Conquering Handstand

Sometimes life is better upside down. When things get too serious it's nice to get a fresh perspective. Inversions teach us about strength, persistence and patience. The actual act of going upside down revitalizes the body, it's better than a cup of coffee. Inversions also add a cardiovascular workout to your practice. They're a beautiful thing, but for some a bit daunting.

There are a lot of things that have to come together for you to get into a handstand. Strength is not the only thing you need. Flexibility in the shoulders, awareness of where your hips and legs are, the ability to contract and relax as needed and an emotional willingness to let go and try something that may scare you.

Many students when first trying a handstand will throw themselves up against a wall and, in vain, attempt to pull their feet off the wall, only to crash to the ground or back to the wall. You can't force yourself into this pose. It's a balance of body and mind. Sheer will won't do it.

There are a few things you need to check before you go into your handstand. Shoulder flexibility, core strength and mental control. If you have tight shoulders you won't be able to rotate enough to get smoothly up into the handstand position and hold it. Without the core strength and control you won't be able to maintain the pose.

To test your shoulders to see if they're open enough for this inversion, come into Dolphin pose. If you're feeling a pretty intense stretch here, be aware that your shoulders may hinder your ability to get into headstand. But don't worry, you now have something to work towards. A routine of good shoulder stretches listed below will help to open up the rotation in your shoulder joints and allow you to invert with ease. Don't force yourself into handstand before your shoulders are ready, you'll only hurt them.

Dolphin
Eagle Arms
Reverse Plank
Sphinx: you can do this with your palms down or together. Lift up and expand through the chest.
Strap stretch: Fold a strap in half and hold one end in each hand. Stand in chair pose holding the strap in front of you. Space your arms wide enough so that you can rotate it above your head, and if flexibility allows, behind you. You'll basically be making an arch from in front of you to behind you, like making an upside down U over your head. If you have any popping or clicking span your arms wider. Don't push through, only rotate as much as the joint comfortably allows. Go slow and move with the breath, inhale up, exhale down. Over time you should be able to expand your range of motion.

Once your shoulders are open, the next thing to work on is your core strength. Come into plank and hold it until you feel your abs. The area in your abs that you're feeling is the same muscles you'll need to engage when lifting up into handstand. The biggest mistake students make with this pose is to use momentum to get up rather than core strength. If you're flinging yourself up, you'll never get off the wall and into the middle of the room. Without the wall you'll just keep going and crash to the floor.

The best way to learn to use your core is to come into dolphin pose and kick up. The reason you want to start in dolphin instead of on your hands is that the distance is less to kick up. It's like putting on training wheels. Start with small kicks and notice the point in which your abs kick in. About half way up your abs should take over and pull you the rest of the way up. Once you can get up with control, leave dolphin behind and try kicking up on your hands.

Now that you're up on the wall, you need to get control of your hips and abs. When we're leaning on the wall we have a pretty good bend in our low back. Engage your abs and tuck your hips, this will pull your legs off of the wall. Make sure when you do this that you don't tense your shoulders. Allow for movement and flexibility in your body, a stiff body can't hold handstand. It's like any balance pose, allow for fluidity and you will stay balanced. Lift and expand your chest, don't allow it to collapse. Also make sure not to sink into the shoulder joints. Extend throughout the entire body, from the wrists to the toes.

Good poses to help strengthen your abs are:
 
Plank: You can do this pose either on your hands, or if your shoulders are tight on your forearms.
Boat
Triangle: Don't place your hand on your leg, use your core to hold yourself up.
Locust: to add more challenge, extend the arms out to the side or out in front of you.

When our bodies go upside down, any postural imbalance that you had corrected while upright will come back to haunt you. Our brains are funny like that. Simply correct the issue like you did before. You just have to let your upside down brain catch up with your upright one.

If your neck and upper back hurt after practicing handstand, notice if you're holding tension in that area when you're doing the pose. Also, relax your hands, don't grip the floor. As for your neck, when you go up in the pose, don't crank your neck to look at the floor, but just let the head drop and hang. If you have any serious medical conditions, talk with your doctor before doing this pose. If you have glaucoma, inversions should be avoided.

If you can hold a long plank then you can do handstand. If you can hold a long plank and you feel weak and wobbly in handstand, your body isn't the problem, it's your mind. Inversions can be scary. If you like a lot of order and predictability in your life, headstand is going to challenge you. You have to learn to let go and trust that things will be ok, even when they're turned upside down. Leaving the stability of the ground to take flight teaches us that sometimes in life you just have to let go and jump into the unknown. Yes, you will fall, yes you may get hurt, but eventually you will find that you're strong and stable and the confidence that you gain from taking that jump was worth it.