Handstand

What is Handstand:

The Handstand is an overhead arm balancing exercise where you balance upside down on your hands, with your body aligned vertically from head to toe. This challenging movement is a staple in gymnastics, yoga, and calisthenics, and it requires a combination of strength, balance, mobility, and body control. The handstand primarily engages the shoulders, arms, core, and stabilizing muscles while also improving coordination and focus.

Key Benefits:

  • Balance and Confidence: Strengthens stabilizing muscles and enhances coordination, as well as builds confidence in the position, as a foundation for learning advanced variations of the handstand.
  • Shoulder and Arm Strength: Strengthens the front and middle deltoids, triceps, and forearm extensors for carrying and balancing your weight.
  • Wrist Mobility and Resiliency: Enhances the wrist joints' mobility and resiliency, making them less prone to injuries.
  • Convenience: This exercise can be performed virtually anywhere without equipment, making it accessible and convenient for most individuals.

Variations:

  • Crow Pose: An arm balancing pose that involves placing the knees in the lower extremities of the upper arm or around the elbows and triceps.
  • Crane Pose: An arm balancing pose that involves placing the knees in the upper extremities of the upper arm or close to the armpit.
  • Free Handstand Push-Up: An overhead pressing exercise that involves doing push-ups while in a handstand position.
  • Handstand Presses: Different entry methods to the handstand position through pressing your body into it.
  • One Arm Handstand: Performing the handstand with one arm only.
  • Different Poses: Performing different poses while in the handstand position, like the scorpion handstand.

Grip Variations:

  • On Parallettes - Easier on the wrists. Some may also find this easier to balance so give it a try
  • On Rings - Harder to balance. The longer the straps, the less stable it becomes

How to perform Handstand:

  • Hand Position: Begin by placing your hands on the floor and slightly turned outward or with paralletes shoulder width apart and slightly turned inward.
  • Entry: Either kick up into the handstand position or enter through a press variation that you can do and prefer.
  • Body Positioning: Elevate your shoulder, engage your core, glutes, and legs, and point your toes upwards.
  • Hold Position: Hold the position for your desired duration or as long as you can without form breakdown, then stop once your form starts to degrade.
  • Release: Either push through the tip of your fingers to shift your weight backward or twist your hip to the direction where you're gonna land if your form is already breaking down while adjusting your arms, and land on your feet with control.

Breathing Technique:

Proper breathing is crucial for maximizing performance and maintaining stamina throughout the exercise. Experiment with what you're comfortable with and let you perform your best. For starters, you can try the following:

  • Deep then Shallow Breaths: Take a deep breath as you go into the position, then take shallow breaths while holding the position and not relaxing the core at a comfortable interval.
  • Avoid Holding your Breath: Unless what you're doing lasts only a few seconds and you can endure holding your breath without issue, it's advisable to not hold it as this could lead to lightheadedness.
  • Shoulder Rotation: Maintain some degree of internal shoulder rotation for shoulder stability and optimal performance.
  • Scapular Position: Maintain elevation and some degree of retraction of the scapulae for optimal performance.
  • Grip for Balancing: Spread out your fingers and do not lock them out— hyperextend your fingers as comfortably as you can while bending them to use your fingers to better grip the surface. Try to put your weight on the base of your fingers (the one that usually gets callused through gripping and pulling heavy objects— is there a name for that?), and use your fingers and the base of your palms to balance yourself.
  • Hand Position: Turn your hands slightly outwards so that the gap of your thumb and index finger forms a wide v-shape pointing straight forward to reduce the strain on your wrists.
  • Surface Texture: If you have sweaty palms, either opt for a surface texture that is not slippery and provides a good grip or use something like a rubber mat to overcome this issue to not mess with your confidence and focus in your training.
  • Accessories: To improve in the exercise without actually training for it, you can work on your shoulders, triceps, and forearms- especially the shoulders - using other exercises that work those muscle groups to a high degree. That will make it easier for you to focus more on the balancing aspect of the exercise and allow you to do it more frequently to improve faster.
  • Safety and Confidence: Make sure to warm up your wrists and even your shoulders for better and safer exercise execution. You can also do the exercise with safety precautions, like doing the exercise on a soft surface or with soft materials like a pillow in your front in case you fall forward.
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    Additional Information:

    Variations:

    Ways to make it easier:

    • Getting your feet apart/straddled to make balancing a bit easier
    • Using external force for support - a partner, against a wall or something
    • Regressing to an easier variation/exercise

    Ways to make it harder:

    • Holding it for as long as possible
    • Doing it on an unstable surface/object like a balance ball or gymnastic rings
    • Doing it on a single arm
    • Doing it dynamically - going back and forth into a variation/form
    • Progressing to a harder variation/exercise