoint to stimulating inversions like Handstand and Headstand.

The best way to learn it is in the room.

Our teachers break down poses like this in every class, at every level. First class is $8.

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