Perfect Shoulders in Headstand

So I made a little discovery while practicing headstand today.  I believe it will help to correct many of the common issues I see with the alignment of the arms, hands and shoulder blades in this pose.

In the pose oftentimes the palms tend to unravel outwards and the outer armpits tend to flair outwards.

To correct this here are my suggestions: while in the pose, slide the thumbside of the hand along the skull and towards the back of the neck and roll the upper armbones in.  Rolling the armbones in will correct the issue of the flaring outer armpits, as that area too draws in.  Overall you should get the sensation of bringing all your members in towards a center line as you use the legs to extend stronly upwards.

The Iyengar method focuses a lot on the base of the pose, which in this case is mainly the arms.  I have observed that by focusing on the base many of the issues in the rest of the body immediately correct themselves.

Doing the pose in the manner described here should help the trapezius muscles lift, thus giving freedom to the neck and taking the weight off the head.  In addition, it protects the shoulders and gives stability to the posture.