In a shoulder stand, the erector muscles of the spine are more active than in viparita karani. In the “lifted” version of viparita karani, the abdominal muscles play a greater role than the spinal muscles to keep the pelvis from collapsing onto the hands.

In viparita karani the abdominal muscles are strongly active in eccentric contraction. If they do not have the ability to modulate their lengthening, the weight of the pelvis will collapse onto the hand or wrists. Practicing the ability to enter and leave this pose will help with other actions that require abdominal eccentric control — for example, dropping the legs over into the wheel from a headstand or handstand, controlling vrkasasana, dropping back into the wheel from tadasana and tadasana (prayer pose), and so forth.

Body proportions and individual differences in weight distribution between the upper and lower body will greatly affect the experience of this pose. A prime example is how challenging (strength-wise) it can be for women because of the greater proportion of weight in their lower bodies and the greater flexibility of their spines, compared with men (which make their abdominal muscles work extra hard to stabilize).