Let's get inverted: Exploring The Intricacies of The Handstand

Wanted to start this series off with exploring why the shape of handstands matter and a couple of fast ways to identify if you have room to grow on yours.  

Handstand skills can be a pain in the ass quite literally, but after exploring some of these ideas laid out in this blog series. 

“Let's get inverted exploring the intricacies of the handstand” I’'m hoping that pain shows up less frequently for you all. 

Here's the truth, the shape of your handstand is super important while having the potential to be affected by a ton of things. 

Let's just touch slightly on what a nice handstand shape should be for the sport of fitness vs gymnastics. A simple explanation I've found is a straight line from the center of the palms all the way through the feet/toes. A position where everything is stacked right on top of each other. 

For gymnastics it's the base and structure on which we learn to absorb and redirect force through the body. If something is out of line at full force and speed you'll be facing one of Kellogg's number 1 slogans: Snap, crackle, pop. 

In the sport of fitness, you're not going to have 10-15x of your bodyweight going through your body tumbling or swinging on bars. So what's the deal with the shape? Why does it even matter? 

Luckily the cost of poor handstand positioning isn't going to be as gut wrenching in crossfit as it has the potential to be in gymnastics but your capacity will severely suffer if your energy leaks are big enough. 

Let's do this thought experiment. Imagine you have a large, heavy 30lb dumbbell in your hand doing a curl. At peak contraction when the arm is bent as much as it can be, how long do you think you can hold it? 20 seconds, a minute maybe? Probably a decent amount of time, correct? 

Now imagine that same dumbbell but with the arm just ever so slightly bent? Bicep almost at full stretch, gravity in full force trying to straighten your arm, every inch of  the length of the muscle begging for you to drop that dumbbell. 

Now think back to your last hard  handstand or handstand walk workout. 

Remember what happened when that back arched a bit too much. I imagine memories of that dull ache in the shoulders began and the feeling of your abs holding on for life through the fatigue of being at that stretch limit, and just like the bicep example they began begging for the end.  Ghd's, ttb, or hard heavy breathing were involved in that memory is my guess. 

So what actually causes a deviation from this nice stacked line? For myself I like to look at 5 distinct areas. 

Mobility in the

Wrist

Shoulders /t-spine

Hip flexors /midline 

Posterior chain

With the 5th being midline control or total body coordination. 

For this post we're going to focus on identifying the two typical biggest culprits (shoulders and hip flexors) out of the big five with a couple of fun, easy ways to get that overall picture of what should be your highest priority to attack for efficiency. 

They are simply hanging from a bar relaxed and laying on the floor on your back, with your arms placed lovingly by your side. (Careful not to fall asleep during that test) 

Relaxed hang 

Hanging is a great tool to access the shoulder because we have gravity giving us a bit of traction providing a bit more space, in most cases, for the ball and socket of the shoulder joint to move. So if it's apparent here, don't be surprised if it's worse there's compression forces vs traction forces while in the actual handstand. 

With that said, from a relaxed hang, If there's a big close angle of the shoulder angle with the palms facing away from you while hanging it could mean a lack of external rotation by tight internal rotors. ( Pecs & Lats generally*)

If the shoulder angle gets significantly smaller with palms turned towards you then lats are a definite contributor along with potentially the ability to supinate the palm from the bicep/forearm group. 

Moving onto nap time a.k.a

Lying supine position

If you can lay down flat on the floor with legs straight with arms by your side, without a huge lumbar arch, both feet pointed to the ceiling, and hips mostly open, hurray you passed. 

If there's a large closed hip angle and you can't get rid of it by creating active bracing pressure through the midline.  The hip flexors, abs or Obliques will definitely need some TLC. If you can get rid of it through activation a little but there or just some capacity work may be all you need. 

If one of your feet is excessively turned out that psoas on that side probably needs releasing. Along with telling those lower abs to step its game back up. 

The next step would be to bend your legs and drag your heels to your bottom. Until you are able to tuck your pelvis to find a neutral straight line position with your lower back. 

Whatever angle is more closed between the shoulders and hips is the first point of attack in creating a more energy efficient handstand. 

These two pieces connect together so it can be a challenge to identify which one came first which is why it's the main focus on the first installment of the series.

A more detailed explanation on how to correct these issues will be provided in the next chapter pre-named 

Let's Get Inverted:

Exploring The Intricacies 

Of The Handstand. 

Identified Now Lets Get In Line

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Until next time,

Coach Tanner.