Yoga Pose of the Day: Sarvangasana

I never advise anyone to practice sarvangasana. It's not a pose built for the average american body, and our habits of crunching forward at our computers.

There are ways to set up for it, with lots of blankets stacked under the shoulders. But it usually takes a while to set up for it.

Point is, you don't want to flatten out the back of your neck, pretty much, ever. You want your C-5 joint to be lifted up off the ground, and not bearing any weight -- you'd want to be able to slide a pencil under it. And it's pretty darn difficult to find the alignment without lots of proppage.

(And you can get the benefits of the pose by using other, more accessible, poses.)

And likewise, I would advise most bad guys to avoid having Jack Bauer's knees around their head. That's definitely gonna reverse the curve of their cervical spine.

"M" says substitute "legs up the wall" pose for this. Boy, just looking at that hurts my neck!