B2R Shoulder Stability Project. The Handstand
As mentioned in the overview article of this project, there are unique benefits to training the upper body in a closed chain and specifically on our hands, of which there are many ways to do so.
Our reference point for the structured strength component will be the freestanding gymnastic handstand.
A straight gymnastic handstand described from top to bottom; toes pointed hard, legs locked at the knee, posterior pelvic tilt (PPT) & hollowed out lower abdomen (see the flat back), scapula elevation (shoulders to ears), elbows locked in extension, hands shoulder width apart, index fingers pointing forwards and eyes fixed on a point between the hands. See the video below for my verbal description.
Description of our reference point for handstand training, using internal language.
Bodyweight training differs to other training in that any given movement at any given time could shift from being a high intensity movement to a low one with training and practice. The same exercise for one person could be a strength exercise and for another a skill. This has implications for each of us, particularly when it comes to handstand training. When people start training handstand with us, and they learn ‘the line’ described above, they are generally very surprised at the strength required for a straight handstand. When we train strength there is a limit to which we can perform with high quality before fatigue will diminish our work and we need to be able to rest and recover well. More is not always better.
“Handstand for one person might be a strength task, for another it is a skill and both are trained differently”
When a drill becomes not limited by strength, but by skill, our approach is different. We cannot sugar coat this honest advice; the more we practice a skill, the better. If you are new to handstand then we invite you to observe how a baby learned to stand up. Failing and falling over and over, practising and practising, trying different ways until they figure it out. If you have ever observed this then you have witnessed real life skill acquisition.
“The more we practice a skill, the better”
Specific handstand strength. Appreciating the strength our calves give us in feet balancing help us accurately train our forearms in the same way for hand balancing.
In handstand, when we bring ourselves back to centre from falling we are managing 100% of our bodyweight with just our forearms. A very humbling exercise is to try and perform strict “forearm wrist flexions” in plank which has anywhere from 50-70% of our bodyweight. A goal we set for significantly improving our specific hand balance strength is to be able to perform 5x5 of these without compensation. See the video for full details.
There is something unique about the child like process of being on our hands, cartwheeling, crawling and playing around. It tends to be interesting and fun and we know that this has been shown to be essential in predicting whether we stick at something or not. There is a realistic trade off however with really nailing a skill down and progressing with it via repetition and practice. It is this balance we will attempt to support in this programme; to encourage a playful child like rediscovery of yourself and simultaneously practice specific conditioning with enough repetition that we can play more.
“It should not take more than 6 months for a beginner to master a freestanding 30 second handstand with the correct training”
Be the weirdo. Do a handstand on your surfboard, because you can. Jacob Baylis, B2R trainer & photographer.
There is not a correct way to move and there is not a correct way to handstand; gymnastics, breakdancing, capoeira for example will all teach us different ways in and interpretations. There are however components and themes that will enable us to progress faster and generalise what we achieve across to other things; like shoulder stability. Learning and mastering the strict gymnastic handstand is how we will do this. If we understand how we train and are diligent in the process it should not take more than 6 months to have mastered a 30 second freestanding handstand and 6-9 months for a 60-second hold (Ido Portal). Committing to achieving this means we can really enjoy playing and being child like.
Head of B2R Physical Education Steve combines his handstand practice with metabolic fitness and barbells to keep him in shape for the rugby season.
When we observe people at this point it looks easy and beautiful. It can often even look relaxed. This is not how we start out as a beginner. We need to learn to understand tension and body position awareness, starting with the hollow body.
The banana handstand. This position is not necessarily ‘wrong’ and there is arguably reasoning and a place for almost any movement (in this case a banana will likely help you get across parallel bars when significantly fatigued in a competition environment like the CrossFit Games). This is not how we will be training handstand in this course.
Hollow body supine (face up) and hollow body prone (face down, in a plank).
Shoulder blade terminology review. We must understand elevation in particular when it comes to handstand.
Building on from our terminology orientation, here we see how this is practically applied.
Useful story
Albert Einstein once sought a professional golfer to help with his swing. In the lesson the teacher observed Einstein swing and proceeded to describe how he needs to feel a slight bend in the knees, keep a straight back, rotate at the hips and internally rotate his lead leg on the back swing, which brings his thumb just behind his head, then to keep his head down and rotate his hips the opposite way through the swing phase.
With frustration at trying to think about all of these things with each repetition, Einstein picks up a bag of golf balls and throws them at his teacher and asks him to catch them all. The golf teacher, flailing his arms around looking like a fool misses all the balls. Einstein follows up with: “you trying to catch all those balls is like me trying to catch all the cues you are giving me. Give me one cue and let me own it” - Taken from The Language of Coaching, Nick Winkleman, 2020.
“Give me one cue and let me own it”
As humans, we have a finite attention capacity, we can only focus on one thing at a time, one cue. In the case of the golf swing above, we want our attention to be on the ball, not on all the subtle internal locations of our joints - which will be different for different people. There may be specific drills a golf professional (I am not one!) may use to develop the things described with the internal language used above), however focusing on something external that enables all of those other processes to snap into place is a superior way for learning skills. Visualisation and imagery has been shown to impact the process also, what we think, literally becomes our movement.
To imagine you are being chased by a cheetah, literally changes your movement. Image taken from The Language of Coaching, Nick Winkleman, 2020.
Review the image of handstand right at the start of this article, try to come up with an image that works for you to create that body shape. Try replacing the cheetah in this thought bubble with an inverted pendulum, or one that works for me is to think of rigour mortis. Whatever works for you, we need to build an implicit physical understanding of the position that your image helps snap into place. For this we use the floor and wall as a constraint to condition our pendulum. Please watch the following videos, in full, several times and bring these to your practice.
Building your line with internal language, so we can eventually use an external cue when training that means all these snap into place.
Building your line supine (face up).
The next progression is to take your handstand line now and invert on the wall. To safely do so, please watch how to spot and exit. If you cannot do this or have someone do this with you we advise staying away from the wall until you build up strength in other exercises.
If we are new to the wall, the shoulders will be where we need support. How close we move to the wall will depend on many factors; being able to safely get in and out and actually having the mobility to get there being particularly worthy of note.
The wall will become our friend in sculpting a strong straight line. Progression from handstand A to B (which will be taking your handstand away from the wall) will be demonstration of 5x60s holds with 2 minute rest (work : rest of 1:2)
It is not possible to put a time frame on how long it will take to progress with handstand for different people, however training in the middle of the room and not being able to actually spend time in the position we need, is not an efficient use of training time, for these reasons we have set progression to ‘balance’ work as 5x60 on the wall with good shape (our reference shape at the start of this article) and double the rest to work (1:2).
We also appreciate that this repetition can be boring for some. For these reasons I have included a more playful sample session on your hands at the bottom of this article which is to be used at your disposal, to maintain interest and motivation and assist you in accumulating the required time for skill acquisition on your hands. You will notice that to do the more challenging variations, will require structured strength training; mastering the gymnastic handstand in this programme being how we will work towards this.
This programme will also have allocated ‘core’ training which will weave both handstand and hang together to train body shapes required for progress.
Core Conditioning. The L hang.
Core Conditioning. Hollow body rocks, a dynamic progression on static holds.
Cast wall walks. A more advanced conditioning drill for handstand.
Slider pike lifts require intense core compression and scapular protraction / elevation making this a very effective core drill for handstand (and future progressions like a press handstand, should you get the bug).
Bench incline leg lifts are a preference of mine for training hanging core compression for the very obvious benefit of how we can alter the incline. Not everyone will have access to such high tech equipment (jokes! however swedish bars are a novelty these days) so where this is not possible., we have alternate programming requiring just a bar.
All the core training will be modelled on handstand and the programming will be two sessions (A+B) alternated each week where you strive to get further through it and increase quality. Simple, not easy.
EXEMPLAR PLAYFUL HAND BALANCE SESSION
Coaching points for this session, worry less about all of the strict coaching points in our gymnastic handstand training and have fun. Play with the variations, bent leg / straight leg / bent arm / straight arm / fast / slow / look at the floor / straight forwards. This session could be repeated and varied multiple times per week or weaved into your normal exercise routine once per week.
General warm up including wrist prep and some hang time. 10 mins
Parkour rolling practice. 5 mins
Handstand falling practice. 5-10 minutes continuous in as many different ways
A1. Bananeira kick ups - with 3s hold @ top. 5-10 meters
A2. Aú forwards - low / high / single leg / tuck / straddle. 5-10 meters
A3. Aú sideways through squat - head on and off floor / tuck / straddle. 5-10 meters
A4. Aú walkback - with bananeira hold 3-5 seconds. 10 reps
*Move from A1 through to A4 with as little rest as required for a total of 3-5 rounds. If pushed for time consider a 20 minute time cap.
B1. Bananeira leg stretch on the wall / free standing - 2 minutes in as few sets as required.
These movements are largely from my capoeira practice; credit Mestre Claudio Campos.
Handstand is really a long term process always refining our line and working towards more difficult skills.
Welcome to the start of your journey.
Luke R. Davies,
#B2Rhealth :)
Journey to the free standing handstand started for me 5 years ago. The process continues for me always refining both the skill, and the goal.