Prerequisites:
Hollow Body: 60 seconds
Front Bodyline: 60 seconds
Plank w/protracted shoulders: 60 seconds
I recommend being able to perform 1 set of the (1) hollow body and (2) front body line and 3 sets of (3) protracted planks all separated by 2 mins rest, before proceeding to handstand work.
Handstand Warm-up:
The order of these exercises has been chosen to indicate the priorities of technique for your handstand. These can be reordered as needed for time and personal abilities.
Core Stabilization (hollow body and front-body line)
Our ideal handstand will consist a near 90° stack of the body over the wrists, held with adequate tension to allow adjustments to be made primarily from the fingers. Physical limitations will require commensurate compensations throughout the body.
eg., Wrists unable to extend to 90° will require the shoulders to counterbalance this deficiency in mobility; Which will require the hips to counterbalance the shoulder position
While the individual practitioner may continually seek to find a “perfect line” by improving the mobility demands of a handstand, a perfect line is not required to be in a handstand (it certainly helps, and will aid in the development of more advanced hand-balancing skills).
I recommend getting comfortable with inverting before attempting to balance; To this end we will look at three variations:
Split Kicks:
Begin 1-2 palms distance from the wall with shoulders stacked over wrists
Aim to stack hips over shoulders
3-5 kicks per side
“L” Handstand:
*this variation takes slightly more strength than the following nose to wall variation, but for beginners this version is often less scary than getting the hips over the shoulders
From a table-top
feet against the wall; shoulders over wrists, hips over knees
Attempt to walk the legs up the wall to the height of the shoulders
keep the shoulders on top of wrists throughout
attempt to hold 30-60 seconds
Nose to Wall Handstand:
From a table-top
feet against the wall; shoulders over wrists, hips over knees
Walking the feet all the way up the wall
Finding a tight body line
consider walking the hands as close to the wall as you feel comfortable,
hold for a moment (5 seconds) and walk back out
increase the time of the hold
15 seconds
30 seconds
45 seconds
60 seconds
I recommend students become strong at holding a minimum of 30 second nose to wall handstand before progressing to balancing work (as seen below)
Having become strong and relatively comfortable with the above variations you might consider moving on to the balancing portion of handstand work.
Intro to finger technique:
Begin one palm distance from the wall, (shoulders stacked over wrists)
Using the split kicks to mount into handstand
Rest your feet against the wall, while holding tight body-line
Using the fingers only, attempt to pull feet off the wall
Nose to Wall Handstand:
From a table-top
feet against the wall; shoulders over wrists, hips over knees
Walking the feet all the way up the wall
Finding a tight body line
walk the hands as close to the wall as possible
using the fingers only, attempt to pull feet off the wall
Should you pull to far: Make sure to have a safe exit in which to cartwheel away from the wall
As you continue building static shoulder strength in hand0stand don’t ignore developing the active variations by improving your push-up among the most important pushing skill.
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