Handstands are definitely one of the hardest things to master in the fitness realm. Most people actually learn how to handstand walk before they learn how to balance in place. This is akin to learning how to walk before standing.
Working with the power monkey fitness crew, one thing they preach is being able to learn how to balance a handstand in place. That’s going to carry over immensely toward walking well and should probably be a prerequisite prior to starting handstand walking.
What’s important to keep in mind when balancing a handstand is what to do with the hands. When standing, your feet are constantly working to keep you from losing your balance. The same goes for the hands during handstands. We need to be very active with our fingers. I made this video below as an explanation of:
- Where your weight should be placed on your hands
- How to prevent falling backwards and forwards
- 2 drills I use with my athletes to help teach them how to use their hands more to balance a handstand
So there you have it. Obviously there are a lot of aspects to performing a handstand well, but I feel these concepts are often overlooked and are a vital prerequisite to handstands and more challenging handstand drills. Give them a shot and if you know someone who could benefit from them, then please share!
If you’d like to see how I prescribe handstand drills like these into a comprehensive training program for my athletes then click HERE.
Next week handstand running (Not really),
Daniel Pope, DPT, OCS, CSCS, CF-L1