skills

Why would we use a band in a rack to handstand?

By Anna WishnowskyBodyweight Training, Exercise Tutorials, Gymnastics Training

Bands are a great teaching tool because they really force the issue with stability. Unlike a wall or a box where you can leave your weight in it and somewhat cheat your way through a float, flutter or shift drill, the band will make your life really unpleasant if you lean into it and move around. This is great – it means you have to work to be present in your hands and only use the band if you start to lose balance.

For all of these exercises, you’ll need to place 1-2 heavy resistance bands in a squat rack in the j-hooks, high enough in the rack to catch your feet when you kick or climb up.

Exercise Quick Navigation

Handstand Flutter from Rack

What is it?

The hardest of the flutter drills, because the band will prevent you from resting into it.

Technique

Kick up to the band in the rack the same way you would to the wall. The band will flex as you arrive in it. If you’re too close, it will spit you back out the way you came, so make sure you are 1-2 hand distances away from the rack. Split your legs apart and shift your body weight over your hands until the band stops wobbling. Slowly switch the legs, keeping almost all your weight in your hands (you will have to balance!) and being as light in the legs as possible.

Common Mistakes

Leaving weight in the band and wobbling, or collapsing and relaxing into the shoulders and spine.

Handstand Flutter from Rack – Facing the Rack

Technique

Exactly as the one before, but facing toward the band. Climb into it by placing one foot on the upright of the squat rack then hooking the other foot into the rack.

Band in High Rack to Handstand Hold

What is it?

This is a bounce drill, so you’ll have to control the momentum as the band throws you forward.

Technique

Find your way into a handstand facing toward the band. Allow a small bounce into and out of the rack to take you into a handstand hold. Grip the ground to prevent overbalancing and try to hold the handstand briefly.

Handstand Bounce to Walk

What is it?

A more aggressive drill where you use the bounce of the band to create a challenge to control.

Technique

Kick slightly off the band, then allow the bounce to force you into an overbalance as you rebound. Step into your handstand walk from there.

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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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Learning to bail from a handstand is particularly important, and it all starts with remembering a movement you probably did at school: the cartwheel! The cartwheel helps us understand how to fall from a handstand because you shift onto one hand and rotate around that planted hand. This is the same movement we do when we overbalance from a handstand.

We can learn cartwheels to intentionally mimic overbalanced positions and learn to manage them, while still progressing them slowly enough that you feel safe.

Exercise Quick Navigation

Cartwheel

Technique

The important part of a cartwheel is the sequencing – one limb at a time lands on the floor. We don’t want both feet landing on the floor at once. It’s okay if your cartwheel is small at first, but as you gain confidence try to make it bigger and bigger until your feet pass directly over your head and you are perfectly vertical upside down.

Common Mistakes

Beginners will be tempted to go around the side of a cartwheel instead of over the top. The more you can get yourself to go fully upside down, the more helpful it will be when you bail from a handstand.

Cartwheel off box

What is it?

When you’re competent with a cartwheel, or if you need to try a different version, you can start the cartwheel with your feet on a box. This will help force your weight further over the top, so make sure you’re not just hopping off to the side of the box.

What You’ll Need

A 20″ x 24″ x 30″ box.

Technique

Walk your hands in so your hips are over your hands in a pike, then shift your weight over your hands so far that you have to lift one hand with the other still planted, then twist to catch yourself with one foot at a time.

Common Mistakes

Landing both feet at once, or falling sideways next to the box instead of rotating over one planted hand.

Cartwheel off wall

What is it?

Much like the box, the wall leaves you with almost no escape from the shift required to go over the top. Get adventurous and force yourself to shift close to the wall so you can really feel what it’s like to overbalance over the top of your hands.

What You’ll Need

A wall!

Technique

Wall walk your way to a wall-facing handstand, then shift your weight forward in your hands until you start to fall over the top. Shift one hand out of the way, rotate in that direction, and catch one foot on the floor at once.

Common Mistakes

Not shifting far enough over the top of the hands.

Overbalance from wall

What is it?

This is much like the cartwheel from wall, but you’re going to generate some momentum pushing off the wall so that you have to catch in your cartwheel quickly.

What You’ll Need

A wall.

Technique

Wall walk your way to a wall-facing handstand, then use your foot to push off the wall into an overbalance. Shift one hand out of the way, rotate in that direction, and catch one foot on the floor at once.

Single arm cartwheel

What is it?

A more advanced cartwheel that can help you understand how to rotate over one hand a bit faster than the two-handed cartwheel.

Technique

Enter the cartwheel as usual, but do not place the second hand on the ground. Twist over the top, landing your feet in the same order as usual.

Common Mistakes

The one handed cartwheel is very hard unless you can do a good cartwheel with a full rotation over the top. Make sure your cartwheel is good before you try this!

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Handstand Flutter from Rack

What is it?

Technique

Common Mistakes

Handstand Flutter from Rack – Facing the Rack

Technique

Band in High Rack to Handstand Hold

What is it?

Technique

Handstand Bounce to Walk

What is it?

Technique

Ready to workout?

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