What’s Next?

A lot of people just like you want to learn how to handstand. It’s fun, interesting, is surprisingly complex and very easy to get completely obsessed with. Handstands are easy to try, but very hard to master. There is something distinctly exciting about the sensation of control that expands as you slowly get better.

I remember myself how it went quickly from just something I occasionally would try after my karate practice, to something I couldn’t stop doing. Reflecting back on that time, and also having taught and met so many practitioners, here is some advice that’s been beneficial for them.

Your body isn’t used to handstands…yet.

This is a huge factor that is sometimes forgotten by those who have trained it for years. There is a lot of specific conditioning and physiological adaptation that is required for a really good handstand. Technique goes a long way to help this, but if it’s currently really hard for you to hold your body upside down, there is no way you can execute any kind of “technique”. If you can barely do 3 seconds of balance before your forearms give up, you cannot be precise. Yet.

The entire upper body is very engaged when doing handstands. Forearms grip the floor, arms keep the elbows straight, and dozens of muscles around your ribcage and scapula work hard to keep the body stable. Contrary to popular belief, the “core” is not that heavily involved in holding a handstand (remember Day 2?). The main work will be done by your shoulder and scapular muscles, in the same way that the main work of standing on your legs is done by your hip and leg muscles.

The physical effort in handstanding is also very specific. To get strong at handstands, you need to work on it directly, as it also involves a lot of coordination, quick reflexes and understanding of the body upside down. Other types of training can be complimentary for handstands, but it will not do much unless you actually practice the skill itself. 

As we talked about on Day 7, the interesting thing with handstands is that once you have the strength you need to do it well, the strength requirement actually goes down! In the start you are not so precise in your balance corrections, which requires more power per second, but over time you begin to use less and less energy. 

Some strength is needed of course. But strength is a very specific thing which does not always carry over from one skill to another. For example, both handbalancing and climbing require some strength and lots of endurance in the forearms. Yet, a climber won’t necessarily be able to use their fingers well to balance a handstand and a handbalancer could get quickly fatigued hanging by their fingertips on a bouldering wall.

As such, if you are going to get a handstand, you need targeted training that spurs physical adaptation. This takes time and focus on incremental progress rather than perfection. You can know perfectly well “what to do” in theory but have zero chance of executing those techniques. The flawless look of an experienced handstand is a result of good technique, but the good technique is a result of the developed physical ability to act on this knowledge.

With this in mind, Emmet and I created the Push handstand program to imbue you with that strength and coordination with progressive programming.  Having finished the Confidence course, this is the next step to achieving your goal of an unassisted, freestanding handstand.