"Even the small steps add up to a big impact"
It’s shocking to see how often and how many people keep saying learning handstand is very hard, quite a challenge, and takes a lot of time to achieve, and so on. Don’t pay attention to all of that information for now! Handstands are not only for the world’s best gymnasts and hand balancers spend hours and hours per week and use it with harder skills. If you can find the courage to walk into the unknown within yourself, you’ll start to see the “I wish” turn into “it’s happening.”
Let’s focus on the bright side! We are talking about an amazing fun movement. So just like anything else you want to achieve or learn, don’t hesitate to get started no matter which age, what kind of background, or physical statement you are now. Just dive into it! All you need is your passion to get started. Handstand skills are fun, handstands are super cool, and handstands are impressive!
In this article, I would like to talk a bit about personal opinions and thoughts about the topic “Handstands” based on my own handstands journey. Hopefully, you will find some inspiration and motivation to dive into it. Trust yourself, you can do it. Handstand skill is achievable for anyone.
The fun factor of handstand skill is endless and satisfying for handstand lovers
First Things First:
There are different styles, approaches, and purposes for the handstand.
You will see big differences in the circus-, gymnastics-, yoga, calisthenics, and dancer-style handstands. I would recommend choosing your handstand iconic figure, in which style and way you would like to set your goal for your handstand skill. They are all good. It’s only a matter of taste.
I find yoga kind of slow float to press handstand elegant and stylish. Imagine I didn’t start with kick-up or wall handstand, instead straight forward aiming press handstand. Believe it or not, my first successful handstand was the press handstand without knowing at that time that the press handstand skill is an intermediate level of entry to handstand. Today I am still not so good at kick-up entry because I just don’t like the momentum movement for handstands. It is much easier to find the sweet spot to hold balance and stand upside-down from slow press motion for me. What I am trying to say is that passion wins! After 3 months of practice, I could successfully go upside-down from the press, it was not a beautifully straight handstand shape, but I was just like a tilting stick. Not so bad! At that moment I finally could float, the feeling was just indescribable. It feels amazing, in other words "the lightness" all of a sudden. After I mastered the float to press to handstand, everything else was just a matter of curiosity and repetition of practice. And I would like you to experience that feeling too. Just choose your style for your handstand journey.
The next step is to check and know the ability of your body. Can you stay upside-down on the wall? How long can you hold to the wall? Can you do push-ups? How strong are your abs? Know your weakness first and all of that necessary strength you need for handstands need to be trained. But hey don’t worry, the handstand practice should be fun for you and you actually should start slowly with training volume over time. Just work on your weakness, do targeted drills for handstands, not many different drills. Choose 2-3 drills at a time and educate your body the movement patterns. I don’t go through the recommended drills for beginners in this article, check my other blog posts or leave your comments about what topic you would like to read. I promise that I will publish “FAQ Blog Post” as soon as possible.
Beginning your handstand journey and making it a regular part of your life can be a challenge. There are lots of obstacles to overcome on the way to your first freestanding handstands such as fear, self-limiting beliefs, strength and mobility limitations, lack of body awareness, lack of motivation, and the list goes on.
Conclusion
When it comes to handstand that means practicing in a way where you slowly build up experience and confidence with handstands as you go along.
Work gradually to get stronger, more flexible, do many progressions on the way to handstands to build the body awareness. This will give you more stability and control once you actually practice the handstand.
An example is instead of going straight upside-down, trying an L-shaped handstand with your feet, start by placing your hands on the ground and stepping your feet onto a stair step, then a chair or on the wall. This is the first step as a beginner.
Build it up slowly, take as many steps as you need to get yourself fully inverted into a handstand. Practicing discomfort intelligently will give you the legs to get there.
Most importantly YOU can enjoy handstand practice, not the opposite. The decision is all yours! Everyone’s process is different, but getting into the practice of doing the unsexy, unappealing, unglorified work and trusting that it leads to a better version of you, will benefit everyone.
Thank you for reading my article so far. I appreciate that.
Please feel free to comment with any questions or feedback on the blog. I am happy to hear from you. Enjoy your handstand journey!
A bit of self-promotion
Want to learn step by step? For an absolute beginner to the handstand, I have an ultimate beginner’s press handstand online program. Check “Home” in Menu above or click the logo on the top.