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handstands

Handstand drills to get you off the wall

By Bodyweight Training, Exercise Tutorials, Gymnastics Training

Most early handstand drills start on the wall – because we need help with the balance component at first. One of the mistakes beginners make with this is letting the wall take a lot of their weight. These drills will help you feel what it’s like to shift your weight into your hands instead of the wall.

Do them with the intention of putting as little weight into the wall as you can, using the wall gently for balance only.

Exercise Quick Navigation

    Handstand Hold on Wall

    Technique

    Kick up to a handstand on the wall. Focus on the following:

    • Pushing into the floor to get as tall as you can, and open the shoulder as much as you can
    • Gently squeeze the glutes and pull the ribs down toward your belt line to avoid letting the lower back extend. Only your heels should be on the wall
    • Grip the ground by pushing your fingertips into the floor
    • Shift your body weight over your hands instead of letting it rest into the wall. Touch the wall as lightly as you possibly can.

    Common Mistakes

    • Letting the low back sag and form the “banana back” position.
    • Letting the butt or legs touch the wall
    • Letting the hands be lazy into the floor instead of gripping the ground to pull weight off the wall
    • Relaxing into the shoulders and sinking down toward the floor
    • Squeezing the abs too hard – this will take away from your ability to push into a strong shoulder position, unless you have very impressive shoulder mobility

    Handstand Hold on Wall – chest to wall (wall facing)

    Technique

    The wall facing handstand on wall is harder to get into but is easier to keep a strong body line in. Use this opportunity to focus on keeping the ribs and belt line as close together as they can be without losing range in the shoulder. You do not need to squeeze your abs hard.

    Make sure you stay as light on the wall as possible – the wall should not be doing the work!

    Common Mistakes

    • Relaxing into the shoulders and sinking down toward the floor
    • Squeezing the abs too hard
    • Letting the legs or stomach rest on the wall
    • Letting the wall take your body weight

    Handstand Hold Parallel to Wall

    What is it?

    A way to bridge the gap between free standing holds and holds on the wall. You can use one foot gently on the wall to correct slight over- and under-balances.

    Technique

    Kick up to a freestanding handstand next to a wall, with one shoulder near the wall. Let one foot reach out and catch the wall with your foot. Allow that foot to correct small tips in the wrong direction with your balance – it won’t be enough for major deviations from the balance point but it will help if you wobble a little!

    Wall Pull Aways (heel pulls)

    What is it?

    A movement where you pull yourself from a handstand on the wall and briefly leave the wall to hold off the wall. You can either do these for reps falling back to the wall, or do more aggressive pulls to build strength in the fingers that help to prevent overbalancing.

    Technique

    Kick up to handstand on the wall, placing your fingertips on the ground just over one hand-distance from the wall. Dig your fingertips into the ground hard enough to shift your bodyweight over your hands and allow the heels to gently pull off the wall at the same time. If you can, allow yourself to spend a second or two in that handstand as your heels peel off the wall before returning to the wall. Over time, build the duration up so that you can peel off the wall and hold for several seconds.

    Chest to Wall Pull Aways (Toe Pulls)

    What is it?

    A movement where you drift your bodyweight over your hands from the wall until you are no longer touching the wall. You can use this to practice finding your balance on your hands in a handstand.

    Technique

    Wall walk, split or cartwheel your way into a wall-facing handstand, with the heel of your hand a little more than one hand-distance from the wall. Shift your shoulders and hips over your hands away from the wall, feeling your toes get light and the amount of pressure on the wall slowly reduce to zero. If you can, allow yourself to spend a second or two in that handstand before returning to the wall. Over time, build the duration up so that you can peel off the wall and hold for several seconds.

    Handstand flutter

    What is it?

    A movement that allows you to experience brief moments in the handstand while switching the legs to allow for some support from the wall.

    Technique

    Kick up to a handstand on the wall, a little further away than usual but not far. Separate your legs until you feel the leading leg pull your body weight away from the wall into your hands. Slowly and gently switch which leg is on the wall, letting the legs cross over the middle so there is a brief moment where you are in a handstand.

    Common mistakes

    • Letting the feet slam into the wall – this should be a gentle switch of the feet
    • Letting both feet be on the wall – we are trying to reduce your reliance on the wall with this drill
    • Passive hands – you need to grip the ground to make this work
    • Letting the low back sag – reach tall like you want your toes to touch the sky

    Handstand flutter (chest to wall/wall facing)

    What is it?

    The same as the above, but facing the wall.

    Technique

    Wall walk, split or cartwheel your way into a wall-facing handstand, slightly further away from the wall than usual. Shift your shoulders and hips over your hands away from the wall by separating your legs. Slowly and gently switch which leg is on the wall, letting the legs cross over the middle so there is a brief moment where you are in a handstand.

    Common mistakes

    • Letting the feet slam into the wall – this should be a gentle switch of the feet
    • Letting both feet be on the wall – we are trying to reduce your reliance on the wall with this drill
    • Passive hands – you need to grip the ground to make this work
    • Letting the low back sag – reach tall like you want your toes to touch the sky

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    How to start your handstand walking journey

    By Bodyweight Training, Exercise Tutorials, Gymnastics Training

    If you’re starting to feel proficient with handstand holds and want to turn that skill into walking, here are some drills you can try to help you understand the lateral shift required to get from one hand to the other, and build strength on your hands so you can successfully learn to walk.

    Exercise Quick Navigation

      Pike on Box Shift

      What You’ll Need

      A 20″ x 24″ x 30″ box.

      Technique

      In a nicely stacked pike with your feet on the box (hips over hands), shift sideways so your weight is in one hand. Then, shift the other way. At this stage, you don’t need to pick the hand up off the floor, but that will be where this drill heads next as you progress it.

      Common Mistakes

      Not getting the hips over the hands! Make sure your hips are directly over the middle of your hands – you can take a photo or video of yourself if it helps. It has to be the middle of the hands or the knuckles, not the heel of the hand.

      Single Arm Pike on Box

      What is it?

      Exactly the same as the shift, but you’re holding the single arm position on one side for time. Hang on for as long as you can to build strength here!

      What You’ll Need

      A 20″ x 24″ x 30″ box.

      Single Arm HS Shifts

      What is it?

      In a handstand position, shifting your body weight from one hand to the other.

      What You’ll Need

      A wall.

      Technique

      Kick up to a handstand against the wall, as tall as you can with your eyes on the wall opposite you, and shift your body weight into one hand. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can lift the hand off the floor completely and tap the hip, or just lift it slightly off the floor.

      Common Mistakes

      Bending the elbows or relaxing into the handstand – make sure you are pushing HARD into the floor!

      Single Arm HS Shifts (wall facing/chest to wall)

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      What are “float” to handstand drills?

      By Bodyweight Training, Exercise Tutorials, Gymnastics Training

      Float to handstand drills are some of the most important for your progression in handstand holds, and therefore also handstand walks. Floats teach us to slowly and gently shift into the balance point in a handstand. They are a gentle movement and require you to engage the hands as you float off a box, wall, band or other object into your handstand hold or walk.

      This is where most people go wrong – they are in a hurry to be in a handstand, so they rush the shift in position from the moment their weight is on another surface to the moment they are fully supporting their own weight in a handstand. Kicking, shoving, or otherwise using momentum to get off a secondary base of support fails to build the understanding of where the body weight needs to be centred in the hand for a successful handstand.

      As you watch through the float drills below, think about how you could slow it down, be gentle, and let your brain focus on what your hands and body weight are doing, instead of thinking about being “off” or “on” the secondary base of support.

      Exercise Quick Navigation

        Box float to handstand

        What is it?

        A float to handstand drill that leaves more weight on the box and requires a more substantial and obvious weight shift than when you float from a wall.

        What You’ll Need

        A 20″ x 24″ x 30″ box, and maybe some extra bumper plates if you need a higher box.

        Technique

        From a pike on the box (you can bend your legs if you need to), lift one leg up toward the sky and feel the weight shift into your hands from your feet. Keep shifting until the leg remaining on the box gets so light that it feels like less than a gram of your body weight is left in the box. Grip your fingers into the floor and allow the foot to lift off the box.

        Common Mistakes

        Pushing or kicking off the box. No float drills involve kicking.

        Band in rack float to handstand

        What You’ll Need

        A couple of thick resistance bands, a squat rack or rig with uprights that you can set the resistance bands in at roughly the height of your neck or chin.

        Technique

        Climb your legs up the squat rack so that you can hook your feet into the band. Stretch your legs up so that you can now rest your shins into the band. If the band is on your thighs, raise the band up higher. Get into a tall handstand position and separate your legs. Bring the leading leg over your body until you feel the weight of the leg still in the band start to feel light. Continue shifting until there is hardly any weight remaining in the band and the band is no longer wobbling. See if you can lift the leg off the band. If you can’t lift it off, you need to keep shifting further forward into your hands.

        Common Mistakes

        Leaving way too much body weight in the band and trying to kick out of it.

        Float to handstand from wall

        What is it?

        The smallest movement out of all the float to handstand drills. This makes it both the easiest because it doesn’t take much shift to get into the float, and also the hardest because you have to be more conscious of a less obvious shift in weight from the heels of the hands to the middle of the hands.

        What You’ll Need

        A wall.

        Technique

        From a wall-facing handstand, separate your legs and allow the leading leg to gently pull you off the wall. Move as slowly as you can. At some point, you will feel almost no weight left on the wall in the second leg, and your second foot will leave the wall when your weight has fully shifted into your hands. Do not rush the legs together at this point, just hold that position by gripping the ground.

        Common Mistakes

        Pushing or kicking off the wall, or rushing to close the legs.

        Another mistake is not gripping the ground or pushing the fingers into the floor, so when the weight shifts there’s nowhere to go but to fall over the top.

        Box straddle press

        What is it?

        A double-leg float (which is how we regress the press to handstand!)

        What You’ll Need

        A box.

        Technique

        From a pike on the box, shift your legs wide then aggressively (but slowly) shift your weight over your hands until your feet lift off the box. You will need to push harder into the floor with your legs than with the single leg variations of this.

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        6 Drills to improve your stack in a handstand

        By Bodyweight Training, Exercise Tutorials, Gymnastics Training

        The “stack” is a handstand concept that involves your head, shoulders, ribs, hips, knees and toes all being in a straight line from top to bottom.

        Lots of us chase improvements in the stack as a desirable handstand shape. It allows us to explore other handstand movements and is therefore often considered the gold standard for basic handstand shapes.

        Getting good at the stack requires an understanding of how the head, ribcage, and pelvis influence each others’ positions, as well as strength and mobility to create space through the shoulders.

        The following drills aim to help you understand your stacked position by promoting alignment of the head, pelvis, and ribcage. It will also help teach you to push into the floor and find the right amount of tension.

        Exercise Quick Navigation

          COGS

          What is it?

          A simple explainer drill on the floor to help you understand how the head, pelvis and ribcage influence each others’ shapes and positions.

          Technique

          Lying flat on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat, aggressively tip your pelvis forward in a way that arches your back. Feel how your ribcage pops up and open, and how your chin tucks to accommodate the movement against the skull. Pull the pelvis in the opposite direction and exhale fully like you’re blowing up a balloon. Notice how the ribs are now flush with the abs, and the head has tilted back up to neutral or slightly extended.

          This exact movement also happens in a handstand. It’s why it’s important not to overreach the head, or extend the spine if you’re aiming for a stacked handstand. We can gently pull the ribs down and keep the head just slightly tilted up without affecting the whole system, but jutting the head out or flaring the ribs substantially will impact the rest of the body line.

          Common Mistakes

          Forcing the issue – this movement should be able to work with fairly gentle nudges in either direction.

          Box pike shrug

          Why?

          This movement helps understand and encourage an “active shoulder,” or the intentional push into the floor that elevates the shoulder blades in a handstand to create more space and a more open shoulder angle.

          How

          Climb your way into a pike on a box, either with straight or slightly bent legs. Press hard into the floor to elevate the shoulder blades as hard as you can (imagine you’re shooting your bum up to the sky higher than it is now). Then, sink down into the shoulder blades so your whole body moves toward the floor. Repeat.

          Keep this active shoulder position in your handstand holds and walks!

          90 Degree “Yoga” Handstand Hold

          What is it?

          A drill that helps you figure out how it feels to be in the stacked position in a handstand.

          Technique

          Bow at the hip with a straight back until your torso is parallel to the floor. It’s okay if you have to bend your knees to allow that. Reach your hands to the wall and walk in until your hands and feet are firmly planted – hands on the wall, feet on the floor – with your hip bent at a 90 degree angle. If you looked from the side, it should be as if you’ve drawn a square with your torso, legs, floor, and wall.

          Now, switch the hands and feet. Put your feet on the wall where the hands were, and walk your hands in to wherever your feet were previously. It might feel a lot more cramped or even scary than you expected – but your hips should be right over the shoulders and hands.

          45 Degree Handstand Hold on Wall

          What is it?

          A position that forces you to fight gravity to find the desired shape.

          Technique

          Walk your feet partially up the wall into a wall-facing handstand, or halfway up a wall walk if that’s familiar to you. In this position, pull your mid and low back toward the ceiling while pushing into the floor like in your pike shrug. Your body should be long, and your ribs should be tucked away with no sag in the lower back.

          You may have to shift your feet slightly further up the wall if this has created more length in your body. Hold this position, it may feel a little burny in your abs and shoulder muscles.

          45 Degree Lateral Handstand Walk

          What is it?

          Exactly like the above, but with the added challenge of having to work against movement by walking side to side.

          Technique

          From your 45-degree handstand position, step your hands and feet to one side for a few steps. Then do the same reverse. Don’t let your lower back sag or let your hips wobble excessively as you step. Keep both hips facing the floor as much as you can.

          45 Degree to Full Handstand Hold on Wall

          What is it?

          A drill to help solidify the technique and position of the 45-degree handstand and carry over all the important pieces into a vertical handstand on the wall.

          Technique

          From your 45-degree position, step the hands in toward the wall until you’re in a wall-facing handstand. Walk back down to your 45-degree position and check whether you’ve lost any of the pieces you needed to keep (ribs flat to abs, long body, and pressure into the floor). Walk back up and repeat for reps.

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