Practice Tip for Handstand: Work On Hip Mobility

By Yasuko

September 1, 2022

Press Handstand, Handstand Coach

Practice Tip - Work on Hip Mobility

In this article I would like to have a closer look at “Hip Mobility” for Press Handstand. I think hip mobility is very important. A handstand is not all about your hands and arms. In order to handstand freely, you’re going to want freedom in your lower body. Hip mobility will help you float in and out of handstands with ease.
The good news is you can integrate a little habit into your daily life to improve your hip mobility. Daily habits can be the most powerful tool to gain benefits out of it.

Ok, let’s dive right into it!

You’ve probably been sitting in a chair eight hours a day, five days a week. A chair delivers comfort, sure, but it’s also an unnatural structure that your body adapts to. In a chair sitting position, your hip and ankle muscles shorten and your stabilizing core muscles turn off because the chair supports your body. Over time, your hips and ankles tighten while the core areas weaken.

What already happened to you, we cannot change. The good news is we can fix it.

If you are sitting a lot in work or for any activities, instead sitting on a chair, sit in a squat.

This is how I sit on a chair in deep squat position

This is how I sit on a chair. I basically dislike sitting long and sitting on a chair.

Asian Squat: "Deep Squat" is integrated in daily life in Asia.

It's incredibly important to take breaks from sitting on a chair or couch to do some movements. It can be a few minutes worth of stretching or walking but will make a tremendous difference in your hip mobility. If you're planted on your couch or your bed hunching over your laptop all day, it's not going to do anything good for your hips or the rest of your body, for that matter.

These days it can be incredibly easy to spend too long sitting, be it a desk job or too much time driving. This tends to lead to tight hips for many. In this modern computerized world, our body doesn’t tend to do as much movement through its ranges of motion as it should.

If we don’t use it we lose it.

Our body needs consistent exercise through our hips to stay mobile, strong, and healthy. That’s why finding a routine where you can work on your hip mobility consistently will increase your physical performance level for your handstand skills.

We all need to move and train actively hip range of motion, not only for handstand skills but also for whole body balance and better physical performance.

Do Some Hip Mobility Exercises:

Deep Squat
The deep squat hold is an excellent position to gain mobility and strength in the hips, knees, ankles, and spine. Doing this position can improve your overall mobility and help out other athletic, functional movements. The hamstrings, inner thighs, lower back, glutes, and small stabilizer muscles surrounding the knees become more involved, and using more muscles can ultimately lead to increased performance.
Go as low as you possibly can, making sure you don’t raise your heels off the floor or slump forward. If you couldn’t drop your butt to just a few inches above the ground, you just discovered your problem.
“Sitting in a squat position is the most natural movement for the body,”

If you have trouble getting low enough or feel discomfort anywhere, elevate your heels 1-3 inches by using rolled towel or cushion/pillow underneath your butt. Make sure you use the assistance to attempt to straighten your back. This develops Strength, Flexibility, Definition, and Freedom in your body.

Deep squat will increase ankle and hip range of motion. The hamstrings, inner thighs, lower back, glutes, and small stabilizer muscles surrounding the knees become more involved, and using more muscles can ultimately lead to increased performance.

That’s because the joints and muscles you need for squatting—hips, knees, ankles, core, quads, glutes, and more—are your powerhouses for everything from walking and running to swinging a golf club and doing yard work. If you can’t squat properly, your joints are probably too stiff and your muscles too tight. That causes you to lose your ability to move properly.

If you can change your bad habits in daily life, this is going to be much more powerful than any workout for hip mobility. Nothing can beat “Every day’s habits”. It’s powerful.

There are enough stretch exercises tutorials on YouTube if you want to add on your training. Go ahead, do it as much as needed. Try more and more over times, you will be able to increase your mobility in hip area.

Learn to do deep squats in under 10 minutes here:

Please feel free to comment with any questions or feedback on the blog. I am happy to to share your thoughts! That's all about this blog.

Thank you guys so much for reading this article so far and I would very much appreciate any comments or any kid of question about this topic.

Be strong, be safe and try harder! See you in my next episode....

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.