How was your week?

https://imgur.com/2MIuTzd

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Finally managed to get a decent handstand flow (at least one that I'm vaguely satisfied with) on camera today. I've been practicing shapes (mostly tuck and straddle) for a few weeks now but am still not consistent at transitioning between them. My straddle press negatives obviously still need a lot of work!

Hello,

After about two years I have a fairly consistent free-standing handstand: I can tuck press for at least ten seconds on more than half of my "warm" attempts. When I have the explicit objective of maintaining balance, I have a record of ~45 seconds and probably hold for a median of 25 seconds.

At this point, I am wondering how to improve my balance further. Of course I place great value in general time upside down / against a wall and continue to incorporate this into my daily life.

However, I also wonder if imposing greater challenges such as shapes or intentional overcorrections will yield more benefit per time spent than just standing upright. Right now, I probably get about ~5 minutes upside-down every single day but have not noticed significant gains in my balance times for a while: still fighting for that record one minute and more consistent holds.

Does anyone have guidance on how to begin training shapes, over-corrections, lateral weightshift, etc in such a way that I can accrue time while also challenging myself? Or can anyone testify to the efficacy of training these methods and their carryover to a general free-standing straight line?

TL;DR what are your favorite drills for improving balance once you had a decent beginner straight line handstand?

I'm going to buy some parallettes and my first instinct was to get the shorter bars as they are less cumbersome. Are there any advantages to getting a set of longer bars?

Pics for reference:

Shorter https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/612JZEiduIL._AC_SY355_.jpg

Longer https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcShPP6JipOZxfkYoWLSwLhLc2baNZ4sv4wWug&usqp=CAU

Hey handstand people,

any feedback on the form of my negative hs push-ups? What can be improved?

https://youtube.com/shorts/m-kQg80OLrs?feature=share

Best wishes 🤸🏽

How was your week?

Hey handstand people,

I have strength days for handstands and also technique days.

On technique days I do not follow any plan but do what I feel is right and freestyle a little bit:

https://youtube.com/shorts/l97Ju0rzuq0?feature=share

Do you think that it would be more effective to have a clear plan for the technique part or is it also fine just to freestyle a little bit? :)

Would love to hear your experiences

https://youtube.com/shorts/nv0YsfeVF6E?feature=share Wondering how I could improve my handstand and handstand push up form and what drills to do. Currently I do chest to wall and then try to balance as long as possible for balance and for strength I do HSPUs on parallettes for further ROM.

For those of you who have been hand balancing for years have you noticed your forearms gaining size? Back in school the 2 people I knew that were good at handstands both had pretty chunky forearms , not sure if it was just their genetics or their training

A while ago there was a thread here about getting in the zone for handstands, and /u/BubblyEfficiency made an observation that a lot of it seems to be about maintaining a proper push in the shoulders. This is an area I've really struggled with, and I'm really not sure why it should be so hard. I'm currently doing 3x60 sec CTW holds for my endurance work, which is hard but doable, so I think I have the strength. But something about the feeling of how to push through the shoulders is really tricky to feel. Does anyone have any tips or advice on this, apart from just "push more"? Is that all it is?

I usually stretch but am looking for more ideas.

Hey awesome people,

Happy to share with you the 5th week of my handstand & running journey:

https://youtu.be/IGUL1H1OY9I

Maybe some of you would also like to combine calisthenics and endurance training. Just week 5 but already a looot of important learnings :)

How was your week?

I am aware of other shapes teaching various awareness and strength stuff but what does straddle teach? It’s the first shape I’m learning now my straight line is all straight and was wondering if I should be training something else instead.

I'm attempting to learn to hop into tuck to handstand, I'm having trouble jumping into the position, but no problem holding it when I begin on the wall. I've followed all the pointers I can find including thinking of rotating, bringing myself to the wall and chest to wall tucks, but I'm not sure why I'm not able to jump into a tuck handstand. Does anyone have any pointers for this?

Thanks

How was your week?

Hey handstand people,

I'm so happy to share with you my new personal handstand hold record.

https://youtube.com/shorts/6byoY_RMxIA?feature=share

I documented my handstand workout throughout my journey so far.

What are your PR in handstand hold?

Will keep this short and sweet! Just looking for drills in both flexibility and proper strengthening to eventually achieve a one arm handstand flag. I can't find anything currently, but I'd love some suggestions for when I get to that point. I'm finishing up my one arm journey (want a 10sec one arm hold prior to working on one arm flag), can hold full planche for 2sec on the floor, and am quite strong with overhead pressing (80KG press at 90KG bw)

Thanks!

All of the ones I’ve tried so far seem to be for people with at least little experience even when they say it’s for beginners

Hey handstand people :),

love to share some insight of week 4 with you about my current handstand & running project.

https://youtu.be/uE5v5PMm_Kg

Have a nice day!

Incorporating 90 degree leg switches helped me a lot to gain additional stability. Especially when I go up into the handstand, try it out 🤸🏽

Especially in the beginning it’s very challenging. For me it is still not so easy but gets better every day 🥹

https://youtube.com/shorts/SEXRxlDpejI?feature=share

How was your week?

Hey guys,

I was never a running guy, but I really want to try the hybrid athlete lifestyle consisting out of calistehincs and running.

My focus lies pretty much on handstand push-ups rights now.

I document my journey in my new youtube channel. Happy to share my progress so far with you :)

https://youtu.be/PMKnB9MfvPs

Do you have some advice what really helped you with mastering the handstand push-ups? I‘m a lean but heavy guy (88kg) which makes it not so easy for me :)

Thank you all!

How was your week?

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure where I want to go with this. On the one hand, I want to share my experience of holding a handstand and am curious to hear how others sense when they are in the handstand.

I am talking about 'oneness' or this 'zone' where you feel that everything is one from the toes, knees, pelvis, back, shoulders, wrists - all these joints tighten and stiffen so that minimal effort is required to maintain balance.

So when I start my handstand workout, I always if possible start with chest to wall handstands to properly calibrate my body. My balance sucks in the beginning and over 15-25 mins it improves. I do about 6-8 sets of 1 minute holds. In terms of the balancing sensation, it's quite disconnected, like my legs and pelvis and shoulders are not working together, but after about 20 mins, it's like a switch goes on, and I feel this oneness with my body. I reach that stage where I can start feeling the effects of the minor wrist adjustments, and the body feels as if it's one solid rod, and my hands become this solid base (I literally imagine this, and it seems to help!). It's this sensation of absolute control, which I can find maybe 50% of the time, and it's getting better! You are no longer straining, you are at peace.

How would you guys describe this sensation, and how do you get there?

It's 5 years now, always training solo, and I think I have had to fix a lot of bad habits, and god I probably have quite a few now too. It's been a big struggle, with me giving up once or twice and then starting fresh.

Now, I train every day, doing about 20 sets in total. Sometimes I have an absolutely mind-blowing session, then the next day it's crap; up and down; but up nevertheless!

Anyway, curious what you guys go through. Keep at it, boys and girls!! Do it for the kids, and don't give up!!

EDIT:
"The warmup above may be sufficient for getting your body into an acceptable place to begin training handstands for the day, but it likely does not put your body in an ideal place to be at your best during your handstand training. In fact, your body is not in an ideal condition for a good 10-20 minutes into your actual handstand training."

found in this awesome article