The Many Health Benefits of Legs Up the Wall Pose

If you've ever been to a yoga class, then there's a chance the instructor asked you to put your legs up the wall. While it might feel a little silly at first, there's something about this restorative yoga pose that's so relaxing; you can close your eyes and just let the wall support the weight of your legs. As a yoga instructor for over twenty years, I often suggest Legs Up the Wall to my students as an alternative to savasana. (You can also use Legs Up the Wall to meditate, as long as it feels relaxing to you.)

While resting with your legs in this way offers a moment of stillness and calm, there are actually quite a lot of health benefits to Leg Up the Wall. Keep reading to learn why this position might be more helpful than you think, and how to make the most of it.

Legs Up the Wall Benefits

Known in Sanskrit as Viparita Karani, which translates to "inverted in action," Legs Up the Wall is a pose that flips your body from its normal positioning. In yoga, any time you move your body in a way that's different from your typical patterns, it's thought to benefit the mind and body in some way. Legs Up the Wall is a type of inversion (meaning, your body is inverted from its usual upright position), and offers a way to get the benefits of yoga inversions without having to do a more difficult pose like headstand or handstand.

As for health benefits, Legs Up the Wall pose offers these physical and mental perks:

• Ease pain or muscle fatigue: Our feet, legs, and spine are all weight-bearing structures that work to hold us up, explains Meredith Witte, MS, exercise physiologist and yoga instructor. When we de-load these structures (such as by lying down or putting our legs up the wall), the corresponding muscles can rest, "reducing fatigue and potentially the pain associated with overloading or overworking our tissues," she says.
• Reduce inflammation in the feet, ankles, and legs: Gravity can cause blood and other fluids to pool in the legs, ankles, and feet, Witte explains. However, you can defy this pull of gravity by elevating your legs in Legs Up the Wall pose. "This allows for gravity to pull any built-up fluid from your legs down toward your pelvis and torso," she adds. That's what makes this pose so good for workout recovery.
• Increase flexibility in the backs of the legs: The wall passively flexes your thigh and knee, which lengthens your hamstrings into a stretched position, Witte says.
• Reduce stress: When you're experiencing stress, the nervous system's fight or flight response causes the body to secrete stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, explains Witte. Exercise, meditation, and any restorative posture — including Legs Up the Wall — can relieve stress. This particular pose allows your muscles to completely relax and your breath to regulate, giving your nervous system the opportunity to slow down. This helps reduce the levels of stress hormones, offering you a sense of calmness.
• Relieve headaches: Studies have found that yoga can relieve tension-type headaches, explains Witte, and maybe even migraines. That's because stress is often a trigger, and as mentioned above, this pose can help relieve stress.
• Alleviate menstrual cramps: Studies have shown that yoga can significantly reduce the pain of menstrual cramps. Researchers are still trying to pinpoint the physiological reasons why, but a common hypothesis is that yoga increases blood flow to the pelvic area without stimulating too much stress in the process (in the way rigorous exercise might), Witte says. Although some yoga traditions advise against doing this pose or any inversion during menstruation because it goes against the normal flow of menstrual fluid, it's not harmful to your body in any way.
• Refresh legs after sitting or standing for long periods: When you stand up after doing this pose, your legs will feel refreshed. That's because as mentioned above, "extended time in Legs Up the Wall removes the downward force of gravity, allowing the muscles of your lower body to rest, and for any excess fluid to drain," Witte says.
• Help you fall asleep: As long as your body feels comfortable and relaxed, the parasympathetic "rest and digest" side of your nervous system will start to take over, Witte explains, allowing you to feel calm and ready for rest. Try this yoga sequence for sleep that includes Legs Up the Wall pose.

Can Doing Legs Up the Wall After Sex Help You Conceive?

We can't talk about Legs Up the Wall without addressing this! There's a myth that after having sex, raising your legs and hips can help prevent semen from coming out, so you have a better chance of the sperm swimming to the egg. However, there's no scientific evidence that doing this pose will help you get pregnant, explains obstetrician and gynecologist, Jennie Lowell, MD. Sperm swim toward the egg, and gravity doesn't affect that, so there's no need to put your legs up the wall after sex. (The best thing you can do to get pregnant is to have sex a few days before or on the day you're ovulating.)

Tips For Doing Legs Up the Wall Pose

You can do this pose anywhere that you have a wall — even lying on your bed works.

In order to get into the pose, sit with one of your hips as close to the wall as possible. Then swing your legs up to the wall as you lower your torso down to the floor. Use your shoulders to shimmy your butt all the way up to the wall. There are different variations of Leg Up the Wall such as separating your legs into a wide straddle or bending your knees and bringing the soles of the feet to touch in a butterfly position. You may also like propping your hips up on a folded blanket, pillow, or yoga bolster, or you can place a small pillow or rolled-up towel under your head or neck.

If the backs of your legs or lower back are very tight, this pose may be too uncomfortable to feel relaxing. If you're unable to do this pose with straight legs against a wall and you still want to reap the benefits, prop your lower legs up on something like a chair, couch, step, or stacked pile of blankets or pillows so your knees are bent but your legs are still supported.

Whichever variation of Legs Up the Wall you choose, close your eyes and rest your arms out in T-position, on your heart, or on your belly — anywhere that allows you to completely melt into the floor. Focus on feeling your ribs expand and contract with each complete breath. Stay here for as long as you want, settling into this pose for several minutes or up to 20 if that feels good to you.