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.

This photo of Chloe comes from a naked yoga collection on Met-Art, a fine nude photography site.

Her hands are in jnana mudra, a meditative position. I think it’s called something else besides jnana mudra, though, when the hands are held on either side of the face. I looked and looked and couldn’t find the name of this hand gesture, but I know I just read about it somewhere.

This mudra is supposed to help lift energy levels.