Exercise of the Week #4 Handstand
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EXERCISE OF THE WEEK #4
HANDSTAND
This tends to be a defining move for many of the clients that I have trained. Just the though of the move is enough to make a lot of people cringe. How can I possibly do that? There is no way I am going to try that! usually when I ask why they feel this way they respond with “ill go all the way over and fall on my head”. A legitimate concern perhaps but what most do not realize is that a proper handstand requires more power than the average person tends to have in their body.
To do this move correctly (in my opinion) you need to start on your hands and knees with your hands right under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Now from this position lift your knees a few inches off the floor. Now the hard part for many is to kick off both feet evenly but that is the goal. Press evenly off both feet as you lift your back and hips up into the air, attempting to get them directly over your shoulders. if you can manage to et to this point, congratulations, you have reached a high level of power in your body.
The other half of the clients I use this move with fall in love with it. To be honest if you can get to the point where you can get up and hold it for a few seconds, it is a great feeling. I love to see the look on peoples faces the first time they are able to get all the way up. It is one of those milestones that everyone needs to get to at some point.
I like several things about this exercise.
1. Power, we all need more power in our body, most of us just may not think that it is necessary but I feel it is.
2. Balance, the ability to control a handstand is a great testament to increased balance in your body.
3. It just looks awesome. I have been a coach for many years and I love the look on our opponents faces when my entire team pops up into a handstand during warm-ups. It sets a good tone for us.
This is obviously an advanced move but to be honest anyone can attempt it. What most of you will find is that you are only able to get your feet off the floor for a fraction of a second.
If you are trying it for the first time, make sure you are on a padded surface!
4 Comments on this post
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Joe the Trainer said:
A lot of people in the rec center at my school do squats and power cleans. I know the list of negative stimulus’ during these exercises could be longer that most text books but in your opinion, what about them scares you the most when training an athlete?
March 6th, 2009 at 8:00 pm -
Scott said:
Good Question. Squats is easy. if you have any imbalances in your posture (one hip higher than the other, one shoulder higher than the other, scoliosis, lordosis, kyphosis etc) you create some serious long term side effects if you put a tremendous amount of weight onto your misaligned spine. I honestly just never use them. I could go on and on as to how many reasons there are to avoid this move but the other big one is the fact it tightens up your hips which leads to several serious muscular efficiency isues.
March 6th, 2009 at 8:15 pm -
Ben said:
http://www.oliepeil.nl/archief/handstand-thumb.jpg
After 1 day of working on your handstands this is the result. Despite age.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:44 pm -
coach S said:
once you start getting pretty good at doing handstands, they become really fun as a wider range of variations become available. eventually you can start doing them anywhere on almost anything stable. i think its really impressive when someone can slowly push themselves up into a handstand without any sort of jump into it. Of course, if you get really good, you can start doing them on unstable objects such as gymnist rings. now that takes strength and efficiency. just be careful when doing them on elevated objects…
March 6th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
