It’s the ultimate in balance and stability. The party trick that every 3-4 year old has a crack at it in playgronds, parklands and school halls. It’s a wonderfully stable position that is a feat of postural control and strength in the core, the legs, shoulders and arms. Conquering handstand requires great strength in the upper body as well as an awareness of your alignment and core control. It’s wonderful to be able to stand on two feet. Its harder to stand on one foot. It’s even harder to stand on your hands. In all these simplistic adaptions, you realise that changing the basic element requires a different understanding of how to align your body and also a different type of strength to be able to hold yourself up. For this reason I have included this in our little series as my 4th Basic Movement skill to conquer.
About a year ago I started a new movement journey. I thought to myself that I needed to find the next thing that was going to see me impassioned and keen to develop my skills in for the next 10years. That journey started with a movement coach, the rather wonderful Alan Peacock at Move Method. In those very few early weeks of working with Alan, we identified some basic fundamental movement goals. What did I want to achieve? What were 3 things that I wanted to achieve when we undertook our decision to train together? My 2nd choice was a freestanding handstand for 30secs.
Now for me this was not just a held handstand, but a true ‘gymnastic’ handstand. I could get up into a handstand and could even manage a decent hold for a few breaths. But my posture and alignment was - well a banana! Truly. I was as curvy as a tropical fruit and I think my coach must have raised a surreptitious eyebrow when I proudly launched myself into an inversion to demonstrate my current understanding of a handstand. In my efforts to achieve my goal, I have come to appreciate just how difficult it is to be able to perform this movement and the respect I have for anyone who can hold their body in this position and understand how to stabilise their posture in this most difficult but impressive of balances.
What I love about handstands is the control required. The understanding of the co-ordination of core, legs, and upper body strength that can see you holding such a purity of line. Its so much more than just pointing your toes and legs and keeping your arms straight. There is a constant balance in the holding of this inverted position that has a wonderful flow of movement through the hands and the slight waving of the feet and lower legs. When you watch someone in a handstand, look at their hands, they are constantly moving to and fro to balance the body atop the wrists and there is a beautiful motion in the stillness that correlates with my appreciation of a well performed ballet move or position. There is always an energetic flow of contractions that extends beyond the visual line.
I think I can already hear the sighs and moans of people who may be glancing over this blog with resignation saying ‘I never did gymnastics’ or ‘There is no way that I could even put weight into my hands let alone stand on them’. The truth is that a handstand skill base doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be able to do them freestanding in the middle of the room. A wall handstand requires just as much control and understanding and this alone can be the best place (and ideally the first place) you should start to work with your handstand. Understanding this co-ordination is a sign that you have the control and comprehension of how to hold your body in an upended position, and THIS I find is the beauty of the handstand. To be able to play with being upside down and knowing how to hold your glutes, tuck your pelvis, push your ribs over your shoulders and trust your shoulder strength enough to tuck your head towards the floor and not be looking at your hands. Its such an impressive body awareness
Oddly, handstands are not only just about power and strength and great control. In yoga inversions are used for breathing and decompression of the spine. The diaphragm in this position is extended and stretched. like any structure if you stretch the fibres out, the range of motion is going to be increased. Your ability to draw air into your lungs is increased here and this translates to your resting breath as well. Handstands also have a wonderful decompression of the spine. Upending yourself, inverts your blood circulation and reduces the load on your lower legs and feet whilst promoting blood flow to your brain. This has mood enhancement qualities as a wonderful side effect as well.
Now there are so many wonderful online tutorials that explain how to get your handstand in 5 or 7 steps. Developing this skill takes time - it isn’t easy. I found one of the best things that helped me to understand how to be in this position is actually not to go upside down at all. My coach has me doing ‘handstand prep’ every single time I go to do a handstand. Its against the wall and i reach my hands as high up the wall as I can whilst on my toes, with my toes being about 30cm away from the wall. If you hold the true gymnastic position with the pelvis tucked and the ribs down whilst gluteals engaged and legs straight and ‘zipped up’ together, this alone is a hard position. It requires a lot of strength and you haven’t even gone upside down yet! This is the basic understanding of how your body is aligned when you got into a handstand. Its tough, you breath hard and feel like your shoulders are on fire. But it is so good at setting you up for the attempt.
The next step is to actually go upside down. Usually the best thing to use here is a wall - a solid wall. With plenty of space around you to fall out. Yes - you are going to fall out. You will fall out again and again and again…you need to know how to fall out safely, which usually involves a twist to the side and a split of the legs. one for the coach to instruct you on. Going up into the handstand is hard. Its the scary part. Theres a whole heap of trust there and doing this with coaches is vital. They can help you into the position and get you moving comfortably into the handstand before you go off and start randomly upending yourself in shopping malls and gymnasium floors. But once you can get up on a wall and have your hands as close to the wall as possible, it helps your body to understand where you have to be in space when you attempt this movement. And here, you should be doing these wall handstands over and over.
You can start with back to the wall which is the basic pattern, but being able to go chest to wall makes the balancing act even better. You are forcing your body to stay up in the position and have that lovely interplay between balance that we talked about earlier in the hands. Getting used to being upside down for 20-30sec at a time helps to build the strength that you are going to need for the freestanding handstand.
And in the grand scheme of things, that is enough! hahah. IN my book - if you can do a few wall handstands in the right position and use the wall to balance with, maybe taking one foot off at a time and balancing more and more on your own, you have already achieved the best body awareness, strength and power to be able to complete a handstand. You can walk away and feel proud of yourself. Truly. The step from being able to hold the wall handstand to a freestanding handstand is quite natural and you may be surprised at how easy it becomes to be able to hit that position once you learn how to pitch into a handstand.
The benefit to the wrists, the shoulders, the breath, the diaphragm and the development of power in your upper body makes this movement pattern such an easy choice. and it’s not just for the spectacle nature of being able to hold a handstand. There is such grace and poise in this position and the actuality of the body being able to support itself in this position is a pinnacle of strength and balance that I think deserves it to be included in my Top 4 Movement Goals to master - and its’ really not that unrealistic to get it!
if you want to get better at handstands. Get a coach. Use someone who knows how to walk you through the various stages. Be ready for the frustration. The many failed attempts and the occasional unglamorous tumble. But get a coach. They are invaluable for helping you and ensuring you can achieve this movement safely. I’m still working on my handstands, and will continue to even when I finally land that 30sec static hold. Its a true test of body awareness and ability.
(check out my coach Alan at www.movemethod.com.au)
