How to safely exit from handstand

June 23

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How To Safely Exit From A Handstand – Tutorial

By Yasuko

June 23, 2022

Press Handstand, Handstand Coach


No. 1 Priority: Your Safety - Always fall on your feet. 

Before you go into a handstand, you must learn how to safely exit/bail from a handstand. Exit safely means that you always fall on your feet.

To eliminate your fear of falling over the top, you need to learn how to safely exit from a handstand. Trust your body, most of the humans will naturally fall out the correct way from a handstand without even realizing that they are doing it. The most common exit is the side exit - a similar kind of cartwheel. Start from a downward-facing dog just to kick up, choose one leg, aim your leg toward the floor, and travel step aside.  Build the movement pattern in your body. This pattern works for any stage of upside-down angle. Your body will just follow. If you are confident with the cartwheel exit, you are good to go!

Let's have a closer look at "The Cartwheel Movement". Just click the video below:

Key Point: Educating the body on the motion pattern

  • Place the palms on the ground shoulder-width distance. This is the starting position. Not from the standing position.
  • Don’t kick up too much! You only need a bit of hop
  • Follow your natural reflexion. The body knows more than your brain.
Another option for the cartwheel exit is a one-handed step forward to rotate your body aside. This motion requires a little more shoulder strength and you don’t need to practice this. Once you can do a basic side step exit, the one-handed step forward will automatically come. I am showing you this option for you to get an idea.

Closing Words for Today:

Our bodies have already the ability to react in this motion as second nature. We need to wake up to this physical nature to prepare for a necessary moment. You can practice a couple of times before your handstand practice at the beginning after warm-up. The purpose of this exit practice is to make sure that your body knows how to react. Your body comes first, not your brain! You don’t need to look pretty for this. It is not the main goal. I don’t strongly recommend practicing these failing patterns a lot. Otherwise, it becomes your habit to fail. This drill is supplemental for your safety and  to overcoming the fear of falling over the back.


Please feel free to comment with any questions or feedback below. I am happy to hear from you and will do my best to answer your feedback.

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Yasuko

About the author

My name is Yasuko and I'm passionate about handstands, yoga movement and flexibility.  I immersed myself in research a lot to inspire myself & experiment for physical development. This has led to the person I am today.

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