Quick fixes for a better Handstand Balance

Welcome to my very first handstand tutorial! I have to admit that I’m pretty excited about this. I’m not really used to being in front of the camera in this way, but I hope all of you can get something useful for your training from my experiences!

If you are familiar with feeling like sometimes you can catch a feeling of balance, but you have a hard time recreating it and it feels like a coincidence, I guess we have all been there…

Now first of all I have to get something out of the way: there is no true quick fix when it comes to learning how to handstand. It’s really just a longterm game and simply requires you to put in the work over time. So what I am offering you here are three things, that I have noticed have helped me on days, when I feel like I can’t really get to the point I usually get to. Most of the time these three key points have helped me to improve the quality of my training sessions. So don’t expect a magic pill, but rather see this as something you can try out and see if it helps you as well.

1. Focus on your hands

Since in handstands the palms of your hands are the only contact you have to the ground, this is where you will get all the feedback about where your center of mass is located. The more awareness you have in the palms of your hands, the faster you will be able to react to weight changes, which would lead you to fall out of your handstand. Just focusing on my hands and learning to feel that my weight has to go through them was a big revelation for me when it came to getting some more consistency in my balance.

2. Do long handstand holds facing the wall before you start doing freestanding handstands.

By doing handstands facing the wall, your body is “reminded” of where it should be and where it should bring up the necesary muscular tension for handbalancing. Of course most importantly you should make sure that your handstand is aligned, meaning that your hips are placed over your shoulders and your shoulders are placed over your wrists. Holding a face-to-wall handstand until you feel slightly uncomfortable and then try to extend your hold to about 5-10 sec longer can help you to have a better feeling when you try to do free handstands afterwards.

3. Give yourself time to recover

If you are one of those people who get easily obsessed with handstands and like to overdo it and you’re at a stage where you expect from yourself to be at the level you are at your best trainings, there’s a possibility that you’re kicking up one handstand after the other eagerly without giving yourself enough time to rest. This not only applies to your total training frequency and load, but also to the frequency of handstands during training. It’s crucial you give your body the rest it needs, so don’t be afraid to take one or two days off. You will not forget how to do handstands because of that and after recovery, you will be fresh and focused and you will notice the gains you got. Also during your training sessions, let yourself rest inbetween handstand sets, so you can focus on the quality of your movements. Handbalancing is a precision skill and demands a lot of specific focus and a fresh recovered nervous system.

So these are the three key points that have been potential factors for improvement during my bad balance days. If they don’t work for you, don’t worry. Sometimes that’s just the way it is with handstands. It’s just a rollercoaster ride and you just have to get over the lows and try again on the next day.

I do hope that you can get something useful for your training out of this video. And Maybe you know other potential factors to focus on or have other thoughts on this. If so, please share in the comments below what it is that helps you for a better handstand balance. That way we can all learn from eachother.

 

The world is your playground, so just do what you love!

 

-Soundschi <3