Head Stand - Yoga

Yoga

The head stand is called Sirsasana or Sirshasana in Hatha yoga.

Although some believe the act of a headstand can increase memory due to "increasing" blood flow to the brain, the act actually pools blood in the head due to gravity greatly increasing the blood pressure to over 150/110. The increased blood pressure is due to the fact the body is designed to be upright and has no mechanism for pumping out blood from the head during a headstand. The increased blood pressure in the head can be damaging to weaker blood vessels, such as those in the eye, which may rupture. To this point there has been no legitimate research on the effects of regularly practicing headstands, but it does seem to be advantageous to core muscles as they can be trained in a fashion they aren't used to.