All about HANDSTANDS | Stretches and Exercises to help you improve

Hola everybody and welcome back to the blog. It’s been a while since I’ve posted something fitness-related so I wanted to rectify that this week with a post on handstands and some things you can do to progress. 

Now, quick disclaimer, I don’t yet have a freestanding handstand so the following tips are just what I’ve been using to make progress to holding it longer and with more stability. I’d like to share these here with you all so that we can get better together :) As with any skill, especially as it pertains to our body, we need to be consistent and patient because rushing things could lead to injury which will only derail our progress. There are two important things to keep in mind when training for a handstand:

1. Make sure that your body is warm. I’ve found that the best time to practice is after I workout my arms, shoulders and core. Make sure to spend a little extra time warming up the wrists. Once you’re nice and warmed up you’ll be able to hold the position for longer and really breathe into new areas. Allow yourself time to adapt to being upside down (20 sec- 2 minutes) and overtime your body will adjust to the new shape.

2. Be consistent. I mentioned the importance that patience plays in improving any skill and consistency and patience go hand in hand. If you want to stand on your hands (who’s with me :)) then you’re going to have to practice as often as you can. Remember tip number 1 and warm up first, but try to practice a little bit every day or every other day. The more time you can expose your body to the new position, the faster it will adapt. This is true not only of handstands but also of the splits, backbends, weighted exercises, etc. 

So, with that being said, the following exercises and stretches are what I’ve been working on to get the coveted handstand:

1. Improving wrist flexion. This one goes off of the aforementioned point of warming up but having flexible and healthy wrists is a key component to handstands. If you’d like to see some exercises you can do to warm up your wrists, check out the YouTube video I made on building strong shoulders here :)

2. Build strength in your shoulders. In a handstand you are supporting the weight of your body on your arms/ hands so before you can go (and stay) upside down you need to build up sufficient strength in these areas. I have linked to a video above that you all can use to workout these areas from home without any equipment. One nice exercise is wall walks. Starting with your feet against the wall in a plank and then walk your feet up until you’re facing the wall and then hold for as long as you can. If you can’t quite get there yet, just walk up as high as you can. If both of those are too difficult, I would recommend getting very comfortable holding downward facing dog, actively trying to extend your arms while simultaneously pushing into your index finger and thumb. 

3. Open your shoulders. Much as with strength in the shoulders, mobility is another crucial component of the handstand. If your shoulders are not mobile enough your back will compensate and result in the dreaded “banana back.” Therefore, in order to get as straight as possible, I’d recommend doing stretches to open and stretch your shoulders. A few that I’ve been using include: shoulder flossing (using a band/strap/broom stick) to rotate your shoulders 360 degrees, puppy pose, wheel pose, and even pincha (forearm stand). Make sure to practice these slowly and build up to more intense versions and always make sure your body is warmed up to avoid pushing yourself into areas of injury. 

4. Work your way up with other arm balances. This last tip is one that has really helped me work towards the handstand and get more comfortable balancing on my hands. A few that I’ve been dabbling with include crow, crane, forearm stand, and eight angle/ firefly (with bent legs). These are fabulous because they challenge your strength and help to improve your balance. As these are all done on the hands, it’s necessary to “tent” your fingers- slightly bend them in order to better grip the floor. Remember not to practice for too long on your wrists and if you start to feel any pain (especially on the outer edge near the pinky) stop immediately. Building up strength in the wrists takes a long time so remember to be patient. 

Thank you for stopping by this week and I really hope that you all found something valuable here that you can apply to your own quest for the handstand. I’m still on the journey myself but that’s why I wanted to share at least what’s helped me so far with you all- we can learn together :) 

If you have any tips of your own that have helped you but that you don’t see here please leave them down below or shoot me a message on Instagram. 

Until next Tuesday!

xoxo,

Alexandra