Handstand Training Tips – Walking On Your Hands

Today I am going to show you another key to developing your handstand quickly.

This is going to help you out in 2 different ways

It will build strength

It will build coordination

This has a slight knock on effect of in 2 other ways

It will increase your handstand time

It will increase your confidence

That’s 4 benefits!

Wrapped up in one neat little exercise.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Walking On Your Hands

That’s right, walking around on your hands is the key to building Strength & Coordination, increasing your handstand Time and ultimately building Confidence in your handstand ability.

Step 1 – Get Started

When you start out, you just want to take as many steps as possible.

The more the better, the faster the better, just get up into position and start moving your hands about.

You don’t need to think about going anywhere, your legs will do that for you at first 😛

Step 2 – Learn To Walk Forwards

To improve try to walk forwards, set a marker in your head or on some grass and head for it

As you develop you will be able to control and direct your walking, this is the next step to handstand mastery – Step 3 is walking everywhere on your hands, haha.

Step 3 – Learn To Walk Sideways

You don’t have to limit your walking to forwards and backwards, another fun handstand exercise is walking sideways.

To walk sideways, do a straddle handstand. This will help spread your weight better so you can focus on the direction you are trying to move in.

You can get into it either through a cartwheel or by stabalising and then proceeding sideways, I prefer the latter because I can’t do cartwheels slowly enough to stop half way.

The next step is actually learning to turn on the spot.

Handstand Pivots

In gymnastics, this is an important skill to learn because it is necessary for the Parallel Bars.

In real life, it is just another conditioning skill that willtake your handstands to the next level.

Plus have you every played Tekken Tag? Eddie, that’s all Im saying

To do a pivot, you want to be in a stable position. Your first step is 90 degree pivot, lead with your feet over to one side, then bring your arm round to the new position.

Take a moment to stabilize yourself, then bring your other arm round in the opposite direction, so you turn to face the way you came.

This seems really easy, but trust me it is challenging.

Once you have the 180 pivot down, you can start doing 360’s, 720’s, then knocking people to the floor as you spin around in a whirlwind of soles and heels.

Handstand Walking Takes Strength (But It Builds It Too)

When you start doing any walking on your hands it is going to be difficult, but you will get better very quickly because you are getting stronger and forcing your body to balance itself.

When I say forcing, I mean it will be a real battle to begin with.

It is important to train the dismounts and warm up with them before you start walking.

Familiarise yourself with the movements because you won’t be choosing which one you do, it will be up to gravity.

Pretty soon you will learn to maintain the handstand for a good few seconds, walking about and pausing as necessary. The greater control you develop, the better coordination you will have trying to stand still.

Forcing your body into more difficult one arm balances when you are walking helps teach your body how to activate the right muscles for different positions.

It develops the neuromuscular systems, the control of your body. You can imagine how important control is in the handstand . . .

Anyway just get out into the world and start walking about, on your hands.

A nice open space like a park is ideal for this because the grass will help you soften your roll outs, and the slight uneven ground will help you learn to grip with your hands – ill get into that more in the future.

That’s enough for me today, go out and get some skills in. Practice the walking and don’t forget to warm up with those dismounts.

Share:

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp

Related Posts

L-Sit Progression Exercises

There Are 3 Main Areas of the L-Sit that require attention to develop a strong L-Sit Shoulder Mobility / Strength Core Compression / Strength Hip