Handstand Level 1: Building the Handstand Body

In order to learn the handstand, first we must develop the pre-requisite body attributes. The first stages of the handstand process are dedicated to this.

  • Bodyline - turning the body into a stick

  • Wrist and finger strength and flexibility

  • Shoulder flexibility (overhead range)

  • Our first handstand: the chest to wall hold

  • Other useful exercises (shoulder stability, hip flexibility etc)

  • Adaptation, capacity and Avoiding injury

  • How to structure a workout\program

Body-line: “Turn the body into a stick”

Before learning the reflex development drills, we must learn to “turn the body into a stick”. It is especially important to focus on the use of the glutes, and to a somewhat lesser extent the abs in creating a strong posterior pelvic tilt.

  • Drill: Rolling the Pelvis

  • Drill: Partner Glute Activation

  • Drill: Face-down Posterior Pelvic Tilt (Video 1)

Body-line Exercise 1: Back to floor Bodyline (Hollow Body Hold)

Body-line Exercise 2: Chest to floor Bodyline

Wrist and Finger Strength and Flexibility

When doing a handstand, our hands are our interface with the floor. The structures of the hand are usually not well-adapted to the demands of balancing our bodyweight on them. Our wrists and hands are easy to injure, and hard to rehab.

Shoulder Flexibility

Shoulder flexibility is of the utmost importance, and often the limiting factor in handstand training.

Assessing your Overhead ROM

This can be performed either standing with your back to a wall, or lying on the floor with your back to the floor.

  1. Ensure your low back is pressed against either the wall or floor

  2. Reach your arms forward in front of you, and, keeping your arms locked and as long as possible, reach upwards (in relation to the body), overhead, until they go as far as they can.

We want 180 degrees of shoulder flexion, so the ability to touch the backs of your hands to the floor or wall without the low back coming off the wall or floor.

Improving your Overhead ROM

As always, we should progress from more general stretches, to more specific. A more comprehensive program would include pecs, more work on the rotators, more thoracic mobility etc, but these are what I would consider the most important stretches for approaching the handstand:

  • Stretch #1: Hanging

    • Any passive hang variation, minimum 30s up to perhaps 90s or longer. Active hangs or bent arm hangs are not usesful in this instance.

  • Stretch #2: The Lat-Tri Stretch

    • This is, in my option, the most powerful and biggest “bang for buck” upper body flexibility exercise

  • Stretch #3: Side-Lat Stretch I and Side-Lat Stretch II

    • These are excellent stretches more targeting the lats. If you’re not using stall bars, the first one can be performed with any fixed post, or perhaps in a doorway, whilst the second one can be performed from a single hanging ring.

  • Stretch #4: Band Overhead Stretch

    • This emphasises the rotational component of good overhead mobility.

  • Band Overhead Circles (0:20s to 0:40s in the video)

    • This is an excellent “quick” warm up before handstand practice.

  • Active ROM: Prone Stick Lift

    • This is very handstand-specific, highly recommended!

Our First Handstand

Now it’s time to try our first handstand. We begin in a plank.

Work at your own pace - get accustomed to being closer and closer to the wall, and, gradually increase your hold times. When you can hold for multiple sets of 60s with your hands within 30cm of the wall, you are ready to learn the reflex development drills!

Other Useful Exercises

  • Shoulder strength, stability and “Prehab”

    • Being generally strong overhead is beneficial. Useful strength exercises might include:

      • Dumbell overhead press variations

      • Kettlebell (and bottoms up) overhead pressing

      • Turkish get ups and Windmills

      • Barbell strict press

        These movements are similar to the handstand in that good overhead mobility is really pre-requisite to performing them.

    • Stabilizer exercises:

      • Trap-3 \ “Y” Raises

      • Face-pulls \ Prone “U” etc

    • Hip Flexibility:

      • For kicking up, it is useful to have good flexibility in the posterior chain\hamstring. The best stretch for this is the Locked-Knee One Leg Good Morning

      • If you’re struggling with opening the hollow-body hold, stretching the hip flexors is important. The Diagonal Stretch

    • Thoracic Mobility - if your upper back is limiting the range of motion overhead, for example: Open the book

Adaptation, capacity and Avoiding injury

Injury happens when demand exceeds capacity. Therefore, do not increase the demand too quickly, without allowing for our capacity to build. Put simply: Build your practice slowly! It is important to track:

  • Total “time on hands” in a single session\day

  • Total “time on hands” across the week

  • Longest hold time in a given session.

It is suggested to increase these slowly. Perhaps start with a minute a day on your hands, day on, day off. Then maybe work to 3 days on, 1 day off, or add sets to 90s per day, then after a week 2 minutes, etc… You can train any of these elements as little as once a week, however realistically 3x per week is probably optimal. In the later stages of handstand training, you’ll want to be conditioned to daily practice - which can be 10-20 minutes.

How to structure a workout\training plan

A typical training session might look like:

Part A: Shoulder Flexibility

A1. Passive Hang x30-90s
A2. Lat-Tri Stretch x30-90s
A3. Band Overhead Circles
A4. Prone Stick Lift x10 reps + 10s hold on last rep
Repeat x1-3 rounds

Part B: Next we warm up our hands and wrists

B1. First Knuckle Raise x10 reps
B2. Reverse Wrist Push Up x10 reps
Repeat x1-3 rounds

Part C: Then, some technical drills to “tune in” our bodyline:

C1. Back to Floor Bodyline\Hollow Body Hold x15-30s
C2. Chest to Floor Bodyline x15-30s
Repeat x1-3 sets

Part D: Now, comes the main part of the training session:

D. Chest To Wall Handstand Hold x15-60s
Rest 60s-2 mins, Repeat x3-5 sets

The main part of the training session is now complete, and we can add extra rounds of the various exercises for conditioning, depending on our needs. An example circuit might be:

E1. Back to Floor Bodyline\Hollow Body Hold x15-30s
E2. First Knuckle Raise x10 reps
E3. Band Face-Pull x20 reps
Repeat x3-5 sets

This obviously depends on your individual needs, with a focus on working weak links. These workouts can be scaled up and down as needed, broken into different components and so on.

For example someone who really needs and wants to improve shoulder mobility, the part A could be done daily, for 3 rounds, whilst not even starting on “handstand proper” work for a few months. Someone else with excellent flexibility might be able to do minimal warming up, and jump right in to handstand practice, finishing with the conditioning work, and so on.