Handstand Practice
Have you ever practiced handstands at least 3 times per week for at least 30-60 minutes for more than 3 months CONSISTENTLY.... No?
Then you don't need to question why you are not progressing or get frustrated.
You need to put in the work.
Sundi Suby
The Handstand Journey
If handstands were literally a journey it would be a 23,567KM offroad dirt track in the amazon riding a tricycle thats missing the front wheel... in the rainy season... :)
The 3 Things You Must Do For Handstand Balance
My latest free tip video this time centering on some of the functions you need to be aware of to maintain balance at any level of ability.
3 Key Habits To Accelerate Your HANDSTAND PROGRESS
3 Very important concepts that everyone interested in experiencing progress in their handstand practice needs to implement.
Enjoy
Hot Handstand Tip #6 - Wrist warmup
Wrists!
They must be warmed up before we practice our handstand.
This is the minimum I recommend . Every position is done for 40-60 seconds.
Elbows straight and externally rotated for everything.
First place palms flat with fingers forward. Rock gently, I like to add in some half circles to move the load around the wrist.
Now turn the hands outward so the fingers face the body. try and keep the heel of the hand down whilst rocking back and forth.
Next we place the top of our hands flat on the ground with fingers towards ourselves. You may be more comfortable doing this one hand at a time with the other supporting palm down.
Now we place our palms flat again but this time we are bending at our first knuckle and rolling from index to pinky to stretch the hand.
Finally wrist push ups. Make sure the only movement taking place is through the wrists, elbows are straight, ribs pulled in with the shoulders protracted and directly over the hands.
Have fun,
Sundi
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Hot Handstand Tip #5 - Shoulder elevation
Hello my friends!
This tip is straight from the handstand bible were there to be one.
Notice anything during this first demonstration?
The first is with depressed shoulders and the second is with full elevation.
When the shoulders are dropped the lack of stability and connection to the rest of the body is very obvious if you look closely. Once elevated we are in business. Because we balance from the ground up with our hands, This connection between arms and torso is very important.
Think about trying to touch your deltoids to your ears
We can practice this freestanding or in a chest to wall handstand. Then go between the two positions for reps.
You can also try this standing upright. To get a feel prior to going upside down.
So remember Push. The. Floor away.
The harder skills absolutely require this, even if you may get away without it to some extent in easier positions.
Happy training.
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Hot Handstand Tip #4 - Keeping weight in the hand
Grab those old dusty yoga blocks out of the cupboard ladies and gents because I am going to show you an excellent way to use them to address a common problem.
Keeping weight in the hand can sometimes be a struggle when learning handstands.
By placing the blocks behind each forearm roughly two fingers width away we get physical feedback by way of our arms coming in contact with the blocks if our shoulders are drifting back too far to the heel of the hand. This would result in under balance and a fall to the feet.
This works great for free balancing work.
Practicing entries.
And for certain drills on the wall.
You could just as easily use any number of household objects if yoga blocks are not handy.
Remember above all else....to practice.
Online handstand coaching - CLICK ME
Hot Handstand Tip #3 - 4 stage kickup
Hello! Today I am going to talk about how we can conceptually and physically break down our kick up to handstand to better understand the mechanics and have greater success. I call it the 4 stage entry.
When done at full speed it seems as if everything just falls into place all at once but when slowed down there is actually a very specific order to which things to take place.
First we need to get our shoulders over the hands and push against the floor this is stage 1.
Stage 2 is pushing from the bent leg to send our hips over our shoulder.
Stage 3 is opening or extending the shoulder angle.
Finally stage 4 is joining the leg.
Here are some example of what happens when the order of operations is mixed up.
Stage 3 before stage 1 and 2 have been giving time to take place and stage 3 missing all together!
Although there is much more that can be said about this topic and technique for now hopefully this deepens your understanding of the most common handstand entry.
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