How to Handstand the RIGHT WAY (Beginner Full Routine)

so let's get to it first off this is a complete beginner's routine for handstands that means that you need no previous experience in fact this is designed for the person that's never tried to kick up into a handstand that has a lot of fear around that that doesn't feel like they are confident in their body's strength to hold a handstand now if you're a little bit ahead of this have no fear we will be doing a more intermediate version of this routine if you would like to see that soon then comment below let us know and we'll get that out sooner than later so one of the problems i see with people beginning the handstand is they'll get inspired to want to do a handstand and you go outside and you try to kick up a bunch of times and all that ends up happening is you fall down and your confidence becomes super low and you decide that the handstand is not for you well there's actually a process that allows you to build up strength mobility and confidence so that you can put a little bit extra work in up front and then start floating onto your hands very soon in the future so we're gonna go over all of the exercises in detail and the full routine with sets and reps will be at the end of this video let's get on those hands so one of the keys to initiating your handstand journey and to be able to maintain your health while you're getting better and better at handstands is to take care of your wrists so think about it just as the feet and the ankles support us every day walking through life now we're turning our hands and our wrists into those feet and ankles so we need those to be strong flexible and resilient to hold our body weight upside down so in order to explain this properly we're gonna kick it to my good friend josh who's out in the field thanks josh and as josh stated the wrists are so important for beginning your handstand journey and continuing your handstand journey so the main positions that we want to look at for the handstand is going to be this position right so we want to have flexible and strong wrists here so we can load the forearm over the hand and now the other one that we want to pay attention to is this because if we're always jamming here then we also want to give our body the reverse and opposite effect right so we're going to achieve this by starting out on our hands and knees like this and what we're going to do is we're going to start with a finger push-up so it's just like it sounds you're going to get those shoulders right over the hands you're going to press your fingers hard into the ground and you're going to press the palm up putting all the weight into the fingers now what's great about these exercises is you can gauge how much intensity you put into those wrists so in the beginning you may not be putting a whole lot of weight into the hands but as you become stronger you can shift more and more of your body weight into the hand to get more out of this you can also start to lean the shoulder forward so now i'm decreasing the angle here which means it's going to be a bigger stretch and it's going to take a bit more strength to do these really nicely and properly right so these should always feel really nice there should never be any pain and if you're getting pain then that means put more weight into your knees and just move through your range of motion now we're going to do the opposite here which is going to be starting with our knuckles down on the ground like this and then we're going to open up the hand and we're going to press the back of the hand down into the ground like so now in the beginning you're probably going to want to bend the elbows here because it's going to be quite intense on the wrists over time i can work to straighten my elbows more and more and that's going to be more and more of a stretch and just like the previous exercise we can start to put more and more weight into the hands which is going to require more strength from the hands wrists and forearms so that is our wrist warm up to keep those wrists happy so you can get on your hands more and more back to you josh now our next exercise is the scapular push-up a scapular push-up is very important for the handstand because we start to learn how to push and control the shoulder with the elbow straight which is the same as the handstand now in order to do a good handstand you really have to press your shoulder up right we need to be able to elevate the shoulder and that comes from really reaching through so in the scapular push-up we're learning how to do that without being upside down so it's much easier so to perform the scapular push-up first start on hands and knees and keeping the elbow straight push your shoulder blades all the way to the side and you're really going to squeeze your chest you're going to try to round your upper back as much as you can then you're going to reverse that motion by squeezing the shoulder blades together still try to keep some tension in your core here now reverse and push to the side once again now once you feel comfortable here you can start to go on to your feet and do this in a plank position now what i love about the scapular push-up is we're not only learning how to control our shoulder and push into the ground but we're also getting some core training as well and we really want to squeeze the core as much as we can squeeze the butt this is all going to contribute to getting tighter in your handstand which makes a much better handstand and one of the most important things in the handstand is understanding how to align your body upside down if we're if if we're like this it's going to be much harder to balance but if we're in a straighter line and we can get the shoulders over the hands we can get the hips over the shoulders and we can get the legs and feet over the hips then it's going to be so much easier to balance so enter our next exercise which is the hollow hold now the hollow hold is going to train your core it's a really really great core activation exercise but it's also going to teach you some some proprioception proprioception it's also going to teach you some coordination so when you're trying to find that good straight body line in your handstand it'll become easier so we're going to take it to josh in the field once again to explain this one so the hollow hold great for handstands and also we get to train those core muscles right so we're all excited about that we're going to start down on the ground and beginning with this beginner variation what i want to do is i want to bring my knees up and i'm tucking them towards my chest i like to squeeze my knees together as well because that really locks things in now the name of the game here is forcing the lower back down into the ground okay i raise my upper back off of the ground and as i really squeeze that lower back to the ground it really closes off the ribcage and ensures that i'm using all of these core muscles here okay now from here i'm going to start with just reaching my arms up to the ceiling i'm really reaching right the shoulder is reaching up i'm just going to hold this position right and you'll feel all of these core muscles really turn on now our next variation once that's becoming easier is to take these hands and let them lower to the ground a more overhead position because guess what that's what a handstand is right we have our arms overhead so now we start to train engaging these core muscles while my hands are overhead and this becomes more challenging right so we can hold this position now last progression once you're becoming stronger there is to straighten my legs right and the more i can straighten my legs and lower them down to the ground this emulates more of a handstand position last variation this is going to be hard and won't be able to talk quite as much anymore but i start with my good tucked position i bring the hands down to the ground tucking my chin upper back is still off the ground now i straighten the legs you can hang out here as you get better we can lower the legs down to the ground i'm still forcing my lower back down into the ground and whoo that becomes intense one of the problems that we run into when learning the handstand as an adult is that the shoulders are a bit stiff so think about it when i'm upside down i want to be able to press this ground just like this but if i don't have the shoulder flexibility to reach that position it's going to become a lot harder now keep in mind that you don't need perfectly flexible shoulders you can still do a handstand with a little bit of shoulder stiffness but we do want to put in work towards getting closer and closer to a really nice overhead position so one of the best stretches for the handstand is to hang off something now the hang naturally pulls your arm and shoulder into that good handstand position the great thing about the hang is that we can just let gravity do the work all you have to do is get your hands onto a bar a tree branch some gymnastics rings and let the torso and legs be pulled downwards while the arm is being pulled the opposite way now consider the hollow hold remember we're trying to find that good body line without over arching our lower back and letting the rib cage flare we can think about that same technique while we do our hold and you'll get an even better stretch the other thing to think about while you're hanging is to try to breathe deeply breathe naturally don't hold your breath and don't start to hyperventilate now if you're doing this training at your house and you don't have something to hang from well first off i'd recommend just getting yourself a doorway pull-up bar that way you can hang and stretch all the time but in the meantime you can use the doorway stretch this won't be quite as effective as the hang but it'll help start opening up your stiff shoulders so simply put your hands on the top of the door frame and start to let your chest drift through the door now once again don't arch the back and don't let the ribcage flare resist that and you'll feel a good stretch coming through this front of the shoulder trust me if you have stiff shoulders like i used to you want to spend a lot of time here over time you're going to feel those mobility gains and those will transfer into strength and handstand gains next up we have the bear walk now i love the bear walk for starting to develop strength in the overhead pushing position which is what the handstand is also bonus we get a little hamstring and calf stretching as well that could probably benefit us all so to do the bear walk we start in a downward dog style position now from here what i want you to do is move one arm forward and when you do that you're going to move the opposite leg forward at the same time now using this contralateral fashion we start to crawl forward keeping the elbow straight trying to keep the knee straight and really pushing into the ground feel yourself push and then pull yourself forward i love the bear walk because it is a fun way to develop your strength and mobility and it carries over to the handstand so much so those first five exercises are all preparatory work for the handstand so we're building up our joint strength we're building up our mobility and range of motion we're building up our activation patterns and coordination so we will have a really strong base to start going upside down and now it's time to invert so if you have some fear around the handstand you're just not comfortable with being upside down quite yet then we're gonna start at a very low level progression of a handstand hold so what i want you to do is find something to elevate your feet slightly now the more fear that you have the less you want to elevate so you can start with something just a few inches to a foot off the ground you're going to place your feet onto that surface and then you're going to assume that same downward dog style position that we used for the bear walk now in the beginning the more that you're in this downward dog position the less inverted you will be right now what i want you to do is slowly walk the hands backwards now this is going to make it so your hips come more above your hands now we're getting into more of this upside down inverted position and if you want a little bit more you can start to lean your hips forward right now we're getting those hips over the hands now the next natural progression would just be to move your feet onto a higher and higher surface until we're really stacked through the hand shoulder and hip this is how we build up some confidence from just getting comfortable being upside down calming our nervous system through steadying our breath and to really start pushing that ground away just like we did in those scapular push-ups we push the ground hard we squeeze the core muscles and we breathe so for a lot of people we'll just spend some time here we'll spend a few weeks of just holding this position and building up this tolerance to being upside down now if you have a bit less fear around going upside down and you're confident that your shoulders are strong enough to hold you and your wrists are good to go then we can start walking up the wall so i like to have people start with their feet right up against the wall and in a strong plank position with those shoulder blades all the way pushed to the side like that scapular push-up now what i want you to do is slowly start to walk your hands back now once you find a good position where you're confident to lift one leg up onto the wall place one foot up on the wall now slowly lift your other foot up on the ground until both your feet are on the wall so now depending on your confidence you can just hold this position right here but if you want to get yourself even more inverted then start to walk your hands back and at the same time walk those feet up the wall now the more that you move your hands towards the wall the more upside down you're going to go so my suggestion is to start the first few sessions off with keeping your hands further away from the wall and just getting comfortable there now once the confidence goes up and the strength goes up walk your hands closer and closer to the wall until you're in that real upside down position there's no rush to get to this position take your time do some sessions with just building up the confidence now once we find that inverted position let's start thinking about some things that will make our handstand more successful so number one is like i've said a bunch of times now really pushing into the ground and really trying to elevate your shoulder to your ear now everyone's natural tendency is going to be to really overarch their lower back in the beginning here so what we want to do is we want to cue our body to keep that straight body line now for most people the best cue here is just to squeeze the core and to squeeze the butt but everyone's different and you may find a cue that works even better for you what about kicking up to the wall the other way with my back to the wall so for some of you guys that don't have a lot of fear around the handstand this is another great option for you but be aware that when you kick up with your back to the wall the tendency is to arch the lower back even more in this position so really really try to resist this by squeezing the core and squeezing the butt in my opinion the chest facing the wall is a superior version because it forces you to use more strength from the front side of your body but on your handstand journey a combination of both can be really really effective so that is where we stop this beginner's routine now notice that we're not kicking up into a handstand without the wall yet take some time here to build up your confidence maybe a month maybe two months maybe three months and when you go to start kicking up in the middle of the room or outside you're going to feel a lot more confident in your shoulders and your body's ability to be upside down and you'll start getting those handstands a lot faster if you are at the point where you do want to start kicking up then comment below that you want that intermediate routine and and maybe we'll do it maybe i don't know so i'm getting something okay josh in the field has a few more tips for you guys to think about while you're doing this training let's go over to him hey guys so three quick tips that's going to make your handstand journey a bit easier oh your boy's getting a little beefy been eating a little extra protein huh so tip number one is when you're doing your handstand keep this pointer finger pointed straight ahead right now if your wrists are feeling really tight then you can start to move that hand outwards a little bit that's going to take some pressure off the wrist it's not a long-term fix we still want to work on our wrist mobility to get this pointer finger straight but in the beginning if you do have some stiffness you can pull out a little bit now number two we come to this elbow what's up mr elbow so what's really important about the handstand is developing the ability of the straight arm strength right and that's gonna come with this straight elbow so really cue yourself to straighten out that elbow while you do all of these holds and whatnot you're gonna feel like you're stronger here right it's natural but maybe you'd be stronger in the short term but in the long term it's really gonna pay off for the handstand if you get that elbow straight tip number three to take your time okay so i've never met anybody that's been able to develop a really nice handstand in just a week or just two weeks or even a day right so just commit to doing this for a good amount of time do it for a few months you will definitely definitely most definitely see some progress and be getting closer and closer to holding the actual freestanding handstand that's it okay guys so we're gonna i'm gonna flash the title card of the actual routine right here on the screen right now i'd recommend taking a screenshot and just always revisiting this video to make sure that your form and technique on all of these is correct so if you are just getting started on your handstand journey you're going to use this routine to start building up that confidence in the handstand then comment below i want to know how are you feeling are you motivated are you ready to get that handstand i know you are if you enjoyed this give this video a thumbs up we truly appreciate it follow us on instagram we are posting a bunch of cool stuff on instagram it's at the strength side we are on our journey to a million subscribers so if you want to come along from the ride if you want to support us along the way then just click that subscribe button subscribe to strike saw it and now i'm gonna go train my handstand i'm gonna bring you guys along with me let's do it oh wow that's really windy i am the crazy guy in the neighborhood with the shirt off doing handstands in the driveway yes of course that's me so there's something that i want to try out i see people do this on or i've seen somebody do this on instagram before [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right i don't know how that looked but it felt kind of cool a little l position with the legs that's cool i think i got that let me try that again first gotta shake it out a little bit [Music] okay i haven't tried one of those in a while that's not bad it's pretty good [Music] i wasn't happy with the last one so i was trying to start from more of a dead stop there i think i think it was okay i don't really train those at all so it's cool to say that i can do that now i could never do that before so hell yeah man you ever do work in your driveway using the recycling bin as your stand-up desk yeah me either but today i'm doing that got my little slack line here i'm not too good at slacking but uh i could go on the beginner line and i just set up this rope yesterday that i'm stoked for because i need more pooling in my life so this is going to be a lot of fun [Music] all right that's not quite there but that's probably the closest it's ever been actually i haven't really tried that out very often but i could see myself with a little bit of work there getting that and maybe i don't know how long does it take six months a year it always takes time that's for sure guys if you made it this far i appreciate you actually if you like these longer uploads comment below uh sometimes i really enjoy just making longer videos really dive into stuff before we get out of here i want to highlight a few of my primal athletes in this last class i'm going to have ryan pop it on the screen right now some of these guys unlocking their first handstand getting to five seconds 10 seconds in the handstand really really dope to see nothing brings me more joy than to see people's like excited pureblessness of holding the handstand for the first time if you want a little coaching in your handstand and other movement we're gonna have a new primal athlete class starting very very soon we run a few of these throughout the years and throughout the year and they are extremely fun so if you're interested in diving deeper getting coaching from myself and trevor then that might be for you we'll pop a link in the description guys strength side we got uploads every friday we got new apparel line coming super soon oh nice long sleeve for you guys that the weather is already starting to cool down and like the video subscribe to strengthside as always don't look who it is

Channel: Strength Side

Views: 164,749

Rating: 4.9757094 out of 5

Keywords: Strength Side, Handstand, Hand Standing Workout, Mobility, Strength, Flexibility, Handstand Progression, Handstand Routine, Beginner Handstand, Upper Body Strength, Upper Body Workout, Calisthenics, How to Handstand, Core Strength

Id: 1XJ2zR5tE0I

Length: 24min 0sec (1440 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021