This last week I was able to accomplish my first handstand with some massive help and a few fantastic tips from my new favorite yoga instructor. Of course, one handstand does not make me an automatic headstand master of yoga awesomeness, but it did help me figure out a few quick fixes that have been blocking my progression. Hopefully, these ten tips will help any newbie to handstands get rid of those mental and physical road blocks that can hold us back from accomplishing your inversion dreams and anything else. Turns out, handstands do no have to be super difficult, and they can actually be quite fun!
The Shoulder, Shoulder Principle
Keep hands directly under shoulders and shoulder width apart. If you are not sure exactly where that means, try placing a yoga block length-ways between your thumbs, this should be about the right amount of space.
Bend the elbows
Apparently, having flexible elbows and arms is not what you want when doing a handstand. Keeping my arms super straight massively increased my risks of overextending them and reduced the weight they could support.
Use all your hands
This is one I am so guilty of not doing. Place weight evenly from the back of your palm all the way to the fingers. Fingers should be active here and can even be curled downward a little to help activate every portion of the hand.
Activate the arms
This may seem quite obvious, but it was my biggest problem. The arms should be activated and elbows should be pushing towards the mid-line of the body. A good visual that my instructor gave me is to pretend you are squeezing a yoga block between your upper arms. Hands should be facing forward and elbows facing back, not out.
Shoulders down
When we activate the arms outward, the shoulders kind of naturally do this on their own. Be sure that your shoulders are staying down and back to ensure proper posture. This also helps make sure your spine does not banana.
Feet on wall
This is great for those not quite ready for a total handstand attempt. Stand leg distance from a wall and place your foot flat on the wall parallel to the ground. Turn around and adjust the leg so hips are even and the foot is facing downward, then hinge at the hips and place both hands on the floor and both feet on the wall. Practice all of the other tips here as well :)
Hips should lead, not legs
Guilty, again. When popping up to a handstand, it is super easy to kick the legs up and hope something sticks. This tends to lead to messy falls and not so graceful flops. Instead, keep hips even with one leg on the ground and able to push-off. Having the hips lead will give you more control.
Keep back straight
Balance is balance and keeping things straight helps balance. Curving the back can make handstands much harder because we are not gravitationally centered. Keep the back activated to stop from the banana effect.
Keep the back to the wall
Start against a wall to get your balance right. The way that my instructor told me is to get the head about 1-inch away from the wall, maybe less, and try a handstand from there. When you get into the handstand, you should almost be completely against the wall. This makes finding the center of gravity much easier. You can kick off the wall as you get more comfortable.
Overcome that fear
Handstands are so much more mental than physical. The best way to overcome that mental road block is to start practicing against a wall, with friends, or in a class. Our bodies are pretty amazing and can do incredible things, let's add handstands to that list together!