Here’s a nude yoga picture of Chloe doing a half shoulderstand.
Interestingly, the half shoulderstand is in the Hathayoga Pradipika, the authoritative text on Hatha yoga, but the full shoulderstand is not.
Here’s an example of the full shoulderstand.
As you can see, the basic difference is that there is more of a bend in the hips in the half shoulderstand, putting more weight into the hands, elbows, and arms rather than onto the shoulders and possibly the neck.
That makes the half shoulderstand considerably safer than the full shoulderstand, which may be why the full shoulderstand isn’t mentioned in the main Hatha yoga text. Another possibility is that there is a considerable difference in blood pressure in the head in the two poses.
See Chloe and others at Met-Art.
