HandstandFactory Push Manual

push
beginners
handbalancing
Handstand Factory
by mikael kristiansen
and emmet louis
w w w. h a n d s ta n d f a c t o r y. c o m
table of CONTENTS
t h eo ry 04
H o w to u se thi s p rog ram 05
P r o g r am m i n g and i ntel l i g ent p rac ti c e 08
B AL AN C I N G T HE TWO ARM HANDS TAND 21
Al i g n m en t a nd tec hni qu e 26
M i n d set 41
p r ac ti c e 44
F U N DAM EN TALS OF THE S TRAI G HT, TWO ARM

H AN D STAN D 45
p h ysi c al p r eparati on 46
B asi c c o n d i ti oni ng 51
B ai l i n g 58
R eb al an c i n g 63
Kick up 70
t h e f r eestan di ng hands tand 75
F l ex i b i l i ty 78
Sh o u l d er F l exi bi l i ty 80
P i k e F l ex i b i l i ty 89
Ap p en d i x : p r o g ram tem p l ates 94
T o tal B eg i n n ers Temp l ate 95
Str o n g b u t Lac ki ng Fl exi bi l i ty Tem p l ate 97
F l ex i b l e b u t L ac ki ng S treng th Temp l ate 101
R ef i n i n g t h e hands tand Tem p l ate 105
F l ex i b i l i ty T emp l ates 109
2 Handstand Factory | © 2019 Emmet Louis and Mikael Kristiansen ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Author’s Note
W
elcome to Handstand Factory. We created the Push program with the
purpose of helping you to build a confident and solid two arm hand-
stand practice. Though not easy, the process of achieving a two arm
handstand is by far the most linear and simple within handbalancing. For most
people, learning the straight handstand happens through a combination of tech-
nical understanding of the mechanics, specific conditioning of the shoulders,
back and forearms, as well as sheer repetition and practice. The largest contrib-
uting factor to learning this skill, though, is to actually spend time on your hands.
Even with suboptimal technique and no conditioning it is possible to brute force
your way to a two arm handstand. However, exercise selection will play a large
role both when it comes to how fast you will progress, as well as to the quality
of your handstand. We want to ensure that you learn the handstand with a tech-
nique that prepares you to go towards the more advanced vocabulary with leg
and waist movements, press to handstand and one arm balancing, should you
so choose.
Learning a handstand has to be divided into its various components to learn it

effectively. Initially these components need to be worked on separately and they
are then combined as you begin actually working on the freestanding, straight
handstand. You will see that the template programs we included go from having
many exercises at the beginning of your training, to having less variety and more
repetition as the components become more ingrained and need less specific
work.
One crucial thing as you work through this program is to not obsess about per-
fection in the beginning. Treat your handstand like a work in progress and look
for small improvements in control, awareness and form. A common problem is
trying to micromanage every single detail before the rough work is even close
to finished; do not try to cut a piece of wood with sandpaper. There will be a
lot of ups and downs during the process, so focus on the task at hand and enjoy
your practice.
We produced this course for ourselves as much as the public, to make a course
that combines good, in depth information with great production value. We sin-
cerely hope that you get a lot out of it, and that this program will help you to
build a long term, sustainable and enjoyable handbalancing practice.
Emmet Louis and Mikael Kristiansen, August 2019
Theory
HOW TO USE THIS PROGRAM
T
his program is designed to take the complete beginner from never having done a handstand
all the way to a comfortable and solid two arm handstand. We start on the assumption that
you might have never done anything like this before, and take it from there. If you come to
this course with some previous experience, then we suggest making sure all of the basic compo-
nents, such as the half kick up and wall exercises, are solid before moving on to the templates that
progress further onto the freestanding Handstand. You can select the ones you want to work on
by following our self assessment and selection guide.
Mikael and Emmet have put their combined knowledge on handbalancing and flexibility into this
course, and while the videos contain everything you need in order to understand and do the ex-
ercises, we have also written a summary and a bit of context for each video, together with the
most important key points and cues. They are compiled in the second chapter of this manual so
that you will not have to watch the videos again and again.
However - the further down the path of handbalancing you go, the more you will find that there
will be times where certain cues will not work for you yet, or there is too much going on while up-
side down - we encourage you to come back to all videos over time, after you have been training
for a while, as this will help you add layer over layer of attention to detail in your practice.
The exercises are roughly separated into 6 different components that make up the handstand:
Physical preparation drills, Basic conditioning, Bailing from handstand, Rebalancing drills and the
Kick up to handstand. Additionally, we have included two flexibility components for those of you
that need it, Overhead Shoulder Flexibility, as well as Pike Flexibility.
If you are completely new to this, trying to puzzle everything together at the same time is often
confusing as you will likely not yet have the awareness and comfort upside down. Separating the
focal points into different exercises is a way around this so that you can concentrate maximally
on the task at hand.
This program will take you through this entire process. It will help you establish a baseline of
where you are, on the basis of which you can then choose to train the templates provided for your
level. As you gain strength, flexibility and refine your balance skills, you will progress through the
training templates.
Over time, many things that now seem hard will become intuitive, and new things will require
your attention. Even though it may seem slow at times, handbalancing is an extremely rewarding
practice if you are in it for the long run.
QUICKSTART GUIDE
1. Get a good overview of the material by watching the videos and skim reading this manual
2. Read the theory section of this manual in more depth., have a notebook/journal to take
notes, or print this manual so you can write on it and highlight sections you want to come
back to
3. Select the appropriate training template for yourself using the self assessment guide
4. Start training the program, filming and journaling as you go
5. Rewatch the videos as needed, and refer to the practice section in this manual
6. Reassess after completing the phases of your chosen training template, and decide whether
to repeat or Progress to the next template
PROGRAMMING AND INTELLIGENT
PRACTICE
T
he two arm handstand has a more linear progression curve for most people than the more
advanced handstand skills, but there is still a lot of variance involved. It is entirely normal to
experience a big difference between your better and worse days in terms of quality, focus
and energy levels. Within the first 3-4 weeks of the Push program, you will likely experience some
beginner gains, mainly as a result of applying some of the technical principles and efficient setups
we propose in this program. The more substantial changes will start happening over the months
following your initial boost, as your strength and mobility increase, as well as the internalization
of the most efficient placement of your body and learning to apply balance corrections.
In regards to the skill elements, a very important aspect of handstand training at any level is the
ability to use your energy efficiently. We propose that, in general, you take longer rather than
shorter breaks in between sets to be certain you are concentrated and sharp when you execute
the exercises. Quality over quantity here. If you are not feeling ready both physically and mentally
to pull off another set, take a minute or two to get into your required state. If your forearms and
shoulders are burning and you are supposed to pull off a high precision element, you will simply
be less likely to succeed.
When you are training the conditioning and strength building elements, things are of course dif-
ferent. You want to push yourself towards overload so that you build more strength and capacity.
It is still important that you work within a reasonable level of fatigue, but at the same time do not
let the form deteriorate too much. When you train handbalancing you will often experience very
large swings in quality of your sessions . This is very common and can be frustrating. To be able
to truly see the progress curve you will have to zoom out quite far and look at it over months of
practice rather than days. This is where keeping a training log (as explained later) will be benefi-
cial. The ups and downs on a weekly basis matter much less than the average change happening
over 6 months.
For us as creators of this handbalancing program, it is important to be honest about this process.
This first and foremost begins by saying that we cannot say how long it will take you to learn
a handstand. There are too many factors involved and the variance is very high from person to
person. Obviously, the more you work on it, within your capacity, the better results you will get,
but be ready for this to take up to a year if not more.
The “I’m gonna have a handstand by the end of summer” or “just wait i’m gonna show you how
fast I can get it” approaches aren’t really viable and usually just lead to injured wrists, shattered
egos and disappointment. Take your time with this and enjoy the process of learning. Experi-
encing the small improvements in control, strength and balance is rewarding, but also learn to
appreciate the practice itself.
SEL F A SSS ES MENT G UI DE: PR OG R A M T R A IN IN G T E M P LA T E S
We have created 4 categories of beginners for this program, since people’s bodies are not the
same and might need different approaches. It is impossible to accommodate for every variation,
so these are just general stereotypes we chose, encompassing some general issues we have seen
over the years. The bulk of the work will be similar, though focusing on different aspects and pri-
oritising the weak links of each category of beginner. The idea here is that once you have built up
a degree of skill from one of these templates, you can move on towards the next. Each of these
templates have the bare minimum of flexibility work included, but as the flexibility starting point
will vary strongly between all of you, we have also added a training template for shoulder and
pike flexibility respectively. This can be trained, as needed, simultaneously with the four regular
templates. Following, you will find a description of each category, and how to assess whether it is
suitable to your level. The corresponding program templates can be found appended at the end
of this manual.
Progression
Progression will be something you need to monitor as you train over the months. The templates
are split into two phases of four weeks each. The first phase being introductory, and the second
adding some volume and more exercises.You might not be able to move on to the next template
right away, so use the eight week mark to assess your progress. This will determine whether you
move on to the next template, or repeat your current phase one more time. Certain key parame-
ters to notice are:
Has your general capacity on your hands increased?

Has your understanding of the handstand as a skill gotten better?
Has your ability to control overbalance through finger pressure increased?
Has your alignment improved?
If you are working on the “refining the handstand” template you should also focus on the follow-
ing:
Has your control of underbalance improved?

Has the consistency of your half kick up/kick up gotten better?
Since everyone will have their own process of learning, it is hard to define exactly when to move
from one template to the next. This is something you need to monitor yourself depending on
the level of challenge and learning you are experiencing. This is why these are “templates” and
not strict programs you need to follow to every detail. However, there are certain baselines you
should reach before moving on as described for each template.
P u s h p r o gra m progression ch a rt
c omple te b e ginner
f lex ible bu t Pick one strong bu t

lack ing strength lack ing f lexbili t y
k
can handstand
graduate d
Push Pro gram
“The total beginner” template
This program is the starting point for those who have very little to no experience with handstands
whatsoever. The framework you will need to work from at the beginning here is naturally focused
on two main things; building some physical capacity, and getting used to being upside down.
If you start this program with the total beginner template, this of course means that you likely
need to get used to the activity itself, so the advised training volume per week starts at a lower
level to allow the body to build up slowly. The focus of the beginner template is first and foremost
conditioning. Since we need to prepare your body for the demands of the more advanced skill
training, there will not be much direct work on the balance aspects of the handstand to start with.
The incline bodyline drill and wall walks will be the main exercises to develop overhead pushing
capacity while the crow rebalancing work will help you get an idea of how the fingers and hands
function in handstand. The wall walks will also be linked to the bailing drills such as the cartwheel
down, because you will be learning to move your body weight from one hand to the other as you
move up and down the wall. The cartwheel out drill is arguably the most complex one in this tem-
plate so approach it slowly. In the beginning you do not need to cartwheel out neatly and your
main goal is to move your hand of choice so that both legs land on the ground, and you exit the
handstand safely. There are many things to coordinate at the same time so take your time learning
this.
Once you have built up some degree of skill and confidence from this template you will move
on to one of the two next templates shown in the graphic below, depending on what your main
challenges are.
Choose the “Total Beginner” template if:
+ You feel uncertain about getting into a back to wall or stomach to wall handstand
+ You have no experience with successfully kicking up into a handstand
+ You are afraid of handstands, even with the wall
+ You don’t trust your arms to carry you in a handstand
Move from “Total Beginner” to “Strong but lacking Flexibility” or “Flexible but lacking Strength”
when:
+ You are able to consistently hold a 30-45s chest to wall handstand with reasonable form
(balance not required)
+ The crow rebalance drill feels easy and controlled
+ You have worked at least 6-8 weeks on the “Total Beginner” template
“Strong but lacking flexibility” template
This template is suitable for people who have some general strength from different types of
working out, but lack flexibility, especially in the shoulders. This template will be focusing more
on shoulder mobility in combination with alignment and balance drills as well as developing your
kick up. It will further prepare your body for the more advanced progressions, while already be-
ginning to work on ingraining good rebalancing and entry to handstand technique.
The main tools here will be the lat stretches along with the chest to wall handstands to develop
the alignment through the shoulders. The tuck wall slides will also assist heavily by strengthening
the active flexion of the shoulders. The heel pulls will help activate the forearms to get a feeling
of controlling overbalance and the scissoring into balance exercises are great tools to find good
alignment by the wall. Along with this there is kick up practice to develop precision as well as a
section of play where you can choose what to work on yourself.
Choose the “Strong but Lacking Flexibility” template if:
+ You are used to working out on a regular basis, even if only from completing the begin
ner template program

+ You lack the necessary shoulder mobility to hold the handstand line upside down
+ You struggle with alignment but can get into a chest to wall handstand

+ You are able to do heel pulls without too much effort

+ You can bail out of a freestanding handstand with no risk
Move on to the “Refining the Handstand” template when:
+ Your alignment has improved so you are getting most of the push out of your upper
back rather than relying too much on the deltoids or bending the arms (it doesn’t need
to be perfect)
+ Your are able to consistently hold a chest to wall handstand for 45-60 seconds
+ Your half kick up is well practiced and controlled but not 10/10
+ Your kick up to handstand is possible but not consistent
+ Your tuck wall slides feel controlled and strong
“Flexible but Lacking Strength” template
This template is for those who have good overhead range in the shoulders but are lacking strength
and/or a feeling for how to balance the handstand. It will be focused more around conditioning
and strengthening the shoulder girdle and forearms for stability and endurance, as well as devel-
oping your kick up technique. Often the heel pulls will be a game changer as they will contribute
with the necessary force production from the forearms to deal with overbalance.
The main focus of this template will be the heel pulls to develop the force production in the fore-
arms and the chest to wall shrugs and holds to build more endurance and strength in the upper
back and shoulders. The tuck wall slides will also be helpful for this, but more flexible shoulders
often make these less challenging than for those who are stiff. The toe pulls and scissoring into
balance will be the main methods of finding balance by the wall. Along with this there is kick up
practice to develop precision as well as a section of play where you can choose what to work on
yourself.
Choose the “Flexible but Lacking Strength” template if:
+ You are used to working out on a regular basis, even if only from completing the
beginner template program
+ You have good shoulder mobility
+ You can get into a chest to wall handstand
+ You struggle with heel pulls or balancing from your fingers
Move on to the “Refining the Handstand” template when:
+ You are able to consistently hold a chest to wall handstand for 45-60 seconds
+ Your half kick up is well practiced and controlled but not 10/10
+ Your kick up to handstand is possible but not consistent
+ Your tuck wall slides feel controlled and strong
+ Your control of overbalance and heel pulls feels controlled and strong
+ You can bail out of a freestanding handstand with no risk
“Refining the handstand” template
This is the template you begin working on once you have built up your capacity from either one
of the two previous program templates. This is also a good starting point for those who begin
the Push program with some degree of handstand skill, but are looking to clean it up and make it
more consistent. It will have a strong focus on the balancing aspects while at the same time trying
to sharpen the alignment and building consistency of the kick ups to handstand.
A lot of the main practice here will be to merge the technique of the half kick up and the scis-
soring to balance so it becomes a kick up to freestanding handstand. You want to further keep
using the tuck wall slides to develop stronger control of underbalance and alignment. At this
point, your forearms should be conditioned enough so that heel pulls are less necessary and you
can use the energy for working on balance and efficiency. Finally, we also want to make sure that
you develop some endurance here to make you ready for leg movements and so on. In the play
section we suggest you either choose exercises from “Keep Pushing” or practice positions such
as the tuck or the straddle.
Choose the “Refining the handstand” template if:
+ Your chest to wall handstand is consistently struggle free at 45 - 60 seconds
+ Your freestanding handstand needs work
+ You can balance well but want to straighten your alignment
+ You have a safe and consistent way of falling out of your handstand 10 out of 10 times
Move on to the next Handstand Factory program “Keep Pushing - Intermediate Handbalancing”
when:
+ You are able to consistently do a 30-60 seconds freestanding handstand
+ Your alignment is starting to become solid (again, “perfect” isn’t necessary)
+ You have a solid understanding of the technique of the straight handstand
W ee kly f r eq uency:
We have set the templates with two days in an A/B format with each template’s training phase
consisting of 4 weeks. We suggest you start training your handstands three days a week for some
time and then graduating to 4 days a week if time allows. You will alternate the programs A then
B so if doing the suggested three days a week you will do one week of ABA then the next week
you will do BAB and so on. Once you have moved to training 4 days a week, it will be ABAB each
week.
That said, when you are beginning handbalance training you can and will make good progress if
you can only do 2 days a week. At the start of your training practice, consistency will win over the
long run as opposed to doing a lot of training in one month and then none the next.
Exactly what days a week you train and how you structure it is something we strive to keep open
in the templates so that you can make it fit around your schedule and life. Do not make the mis-
take and believe that you need to train exactly the amount of time outlined in the program to
make improvements. What matters more is that you use your focus and energy when you train,
so choose to do as much as you can consistently handle. This also ties into taking care of your
body, which we cover later on. In training, it is always better to start with less volume and scale
up, focusing on long term consistent development rather than trying to get short term gains by
jumping in the deep end and ending up fatigued or injured.
Inte nsit y:
Because handstands require developing skill and efficiency as much as strength and conditioning,
there’s a balance to be struck on the intensity of training.
The nature of the handstand has you in an initially compromised position. So while we need you
to gain strength by pushing your limits, we also need you to save energy for coming down safely
due to the fact that you are upside down and against the wall. As you get better at safely exiting
the handstand you’ll be able to exit faster so this becomes a smaller concern. Be sure to always
leave some energy in the tank for a safe and controlled exit, and scale up the intensity on the wall
holds over time.
When approaching handbalancing practice, we also need to keep in mind that we are trying to
build skill and grace as much as we’re trying to gain strength. Once you understand the balance
between these two components in handstand training, regulating your training intensity becomes
more straight forward.
So the overall picture looks like this: In the exercises that you feel you are just learning you will
ideally take it easier and allow for longer rest periods. In this phase, take some time to review
yourself by filming. In the exercises you can do correctly but want to up your time, you would ap-
proach it differently. So for example, in a chest to wall hold, you might have the shape correct but
only be able to hold for 20 seconds. In this case you need to push hard on that exercise and work
to safe technical break down to fatigue the muscles involved and hopefully come back stronger
once you have recovered.
T he a spect of Play
In all but the very beginner template we have a section simply called “Play”. The logic behind this
is that it is important to also be able to let go of the exact structure, and practice what you feel
like as well. Handbalancing starts out rather linear in its practice, but as you move further into
the vocabulary, it is important to be able to make choices yourself about how to practice and not
always be too rigid. At the same time you need to have fun and enjoy what you are learning, so
mixing it up a bit every now and then can really help to keep things fresh.
In the play sections we suggest that you take an exercise from the next template and work on that
for the proposed amount of time. I.e, if you are working on the Strong or the Flexible templates,
choose from “Refining the Handstand” and if you are working on “Refining the Handstand” you
can choose an exercise from the separate program “Keep Pushing” or “Press”.
Keep in mind, these are only suggestions as we want you to be free to practice what you want in
this section.
Wa l l a nd floor
We designed this program with the solo practitioner in mind, so the wall is going to be your main
spotter and confidante when going through this program. A few things to be aware of: if the wall
is hollow, do not kick up too hard as you might go through it with your heels. It has happened.
Make sure the floor is nice and hard, or if you have a matted floor, maybe get a handstand plank
to use under your hands. When learning, a hard floor is invaluable. As you progress, a matted floor
will be fine but just be aware that it can be hard to feel the balance on the mats, or exert enough
finger pressure for the rebalancing.
Another fairly obvious but subtle tip would be to make sure the floor is swept clean. If you are
training outside, check that your chosen spot is free from little pebbles or bits of glass. Even a
small stone becomes a massive annoyance in the depths of a 60 second chest to wall hold.
A handstand board or plank can be an invaluable piece of kit, you just need a piece of flat wood
that is big enough to accommodate your hand spacing. Great for when you train on matted floors
like a martial arts gym, bouldering hall or in the park on grass. Emmet uses a trusty old ikea shelf
that he has had for years for this, while Mikael throws random bits of flat wood on any type of
surface.
M onitoring your tr ai ni ng
When starting, it is best to keep a journal of your handstand training. Include the program you
attempted, and log successes and failures as well as how the body is feeling day to day. This will
help you chart out if you can do more per week or need to have bigger gaps between training
sessions.
Videoing yourself is also highly recommended when learning. Alternating shots from the side of
the movement and from the back will show what is happening with your handstand. As we are
trying to develop a sensory experience of what is going on up-side down, a lot of the time what
we are doing may feel correct, but when filmed may show up as unsatisfactory. This can include
subtle things like toes not being pointed, legs not being locked and engaged or the shoulders
slowly slumping over the course of the set. These and other small but important details can be
quickly spotted on video, whereas, if relying purely on the senses, it might take weeks to notice.
When approaching corrections it is best to focus on one or two details at a time versus trying to
correct every flaw. Remember we’re not expecting perfection at the start of the program, rather
we want to improve bit by bit, creating strong basics and building upon this foundation.
Ta king car e of the body:
Learning to listen to the body is a key skill you need to develop when learning the handstand.
While handstands are not a big cause of acute injuries, what tends to happen in handbalancing
training is that small niggles end up turning into injuries as the result of a slow build up of fatigue
until things become a problem.
Paying special attention to your wrists, fingers, forearms, elbows and shoulders and beginning
to spot warning signs of overuse will go a long way in keeping your practice ongoing. It is better
to skip a few sessions here and there to rest fully, then it is to end up with tendonitis that takes
months to clear up.
Particular care must be taken when you start having some successes with balancing and want to
rush into the handstand or show your new skills off to friends. Taking the 1-2 minutes to warm up
the wrists gently before doing a show off or getting a handstand picture will go a long way. We
know so many people who tweaked something by not warming up correctly when trying to grab
a quick handstand photo.
Besides the general warm up for wrists, shoulders and forearms proposed in this program, it is
also good to develop a forearm and hand care routine consisting of self massage and gentle, more
in depth work that you do once a week to keep things fresh. It goes a long way in helping to keep
things running nicely.
BALANCING THE TWO ARM
HANDSTAND
Rid e the wav e.
To build resilient balance you need to be able to do both: control the small ripples and ride the
big waves. When watching solid handbalancers perform, it is often misunderstood that they just
stay on micro corrections all the time. The better your technique is, and the fresher and stronger
you are, the less you need to trust brute force to stay in balance. Naturally then, the less precise
the setup and execution of the balance, and the more fatigued the balancer is, the rougher the
corrections will be - even for a very experienced handbalancer. Regardless of level, if your time in
handstand exceeds your capacity, you fall.
Building up both of these capacities, the big corrections and the small, will yield the ability to
control the balance in many circumstances, whether on stage and under stress, or simply during
practice while feeling slightly off or just fatigued. The absolute key overarching all types of bal-
ance is the mindset of the “fight”, where the priority is simply to stay on the hands regardless of
the situation. This will often lead to “ugly” looking corrections which can sometimes be discour-
aging because they might break the general take on aesthetics. It is important to understand that
the way to learn to balance efficiently is to be able to deal with chaotic factors while at the same
time knowing where the most optimal placement lies. Letting go of the balance just because it
does not feel perfect is a very certain way of adding many months, if not years, to the process of
learning the handstand.
Our main goal in learning to balance the handstand is to take a subconscious process, the ap-
plication of balance, make it conscious in order to improve it, and then let it go back into the
subconscious level so the balancing becomes automatic. To do this we have to apply constraints
and tasks like the rebalancing exercises proposed in this program, and gradually make them more
complex and eventually free form, as they will have to be in the handstand itself.
D ire c t ion s of balance
The two arm handstand needs to be balanced in two directions only; forwards and backwards.
Leaning into the space towards the fingertips is what we call “overbalance”. Leaning into the
space towards the heel of the palm is what we call “underbalance”. Moving in and out of these
two directions is controlled with separate actions of the body, but mastering both is instrumental
to building control and balance upside down. Any balanced body position is always moving and
rebalancing and you will never be entirely still as you handstand. You will constantly be moving
back and forth in your hand (as we will explain further down), and the key to efficiency is to build
the required strength, mobility, awareness and reaction speed so you will be able to stay as still
as possible while still being able to control larger movements and mistakes you might make.
Overbalance
Controlling overbalance is simple in theory, as it is done mainly by pushing on the floor with
the fingers. This push feels as if you are clawing into the floor, or as if you are squeezing a ball
with your grip. This is essentially the same as if you stand on two feet, lean forwards slightly and
push on the floor with your toes. The grip of the toes will allow you to stay further in front with
your bodyweight and still be in balance. The crucial factor here is that you need a certain level
of strength in the fingers and forearms to be able to push hard enough to move your entire body
from a position where you are essentially falling, all the way back towards the centre of the hand.
The heel pull drill in the Rebalancing chapter of this program is one of our main exercises to train
this action. This will develop the general force production necessary in your forearms, as well as
the restacking mechanics of the rest of the body. When you are doing actual balancing however,
you do not want to just push as hard as you can, but having a surplus of force there is required.
Often, beginners will get their first feeling of balance from simply staying a bit too far in front of
the hand and pushing just hard enough from the fingers to not fall over. This is not an efficient
way of balancing, but a likely part of the process, especially if you have a lot of strength to begin
with. It is important that, if you start having success with this constant pressure on fingertips
handstand, to not get stuck in it as a default. Instead, try to move on to the fingers being only
active when the actual rebalancing action happens, and try to achieve a more vertical line when
possible.
Underbalance
Controlling underbalance, so the falling towards the heels of your hands, is a more complex task
as you are essentially controlling it from your shoulders and hips. Because of this, you have more
“options” in terms of how to respond to the centre moving towards the heel of your palm. Since
you do not have fingers in this direction of your hand, you will need to move the centre over your
hand from the torso. The method we suggest in our program is the stacked version which will
develop in conjunction with the tuck handstand, and is the same development as a press hand-
stand in the long run. Underbalance is a much more complex process than overbalance and will
be one that people tend to solve differently based on their body structure, strength, flexibility
and so on.
The feeling of actually controlling underbalance is one that is more elusive than overbalance and
will often first manifest as quick jerking movements of the hip and shoulder. Your body reacts
“correctly” and tries to move the centre of mass over base of support, but is either not precise
or strong enough to actually catch it at first. Contrary to popular belief, these types of reactions
are a good sign. It means you are actually reacting and trying to catch the balance, the action is
just not refined enough yet.
Underbalance is, in general, handled by moving the shoulders and hips in relation to each other
and so bringing the Centre of Mass (COM) back over the Base of Support (BOS). There are three
main ways this can happen:
1. The body stays straight while the shoulders move forwards (as in a planche, often the
preferred method in gymnastics)
2. The arms bend to let the shoulders move forwards
3. The shoulders stay stacked and elevated, and the hips react instead by piking. This
action can be expressed as straddling or tucking the legs as well.
The reason we are working towards building the stacked version (Nr. 3) as our main tool for con-
trolling underbalance is that this is the one that naturally leads into a technically good press to
handstand, and is a method of underbalancing that will also work with the advanced vocabulary
of balances. The direct method towards developing underbalance in this program is through
building up good alignment, in combination with the toe pull drills and the tuck wall
Slides.
As with all things, this might be a work in progress and it is fine to bend your arms, or planche
a bit and so on to catch your balance if you need to. We therefore included the different ver-
sions of the toe pull exercise, which we use to learn to control underbalance, in the rebalancing
chapter of this program. The tuck wall slides are also a significant tool to develop this control.
This refers back to the mindset of fighting for the balance, and using all options available to you
while also knowing how the optimal and most efficient technique looks like, and striving for this
in the long run.
The exercises in this program are chosen so that you, over time, will begin to favor the stacked
version as you will get very comfortable and strong in the elevated shoulder position.
Understanding the balance wave
In the above diagram we have illustrated the

balance wave as it applies to a straight two
arm handstand. The handstand is a living,
dynamic position meaning that even though
it might appear static there’s always some
small oscillations of balance around the cen-
tre line as shown. Frankly put, you will al-
ways be in a battle between under and over
balance.
The degree of disturbance of the centre of
zon e 3
mass over the base of support and the cen-
tre of pressure is what dictates the balance
strategy you will use. We have outlined the
degrees of disturbances as zone 1, 2 and 3.
At the bottom of the diagram, in zone 1, the

disturbance is small, so the corrections are
more a pulsing type correction of the fin-
gers and heel of hand, occurring quickly and
reacting to the balance changes almost, but
not quite, pre-emptively. These are the cor-
rections that seem to happen intuitively.
As you progress up the line close to zone

two, the disturbances of balance become
greater and thus the pressure of the fingers
zo ne 2
into the floor required will be a more sus-
tained hold that might be 1-2 seconds or
longer. These disturbances will begin to re-
quire more strength in the fingers and fore-
arms to correct.
If the amplitude of loss of balance exceeds

what you can correct with the sustained
pressure of the fingers/hands and shoul-
ders, then you’ll need to break the shape of
the line, and this is where we enter zone 2.
This break of the shape will happen, gen-
erally, in the shoulders and hips as a first
point. But then as the wave progresses in
zone 1
one or the other direction (either overbal-

ance or underbalance), more joints will need
to be changed to maintain the centre of
mass over the base of support.
Then, in zone 3, the balance wave exceeds

what can be recovered from and a fall out of
the handstand, requiring a bail or a step out,
will occur.
As you progress in your skill level, the degree of motion
you can save will become larger. At the same time, more
of your time will be spent micro correcting your balance
in zone one. When learning to balance, though, generally
most of your time is spent in zone two with the shape
making big swings one way, then overcorrecting so you
end up swinging the other way and needing to correct
again.
But, regardless of your skill level as you fatigue you will

progress from zone 1 to zone 2 and then to zone 3, which
will be true for a beginner as much as a professional hand-
balancer capable of advanced one arm. Note the fact that
this happens to everyone, even professionals with “per-
fect” balance and alignment. Fatigue will play a large role
in how efficient you can be and at one point, everyone will
fall as a result of moving into zone 3.
A general note is that if your weight goes too much over

the fingers the break of the line will often express as a
bend of the legs at the knee, back arching and/or the
shoulders moving forwards. This happens because the
weight moving over is too large for the fingers to deal
with. More often than not it will simply force you to bail
out or take a step forwards on your hands.
For underbalance your body has more “options” on how to
react, so movement will usually manifest in the shoulders
(closing or opening too much), hips (piking or extending)
and the arms bending.
If you want to progress towards higher level movements

and particularly the one arm handstand, one of the goals
to keep in mind is that the corrections are best to come
from the hips, for example to correct underbalance, mov-
ing into a piked shape as precedence over the shoulders
moving out of the alignment.
The reasoning for this is, while it is relatively easy to brute

force a correction via planching and flexing the shoulders
while on two arms (once you have some degree of prac-
tice in this), things change drastically when you move on
to learning to balance on one arm. For one arm balance, it
is a very different thing in terms of strength and potential
vectors of motion so it is good to have the idea in the back
of your mind to make the hip based corrections your de-
fault motion as soon as possible, and leave the shoulders
for the biggest swings in balance. That way, you will have
a strong foundation that is expansive towards the higher
skills of handbalancing.
ALIGNMENT AND TECHNIQUE
Ha nd p l acement
Exact hand placement is a less relevant factor than many believe for handstands. The main thing
you need to concern yourself with is to find a placement with your hands on the floor that is
comfortable enough. While hand placement is highly individual, there are some general things to
consider:
Exactly how your fingers look, and how you push into the ground, is not relevant as
long as you feel you can apply strong pressure on the floor, and correct your balance
efficiently.

Your fingers should be pointing forwards in a way that you can utilize all fingers to cor
rect overbalance. Whether the index or middle finger is pointing forwards is up to pref
erence.
Most people will want to spread their fingers, but there are examples of world
class performers who have their fingers close together.
The width of your hand placement on the floor should be somewhere around shoulder
width. Slightly wider or narrower is up to preference but hands directly underneath
shoulders is a safe bet.
If you are on the tighter side then you will find a slightly wider hand placement is bet
ter but you will find as your flexibility improves you might find that a narrower hand
placement becomes the prefered method.
The weight will fluctuate in your hand and not all parts of the hand and fingers will touch the
floor at all times. As a general rule, most people will find that the weight distribution in a well
balanced handstand will oscillate around the area shown in the picture below:
In the above picture we’ve marked the approximate zone of where the main pressure in the
hand will be. The area of weight distribution also coincides with the type of correction needed,
as explained in the Balance Wave Diagram. The
black zone will relate to zone one of the balance wave diagram, where you will have smaller
waves of over and under balance corrections and use pulsing type corrections with the hand
to control the ripples. The zone between the grey and black will relate to the more sustained
pressure type of corrections. Once you get into the grey zones you’ll start to get into the zone 2
corrections requiring either a one or multiple joint line break to keep the centre of mass over
the base of support. Once the weight and pressure shifts into the white zone you’re in zone 3
of the balance wave and you’ll easily exceed the capacity of your balance and need to exit the
handstand.
T he Ha nds tand Li ne
Before going into the technicalities of ideal alignment and technique, it is important to note one
thing: Different bodies, different strategies of balance. Our proposed technique is efficient, but
all techniques are artificial concepts. We try to adjust our bodies to the technique but sometimes
it is also necessary to adjust the technique to one’s body.
1 1: to e s p o i nte d
2 2 : kn e e s l o c ke d
3 3 : l e gs to g e ther
4 4 : g l u te s s qu e eze d
5 5 : sternu m pu l l e d i n
6 6 : sho u l d er s pushi n g i nto f l o o r a n d e l e vate d
7 7 : e l b ows stra i g ht o r sl i g htl y hy p erex ten d e d

8 8 : gaze at l i n e c o n n e c ti n g ha n ds
9 9 : ha n ds ro u g hl y sho u l d er w i d th a pa r t
The relationship between hand-shoulder-hip
The line in the handstand is, again, an often misunderstood concept. When we speak of the line
here, we do not mean the straight-looking line that can be drawn on the back of the body from
wrist to hips. In fact, for most people, if you are able to draw a straight line from the humerus
and down to the glutes on the back of the body, it means they are shooting the chest out and
will need to be compensating with either arching the back or piking at the hips. This is further
explained in the pictures underneath.
The line we are looking for is the line between your centre of mass, the hypothetical point inside
your body around your belly button, and your hands. We want this point to be directly above
the hand without the shoulders needing to move forwards (the position resembling a planche)
or backwards (the position resembling a mexican handstand). This is largely up to flexibility and
strength, but your elbow and shoulder bone structure will also play a role here. The key is; focus
on whether your chest and butt need to stick out from the centre line rather than if your upper
arm is 180 degrees or not. The reason we want this alignment is that it is the one which allows
you to develop towards the more advanced vocabulary in the easiest way possible, should you so
wish. The aesthetic quality of a “pretty” handstand is nice, but it is more of a bonus to good effi-
ciency than the end goal in itself. As we have mentioned before, look at this as a work in progress
and don’t fuss too much about details. You start with the rough work.
First you chop a piece of wood, then you carve, before you finish by sanding it to look neat and
smooth. Again, no one cuts down a tree with sandpaper.
However, to reinforce this position we are looking for we would be well advised to focus on the
following things:
Shoulders:
Elevation of the shoulders is the most certain card that will help you attain a straighter
and more efficient position. This is simply because pushing your shoulders tall will en-
gage more muscles, which in turn solidifies the overhead placement. Depressed shoul-
ders while overhead will naturally limit the flexion you can muster, so always pushing
high through the shoulders is a safe bet. However, we advise this push to be strong but
not absolutely maximal. If you push until everything absolutely cramps from the first
second in your handstand, you are likely wasting energy.
You want to push to a point where you feel strong and can hold for a while. What might
feel maximal at the start will probably feel much easier a few months down the line, but
a rule of thumb will still be to not absolutely kill yourself with the push.
There is a slight degree of external rotation happening in the joint if you push well, but
this is not something you need to concentrate on, particularly while learning the early
stages of the two arm handstand. Rather, try to avoid your arms internally rotating (so
do not let the elbow flare out) and concentrate on staying on top of your trapezius
muscles.
Chest:
The chest and the shoulders are intimately connected when it comes to the stack of the
handstand. If you close the chest, i.e flexing your thoracic spine, you will by definition be
closing your shoulder angle a bit. This demands the flexion strength of the upper back
and shoulder blades to be even more developed to keep you on your hands as it will
need to work counter to this closing of the chest. This is the principle we are looking for
in this program; closing into your handstand.
This does not mean planching the shoulders. Planching happens by letting go of the
elevation of the shoulders and going heavily forwards. We advise to stay elevated while
pulling the sternum in. As mentioned, this is only possible to do if the shoulders allow for
it by means of having both the range of motion and the complementary active strength
in this range, or else you will break the shoulder angle too much or fall. This is very much
a work in progress for many and will be developed through many specific exercises in
this program.
Midsection:
The “core” is not as significant a contributor to the handstand as many believe. In fact,
you don’t need any excessive tension whatsoever to keep a straight handstand. You do
not need excessive core engagement when you stand on your feet, because your hips
are underneath you, and stable. It is the same in a handstand. If tensing, pulling your
bellybutton in, or anything similar helps you keep the handstand shape, by all means do
it, but it is not a necessity as long as your shoulders and upper back creates a stable base
for you to balance on.
We are purposefully not focusing on it at all because we find it more efficient to teach
people to have their focus on other, more significant, parts of their bodies as we have
a limited amount of things we can concentrate on at a time. We believe the reason this
“myth” of the handstand as a core intensive exercise has spread is due to gymnastics.
In gymnastics, it is entirely necessary to teach the handstand with super hard tension
through the midsection as they want to hardwire it to carry over to tumbling and swing-
ing skills. When the purpose of the handstand is to use it as a tool to carry momentum it
is entirely sensible, if you just want to stand still, there is no real point to it.
Hips:
The hips are a rather simple part of the handstand as all you need to do is to tense your
glutes as if thrusting your hips forwards, so creating the posterior pelvic tilt. This might
feel awkward in handstand at first, but the cue is still rather one dimensional and will
come along rather fast. You tense the glutes and will feel your sacrum tilting slightly.
This position is what you want to keep in your straight handstand. You do not need to
squeeze super hard; think rather a base layer of tension that keeps the joint where you
want it.
One interesting aspect of the hips is that this tension will for many make the hips pike.
A way to counteract this is to at the same time pull your heels back. Glutes squeeze hip
in and a small pull towards your back to straighten the small pike.
Legs and toes:
Also one dimensional parts, so fairly straight forward. You want the legs to stay tight by
tensing your quads and pointing the toes. The reason for this is that keeping the tension
in your legs will first and foremost reduce the risk that your legs become floppy. Bend-
ing a knee when in handstand will have a huge impact on your entire structure as many
new variables need to be balanced out, so keep it tight. The toes do not significantly
affect your handstand structurally, but it is a good habit to learn to keep them pointed
as it gives you better orientation of the point furthest from your base of support. Es-
pecially further down the line, you want to be able to make aesthetic choices on how
you present your body in a handstand, and building early awareness of your feet will be
highly beneficial.
Li ne br eaks
For further clarification of how the handstand alignment functions,

here are some examples of hip compensations for the shoulder posi-
tion not being optimal.
This alignment is strong and stable for Mikael, but remember that the
line expresses differently from person to person. What we are look-
ing for here is to be able to stack the hips on top of a closed ribcage
with little to no compensation from the shoulders. On the following
pages, you will see some variations that we are trying to avoid
Fi g u re 1
Dropped and closed shoulders:
lö
lö
Fi g u re 2
In figure 2, you will see that Mikael has started to sink the shoulders
a little bit, and the beginning of an arch has started to form. As the
shoulders sink, the chest moves forwards slightly.
lö
lö
lö
Fi g u re 3
The continuation of the sink leads to the placement in figure 3, where

Mikaels chest is pushed out, his shoulders are low and slightly more
forwards. Here he needs to bring his feet further over to allow his
centre of mass to stay over his base of support. You will also see that
his COM is starting to move outside of his body, which is compensat-
ed for by his feet arching over the back and the head and shoulders
being in front of the BOS. This type of alignment is usually one that
comes as a result of lacking flexion in the shoulders or simply not el-
evating the shoulders enough. This is the type of position one would
use for a contortion handstand where the shoulders sink as much as
they can and the bend in the spine goes very deep.
lö
lö
lö
lö
Fi g u re 4
A common attempt at fixing this is by piking the hips to “straighten”

the handstand. As you can see here in figure 4, it does not make Mi-
kael stack better as the shoulder placement stays the same.
Too open shoulders:
This is a concept that is rather misunderstood as there is a general

consensus that a straight handstand is all about opening the shoulder
angle. This is true to a point, as there is an optimal degree of shoul-
der opening and if you do not have the required overhead flexibility,
you will have to work on opening more. But if you pass beyond that
point of optimal shoulder opening, and thus push too far up and back,
opening the shoulders too much, you will run the risk of ending up in
the placement Mikael showcases in figure 5. As you can see here, the
angle between his humerus and upper back is actually closer to 180
degrees than in his actual straight handstand, but there is no way this
position is possible to balance unless he either allows his legs to pass
the line (as in figure 5), or he allows his hips to pike so the butt hangs
over to compensate, as in figure 6.
The reason for this is that Mikael is opening his thoracic spine too
much and his shoulders are moving towards being over the heel of
the palm instead of stacked over the centre of his hand. This is the
type of alignment one uses to develop a mexican handstand, where
the weight shifts into the heel of the hand. Since Mikael, in this posi-
tion, is “hanging” in the end range of flexibility, rather than using his
upper back and traps to keep himself stacked, it is not a beneficial
default position if we want to develop a strong tuck and press to
handstand.
lö
lö
lö
Fi g u re 5
lö
lö
lö
lö
Fi g u re 6
A very common idea is that the open shoulders/piked hip handstand

is how the straight handstand should look, as demonstrated in fig-
ure 6. The problem with this type of placement is that it still makes
you hang in the end range of your shoulders with an open thoracic
spine. This makes you circumvent the muscle activation in your mid
trapezius and the muscle chains that are responsible for a press to
handstand. This is one of the main reasons we want you to learn the
stacked placement as it strengthens the muscles you will need for
the more advanced balances.
Bodyline drills on the floor
When looking at this program it might seem that it does not have a
lot of bodyline drills in it, compared to some other sources you might
have studied. This is because we believe the line should be found,
and trained, upside down. This may be a result of the differences in
tradition, and whether the style of handstand training originates in
circus, gymnastics, or another discipline.
That said, in this program, we have included exactly one exercise

which we use to teach the placement of all the different components
of the handstand line on the floor. You will find it in the Physical
Preparation chapter: The straight body hold.
The straight body hold is one of the things that is often misunder-
stood, with gymnastics position training concepts (such as the dish or
hollow body holds) being mistakenly applied to this.
To achieve a controlled handstand we need to have all the major
joints of the body stacked in a line. The straight line shape achieves
this, whereas the Dish or Hollow body position provides a shape that
is closer to the power generation methods of gymnastics which in-
volve the arch to hollow or hollow to arch motion.
The main difference in the application of these positions would be

that we use it as an exercise for teaching the body the correct posi-
tioning, as opposed to using it as a core conditioning drill to favour
acceleration in motion.
In regards to how we teach finding your handstand line, this means

that, when you begin going upside down (be it against the wall or
during your first attempts freestanding) all the key points of a good
line (as explained in this chapter) should be considered in each set
as best you can. This will train the handstand line better than any
amount of line drills on the floor ever could.
pushing
We called this program PUSH, as the aim of the program is to teach you how to build a stable
base of pushing correctly so you can build your foundation of your future handbalancing on it.
It is about finding the balance between either not pushing enough or about going way overboard.
We like to use the concept that you are trying to create a stable platform in your neck/shoulder
which the torso can rest on by pushing with the traps. It does not necessarily mean that you have
to maximally elevate the shoulder, but that you have to push with enough force to counter the
pull of gravity and the natural tendency of the body to sink and let the structures rest. It takes
some time but eventually you should feel the weight and balance flow down through you, rather
than your handstand just being a constant muscular battle.
Bre at hin g:
How the breathing works in a handstand is a commonly asked question. The answer is that it
functions exactly the same as when we stand on our feet; you breathe in and out intuitively. The
main advice we have is to try to breathe as normally as possible. In a handstand you are of course
not trying to breathe deep into your stomach, it is more of a shallow breath. Some people will feel
like they tense up and do not breathe in the beginning while others do not. Either way, breathing
normally is something that will come along as you get more used to being on your hands, and
should be the aim in the long run.
However, in the beginning as you learn to stand on your hands you will be concentrating maxi-
mally on the task, and working hard physically. It is quite normal to hold your breath as you are
trying something new (the same thing happens if you have never tried learning a choreography
and go to a dance class). Over time as you get used to the exercises you will intuitively need less
tension and focus for each element, and the intuitive breathing will come along with that. Each
time you move on to a new and more technical element (as when going from wall handstand to
a freestanding handstand, or later between shape changes) it is likely you will hold your breath
again.
MINDSET
Fear:
It is common when starting out in handbalance training to encounter some fear and mental /
physical resistance to inverting and getting on the hands. With the right approach it is easy to get
over this, and soon you will not even think about it any more.
Our experience of working with a large number of people is that this fear mainly comes from the
fear of falling and the fear of the unknown, so the fear of “What if this or that happens?”
If you find you are apprehensive of inverting, the goal in the training should be to just practice the
“getting set” and “getting down” elements of the program, as well as the bailing elements. Once
those become more physically ingrained and comfortable, you will naturally grow more confident
to progress towards going upside down.
We suggest using some of the exercises in this program to begin getting used to the concepts,
while allowing your body and mind to adapt to the idea of getting upside down. Things like step-
ping up into the inclined bodyline drill and getting down immediately would be a good place to
start. Always leaving some gas in the tank, so to speak, when doing holds and just progressively
taking time to build familiarity with the skill solves this. Once you have given the bailing chapter
of this program enough attention, and have built up all the necessary strength, the fear of getting
upside down fades quickly and is replaced by confidence and the knowledge that you can trust
your body to safely exit the handstand back to your feet.
We truly believe that anyone of reasonable fitness can learn a handstand given enough time.
Frustrati on:
Handbalancing can be one of the most frustrating arts to learn. First of all, due to the swings of
balance skills day to day, you might come in one day and everything is easy and light and then the
next day you can stroll in completely fresh and well rested - and nothing works. There’s no logic
to it. Welcome to handstands.
The other thing is, we are working with a skill that requires a lot of failing to learn. It is a fact that
you will fall out of your handstand more than you will hold it, and this is a constant all the way
to elite handbalancing. It is not that you stop falling out, it’s just that you fall on more advanced
movements and skills. Again - welcome to handstands.
We always tell people to treat each day as unique and don’t worry too much about what you
could or couldn’t do on past training days. Sometimes, if things are not working, it can be enough
to go back to some easier variations of what you were doing in the past and do them for a few
sets, then reattempt the program as a more extended version of the work out.
M ot ivat i on and Di s ci pli ne:
The great thing about handbalancing is that the physical glass ceiling is very high on the skill tree,
so anyone can learn it. The issue is that it takes a lot of repetitive practice to get to the top.
You do not need motivation to get the handstand solid, you need discipline and good technique.
Motivation is fleeting and ephemeral, discipline will always be there.
The discipline to go in and do your training, and accept it being a good or bad day as it comes,
is what will over time get you better. In fact, it’s the only way to really get good at handstands.
There’s a rule of thumb in training that out of ten workouts, one will be great: you might set a
new personal record (PR), things are easy, everything works. Two of these workouts will be ter-
rible, nothing works and everything feels super heavy. The remaining seven workouts you go in
and punch the clock, nothing major happens, training is neither good nor bad, it just is what it is.
It is these seven workouts that make you progress in the long run, but the issue for some people
is that you can get attached to the peak workouts, assuming these are the new norm. Being able
to focus on the “turn up and train” is the key to success in all activities but particularly handbal-
ancing.
Consistent tracking and self evaluation will also help as while you might not be improving in one
aspect, say endurance, other aspects like form, control, ease of balance and intuitive correcting
might be improving.
At the same time as you need discipline to keep your practice consistent, you also need to find
ways to enjoy it. As mentioned, the breakthroughs are few and far between so finding the pro-
cess itself interesting is crucial to keeping it going over the months and years. This is something
that actually does get slightly easier with time as you will have more results to look back on and
abilities you simply did not have before.
Another source of enjoyment for many people is to include a section of pure play on their hands
into their training sessions, as we propose in the program templates. It nicely compliments the
often repetitive training that forms the baseline of the practice with creativity, trying new things
and challenging yourself both physically and mentally.
The repetitive training itself often also becomes a meditative one that people tend to enjoy as
it is a free mental space where you concentrate on only a single task for a longer period of time.
Accepting the frustration, the discipline, the fun and the process for what it is, is what can create
a sustainable practice that lasts for years.
practice
FUNDAMENTALS OF THE STRAIGHT,
TWO ARM HANDSTAND
The style of handstand we are proposing in this program is aimed at building the base and the
functionality needed to progress towards high level handbalancing. We want to build a founda-
tion that is broad enough to enable the highest levels of skills to branch from, while at the same
time promoting an ease of learning for the complete beginner.
We have identified six main components to learning the straight, two arm handstand.
We aim to build both the hardware and the software for the handstand, so we need to address
strength and physical capacity but also the control and balance elements. These need to be ap-
proached in a simplified manner where they are worked on separately and then recombined.
Over our combined years of teaching and coaching experience, we have dissected the most im-
portant factors that need to be worked on, in order to then be put together into the final hand-
stand.
Some of the following exercises work like training wheels in that, once you have gotten the goal
of the exercise, you will discard it. Other exercises you will keep for your whole handbalancing
career, adding layers of proprioception and complexity as your skills advance. For this reason,
never be afraid of coming back to the basics, even once you have graduated from this program.
We use the following families of drills to educate the body and to strengthen it in a progressive
manner to develop both the balance and strength required for the skill of one arm balancing.
PHYSICAL PREPARATION
T
here is a baseline of physical preparation work needed to be able to even begin training the
handstand:
- The wrist need to have developed sufficient flexibility, as well as being prepared to take
the load necessary for supporting your full bodyweight while learning to handstand
- The shoulders need to be sufficiently flexible and strong to be able to find the shapes
required while not pushing the flexibility to the limit, or failing because we have
reached our maximum strength capacity

In this chapter, we cover the idea of building capacity to do the work required for the handstand.
This kind of physical preparation does not come immediately but needs to be built up slowly
to give the body time to adapt. Rushing this stage of the process is a recipe for injury. When
measuring progress in the programming, capacity can be thought of as a quite linear a process.
An example would be: I can comfortably do 5 x 60 seconds of chest to wall holds; this means
my wrists, elbows and shoulders have 300 seconds of capacity to work with when I am working
on developing the freestanding balancing skills. So I could attempt 30 x 10s exercises in the
program, and would probably not risk exceeding my physical capacity. This is very simplified but
gives you an idea of what’s going on.
PH YS I C A L PR EPAR AT ION
WRIST WARM UP
T
he idea in warming up the wrists is get-
ting them prepared for the loading they
are about to receive in your session (and
throughout this program), but at the same time
we have to be careful to not fatigue them be-
fore the actual work which is about to be done.
This is a common flaw in some programming
templates: They put the wrist and finger con-
ditioning first in the program. Honestly I my-
self (Emmet) was guilty of this when I began
coaching but I started to see the same issues
occurring with students of mine. I first dropped
the wrist conditioning (not warm up!) from the
start of my clients programs, then removed Keypoints
conditioning completely from general pro-
grams and now only use it in specific cases. Af- + G ra d u a l l y l o a d i n g the wrist s is ke y
ter adopting this training model, the wrist and
forearm overuse injuries effectively dropped + Ou r g o a l here is g e tti n g the wrist s
rea d y, b u t n o t fati g u i n g them
to zero in my students.
So back to warming up, the goal of the warm

up is to gradually load and feel how the wrists
are on the day. In the two arm handstand, 50%
of the bodyweight is loaded in each hand. To
prepare for this we progressively add more
weight into the wrist, starting gentle and then
ramping up slowly.
Also the idea of the wrist warm up is that you

want to make it personal and do what needs
to be done on the day. Some days you will find
your wrists are ready to go after 20-40s, oth-
er days they might need 5-10mins before they
feel like they can be loaded fully.
The routine presents a sample of movements
to warm up the wrists, feel free to copy it or try
to invent your own but always pay attention to
how things are feeling on the day.
STRAIGHT BODY HOLDS
T
o note on the straight body holds is that
they provide a force to the body that is at
90 degrees to the forces experienced in
the handstand. So while we need to train this
position and have good familiarity with it, it is
not the be all and end all of line development.
We teach this movement in various stages,

aiming at getting the sections really nice before
combining them. You can work on one section
of the body in one work out or combine them
as you see fit.
Initially this position will require some body Keypoints

tension to hold that can be initially experi-
enced as a lot of strain. The goal is to develop + Stra i g ht b o d y is n o t the s a m e as
a feeling of “held” in place but with minimal ef- d ish o r ho l l ow b o d y
fort. We like to think of it like a tuned guitar
string, it is tight but it has the potential to react + Wo rk the s e g m ent s o f the b o d y s ep -
a rate l y to g e t the them n i c e , then
to a force applied to it, as opposed to I have c o m b i n e them
made my body into stone.
+ Ma ke su re the b o d y l o o k s l i ke y o u r
ha n dsta n d l i n e a n d n o t a b o at
SCAPULAR PUSH UPS
T
his is a simple exercise to get a sensa-
tion of the shoulder movement and how
it relates to pushing into the ground in
a handstand. You want to feel that your chest
moves away from the ground as your scapu-
la articulates, while keeping the weight in the
centre of your hand. Think about pushing the
area in between your scapulae out as far as
possible so the back rounds.
Keypoints
+ A lway s fo cus o n pushi n g stra i g ht

d own i nto the g ro u n d
+ K e ep a rms as stra i g ht as y o u c a n
a n d we i g ht i n the c entre o f the
ha n d thro u g h the enti re m o ti o n
SCAPULAR PUSH TO STANDING PIKE
T
his exercise is a great way to sense how
scapula articulation is key to finding the
shoulder position you want and how your
trapezius muscles stack your shoulders over
your hands as you move your hips upwards.
The idea here is to trust the shoulders to move
yourself up, though you are still applying some
pressure with your toes to allow for yourself
to lift the hips. As you reach the top position,
make sure you feel that your traps are working.
You want to keep the weight in the middle of
the palms at all times.
If you feel you need to lean a lot forwards or Keypoints

bend your arms during this movement it is like-
ly that you will need to do some work on your + Alway s fo cus on pushing
shoulder mobility. Likewise, if you feel a strong stra ig ht d own into the g rou nd
stretch in the hamstrings while performing this
exercise, you can bend your knees slightly or + K e ep a rms stra ig ht a nd we ig ht
place your hands further forwards. Work with in the m id d le o f the ha nd
what you have and develop your pike and/or
+ L o ok at the f lo or throu g h the
shoulder flexibility separately with the exercis- entire m ovem ent a nd push
es in this program. throu g h tra p s when you rea ch
the top o f the m otion
BASIC CONDITIONING
C
onditioning means preparing to take on the load and requirements for the specific tasks
of the activities we choose to do. As such, the needs of a handbalancer are different to
the needs of a surfer, a cyclist and so on. In this section we aim to prepare the wrists and
elbows for the increased loading coming from the handstand as well as strengthen the muscles
of the scapula and upper back for the specific needs of the handbalancer.
Specific conditioning takes time to develop. Some movements gain strength quickly, but we have
to respect that the passive structures such as tendons, ligaments, joints etc. need time to adapt
to the loading of the handstand as well. In general, you want to err on the side of caution when
trying to progress. It is better to, for example, spend a month doing 30s holds even if you could
progress to 50s, just to give the tendons and other structures further time to adapt.
As always, while we have set templates, please listen to your body and follow its needs in your
day to day training.
BA S I C CO N DIT IONING
INCLINE BODYLINE DRILL
T
his drill is a great one for introducing the
handstand to new trainees.
Its main feature is that it gets you on your hands

in a manner that most people can achieve. It
is incredibly safe in that, if you need to exit
quickly, you can just step off the wall. It also
uses less wrist extension than the close to wall
holds so if you need to work on your wrist flex-
ibility, this will start getting you inverted while
your wrist development catches up.
One of the main things to work on here is find-

ing all the alignment cues from the straight Keypoints
body hold in this position. It is not a resting
position where you are wedged into the wall + Ta ke you r tim e to s e t u p nic e l y
but it is alive, meaning that the shoulders are here , e lb ows lo cke d as b e st as
working, and you are pushing through the you ca n
arms. The body is, in other words, tight and not
sagging. + Push shou ld ers hig h a nd inline
wi th the tors o as b e st you ca n
Some things you can play with is deliberate- + Ma ke su re to not s a g in the m id
ly sagging then finding the line again so you s e c tion
begin to build up a sensation library of what
things might feel like when you lose the line,
and how you might be able to restack your po-
sition while inverted.
ENTRY TO WALL HANDSTAND
T
his exercise covers the bases from going
to the inclined position, as in the incline
bodyline drill, to the fully vertical position
against the wall. It’s a particularly nice drill for
being able to test the waters with how close to
the wall you want to get, as well as how much
weight your hands, wrists and shoulders can
handle while still being able to step off the wall
very easily
When learning this drill, one of the main things

to pay attention to is to take small steps with
the hands and to make sure that the hand that
you move has no weight in it while stepping. Keypoints
At first, just shifting the weight over might be
hard as it involves some coordination, but it + Ta ke sma ll step s wi th you r
will get much easier with practice. ha nds when lea rning this one ,
f ing ers to he e l o f ha nds is a
Make sure to leave some energy in the tank to g o o d step si ze
walk back down the wall too. Also, in your first
+ Ma inta in a strong e le vation o f
few times trying this, just do a couple of steps
the shou ld ers to the ea rs
and see how it is. Do not go straight for the
wall and get stuck there. + Us e the hip s to shi ft the we ig ht
CHEST TO WALL HOLDS
T
he chest to wall hold is the go-to basic ex-
ercise for developing capacity, form and
feeling of the handstand. This exercise
does not teach you much about balance but it
is essential for the development of the place-
ment of your body, building specific strength
and the feeling of being upside down.
Make a checklist when you go up into this

handstand where you make sure your toes are
pointed, legs and glutes are squeezed tight,
shoulders pushed up and that you are looking
at the floor. The toes should be the only thing
touching the wall. You want to make sure your Keypoints
shoulders are placed over your hands so you
are not opening them too much and pushing + b e g i n w i th a l i ttl e b i t o f d ista n c e
your chest out towards the wall. fro m the wa l l
+ l o o k at the f l o o r
+ push hi g h thro u g h sho u l d er s a n d

tr y to sta c k sho u l d er o ver the
m i d d l e o f the ha n d to the d e g re e
y o u c a n. Do n o t push c he st towa rds
wa l l a n d o p en t- spi n e
+ ke ep to e s p o i nte d , l e gs l o c ke d a n d
g l u te s tens e to pra c ti c e the p e l v i c
ti l t
WALL WALKS
T
his exercise aims to build strength in the
shoulder girdle by momentarily loading
all the body weight onto one side, and
then the other.
The focus here should be on an extended,

locked elbow, and pushing out of the shoulder.
Do not allow yourself to start bending the arms
as you fatigue. When the arms start to bend
you should try to correct it, and if that is not
possible, end the set.
At the start you might feel that getting all the

weight into one arm will be hard, but even Keypoints
shifting some of the weight, say 60:40 instead
of 50:50, is fine here. Just stick with it, and the + Ta ke y o u r ti m e a n d d o n’ t rush the s e
strength will build.
+ K e ep pushi n g thro u g h the sho u l d er
o f the su pp o r ti n g a rm
You do not have to be right up to the wall for
this exercise, being at about 20-30cm distance
+ Yo u d o n’ t n e e d to d o the s e as a f u l l
from the wall will be fine here. shi ft e ven a m i l d shi ft o f we i g ht is
g o o d here
+ S ave s o m e en erg y to wa l k o u t
WALL SHRUGS
F
or some of you, this exercise will be cru-
cial, whereas for others it may not be
needed.
You will find this one useful for when you are
doing wall holds and you find you lose the push
through the shoulder (also called the shoulder
shrug up) or you tend to let the arms relax and
the whole shape sags a little as you fatigue.
In this motion you will do repetitions of the

shrugging up aiming to hit a maximum shrug
and push. You will then hold the high shrug po-
sition for a few seconds, then relax. It is crucial Keypoints
here to push down into the floor, and generate
movement from the scapula elevating, like in + Do n’ t l e t the b o d y g o sla c k as y o u
the scapular push ups, as opposed to opening re la x the e l e vati o n o f the sho u l d er s
your shoulders and shooting your chest out to-
wards the wall. + Push u p a n d d own ver ti c a l l y
+ Do n’ t push the sho u l d er s to o o p en

While we demonstrate this motion against a
wall, as you get more advanced you might want
to revisit this one freestanding.
WALL TUCK SLIDES
A
more advanced shoulder conditioning
exercise and an early preparation for
one of the basic handbalancing shapes:
the tuck handstand. This exercise forces you
into a position where you need to work hard to
keep your shoulders flexed enough to not fall
forwards. The degree you can slide down the
wall is self limiting in relation to your strength
and flexibility. Those with good passive and ac-
tive range will often find this to be rather easy,
while those who lack range will need to work
very hard to stay stacked.
One thing to watch out for, especially if you Keypoints

have very flexible shoulders, is to not let your-
self get away with pushing your chest out to + K e ep kn e e s to g e ther a n d push
accommodate the hips via an arched back (as hi g h thro u g h the sho u l d er s as
you would in a mexican handstand). If you do y o u pu l l y o u r l e gs d own
this, you will end up resting out of your end
+ Fi n d a d ista n c e where y o u w i l l b e
range of motion, as opposed to deliberately fo rc e d to re s ist the fo r wa rds l ea n i n
putting your body into underbalance which the sho u l d er s rather tha n sti c k i n g
builds the strength we are looking for. the c he st o u t i nto a m i n i m ex i c a n
+ If y o u r u pp er b a c k f i re s ha rd y o u
If done correctly, this exercise builds great a re l i ke l y d o i n g i t c o rre c tl y
strength in the upper back and is an excellent
way to bridge the gap towards the more ad-
vanced movements.
BAILING
L
earning to balance requires a lot of repetition of trial and error. This means that the fact of
learning to handstand is that you will fall out or lose control more than you will hold success-
fully. This is how you learn. So to begin with, and throughout your handbalancing journey,
you need to have strategies and ways to exit with control when you lose balance. Even the most
advanced handbalancers will often end their training sets on a fail, and need to bail out when
the unexpected happens. When learning, at first these movements might be tricky but they very
quickly become ingrained and automatic.
Spending time formally making these really nice will go a long way in your initial training but
quickly they do not need much work other than what happens naturally in your regular day to
day practice.
BAIL ING
CARTWHEEL OUT AT THE WALL
T
his is perhaps the simplest and most
useful way of safely exiting a handstand
(bailing) for beginners. It teaches you to
safely reach the floor with your feet and most
importantly, never to lose sight of the ground
before you are down from your handstand. It
does not need to look pretty, it simply needs
to be safe and intuitive. Using the wall is one
of the best ways to develop this.
First off, make sure you figure out which hand

you would want to move. This will most often
be the second hand you would place on the
floor for a cartwheel. If this is your right hand, Keypoints
you will be pulling your right leg from the wall
as well and vice versa. + Fi n d o u t whi c h is the s e c o n d ha n d
y o u pla c e o n the f l o o r i n a c a r t-
Get into a stomach to wall position, make sure whe e l whi c h w i l l b e the o n e y o u
w i l l m o ve a n d step o u t o n
you are set up well and then start pulling your
chosen leg off the wall. You need to commit to + The s a m e l e g (ri g ht l e g i f ri g ht a rm
this leg pulling so that you will actually start w i l l m o ve) pu l ls o ff the wa l l u nti l
falling over. Keep shoulders pushed out and as y o u sta r t fa l l i n g
the weight passes over you, move the chosen
+ K e ep a rms stra i g ht a n d there is n o
hand forwards and land on your legs. Exactly risk o f i n j u r y
which leg you land on and how it looks is irrel-
evant. What matters here is to over time build + It d o e s n o t n e e d to l o o k pre tt y, i t
safety and control in an intuitive way so you j ust n e e ds to b e s afe
can get rid of the fear of going over in a hand-
stand.
BAIL ING
TWIST OUT AT THE WALL
T
his method of bailing is more versatile
than the cartwheel out because you do
not need to move the hand forwards.
This means you can use this from a height and
still be very safe on your landing. However it
is slightly more complicated for beginners to
learn, but we urge you to try both methods as
one might feel more intuitive than the other.
Over time, this might be the best one to learn
as it will carry over to canes or blocks.
Keypoints
+ L a n d o n the s a m e l e g as pi vo t a rm
+ D i re c ti o n y o u la n d i n is n o t re l e va nt
as l o n g as y o u la n d s o ftl y o n y o u r
leg
+ The ro tati o n o f the ha n d is sma l l.

K e ep the a rm pushe d o u t
BAIL ING
CARTWHEEL OUT FREESTANDING
T
his is the same concept as the cartwheel
out at the wall except you do it from a
kick up. Set it up by kicking into a hand-
stand, but overshoot it on purpose. It is often
uncomfortable to do this in the beginning, but
as long as you move your hand you will be safe
and your feet will land on the ground. Alternat-
ing between this and the wall setup is a good
way to ease into learning it from a balanced
handstand.
You can also begin to play with the speed and

amount of control you exercise when deliber-
ately overshooting this kick up. Losing balance Keypoints
can be a very sudden and explosive occurrence
if you kick up very hard, but it can also happen + When l ea rn i n g , k i c k to o ha rd o n
almost in slow motion, depending on how well pu rp o s e s o y o u w i l l i n i tiate the fa l l
you have mastered the controlled kick up al- fro m y o u r l e gs
ready.
+ Ca r t whe e l o u t i n the s a m e way as
w i th the wa l l s e tu p
BAIL ING
TWIST OUT FREESTANDING
T
his exercise functions the same free
standing as learned at the wall. Make sure
you are ready to twist and pivot down
over your chosen hand. Overshoot your hand-
stand at first to get used to this and practice
it in combination with the wall version to get
used to doing it from a freestanding handstand
Keypoints
+ Fo cus i n g o n la n d i n g o n the o pp o -
s i te l e g w i l l b e m o re i ntu i ti ve tha n
thi n k i n g a b o u t tu rn i n g the ha n d
2
+ The ro tati o n o f the pa l m is a c o ns e -
qu en c e o f the t w ist o f the hi p s
REBALANCING
I
f the basic conditioning is what gives the form and hardware of the Handstand, the rebalance
is what gives the software for it. As such, the rebalancing is the key to the handstand. You can
have all the strength and flexibility for the handstand but without the ability to balance and
correct the shape it is useless, like a car with no driver.
In this section we have broken down the rebalancing actions into the various components and
directions you can lose balance in a handstand. We reduce the variables and directions of bal-
ance, allowing you to focus on one aspect of the balance and then integrating them into the free
balance itself at a later stage.
Rebalancing in it is initial phase will build the strength in the fingers and hands required to correct
the shape of the handstand before the centre of mass gets outside the base of support, so there
is an element of building finger and hand strength here as much as there is learning to apply the
corrections at the correct time.
As your sensation of balance gets better then your rebalances get finer and more controlled but
at the start you will find correcting one way will send you falling out the other way.
Our main goal in this section is to take a subconscious process, make it conscious in order to im-
prove it, and then let it go back into the subconscious level so the balancing becomes automatic.
To do this, we have to apply constraints and tasks like the rebalance exercises in this section and
gradually make them more complex and eventually free form, as they will be in the handstand
itself.
R EBAL ANCING
FINGER CONTROL
T
he fingers are the main control mecha-
nism for overbalance. In the beginning
you will likely either push too hard or
too little to stay in balance for long. That said,
overbalance is still the easier variable to con-
trol as a beginner. This is the reason we first
want you to build up some strength and capac-
ity in the forearms. Once you have a surplus of
energy here you will have an easier time find-
ing control and developing the sensitivity for
the balancing movements.
Keypoints
+ E as i er to c o ntro l o verb a la n c e fo r
b e g i n n er s
+ A b as e l e ve l o f stren gth i n the fo re -

a rms is ke y b u t n o t e ver y thi n g
+ How y o u r ha n ds l o o k o n the f l o o r is
i rre l e va nt as l o n g as y o u a re a b l e to
exer t fo rc e o n the g ro u n d
R EBAL ANCING
CROW REBALANCE DRILL
T
he crow rebalance drill will not develop
your handstand much in itself, but it can
give you the sensation of how the hands
and fingers will function while in a handstand.
The sensation of balancing a crow stand is the
same as a handstand, just simpler and requiring
less force because your centre of mass is low-
er. Getting the feeling of this and also sensing
how your fingers have enough force to push
you off balance will give you a better frame of
reference for what you are looking for.
Keypoints
+ E as y way to ex p eri en c e f i n g er
c o ntro l
+ Tw ist ha n ds sl i g htl y to b e a b l e to
pla c e e l b ows
+ Pu t y o u r kn e e s o n to p o f e l b ows
a n d l ea n fo r wa rds i nto b a la n c e ,
d o n’ t j u m p
+ Push y o u r s e l f o ff b a la n c e o n pu r-
p o s e a n d b a c k to the f l o o r
R EBAL ANCING
SCISSORING INTO BALANCE
T
his exercise is an excellent way to prac-
tice your balance on an earlier level. You
want to make sure you stack your up-
per body well first as that will in itself remove
some of the weight resting on the wall. Then
you move 1 leg from the wall until you have
almost no weight left in the leg touching the
wall. From there the key is patience. Avoid the
temptation of pushing off the wall with your
toes, as you will be causing a lot of energy to
come from the top of your structure which can
easily push you down.
You rather want to move the last bit into free- Keypoints
standing from your upper body by pushing out
the shoulders and leaning the torso onto the + L ea n sternu m o ver ha n ds s o y o u
shoulders. If you do not elevate as you do so, sta c k as mu c h as y o u c a n fro m the
you will likely break the shoulder line more b o tto m u p
than necessary. Stay stacked and imagine you
+ Ta ke ti m e i n the s c is s o re d p o s i ti o n
move your sternum over your hands. As you to f i n d b a la n c e b e fo re m o v i n g l e gs
float off the wall you need to be ready with the to g e ther
fingers to control overbalance.
+ If y o u stru g g l e gatheri n g the l e gs ,
sti c k to the s c is s o re d p o s i ti o n u nti l
Do not try to gather your legs until you can c o m fo r ta b l e
hold the scissored position with control for 5
or so seconds. + Do n o t push o ff the wa l l w i th the
fe e t
R EBAL ANCING
HEEL PULL CORRECTION
T
his correction is the easier of the two
main corrections. It is the one that ap-
plies when you overbalance the hand-
stand and fall in the direction of the back.
At the start this motion trains the fingers and

strength of the forearm in the manner required
for handbalancing, and is key in developing a
strong balance.
We coach this exercise in three parts. First,

we teach the sustained pressure by pushing
through the fingers to pull you off the wall and
down to the floor. Secondly, when you feel you Keypoints
have the balance, try to apply the least amount
of power to find the balance in the centre, then + No pushi n g o ff the wa l l w i th the
squeeze again to come down. So you would fe e t , i f y o u fe e l y o u have to push
squeeze the fingers to come off the wall, hold s e t u p c l o s er to the wa l l
the balance, and then squeeze the fingers
+ Us e the f i n g er s pushi n g i nto the
again to come back to standing. In the third g ro u n d to m o ve the b o d y
variation, try to find the balance and then, in-
stead of coming down to the floor, go back to + Pay attenti o n to the thre e d i fferent
va riati o ns a n d master ea c h o n e i n
the wall into your initial set up position. tu rn
In this set up, it is likely that you might start

finding a good balance and alignment. When
this happens, we suggest just going for it and
trying to hold as long as you can. It will begin to
happen as you get past the complete beginner
stage, but it is important not to chase them.
Sometimes it just happens, enjoy it, but then
on your next set get back to what you were do-
ing and avoid ditching the training for chasing
balances that may or may not happen.
R EBAL ANCING
TOE PULL VARIATIONS
I
n the stacked version of the toe pulls, make
sure you are elevated strongly by pushing
hard into the ground, and allow yourself to
pike slightly at the hips. You want very little
weight left on the wall just before you pull off.
Be strict with yourself and do not push off the
wall with your toes to try to get into balance.
Imagine that you want to pull the sternum for-
wards while staying elevated in the shoulders
to bring as much weight over your hands as you
can. If this is done well you will end up leav-
ing the wall with very few variables to balance
out. Try to be ready with your fingers as your
weight comes off so you do not fall forwards. Ke yp oints
Keypoints
+ ma i n d i fferen c e b e t we en the 2 d ri l ls
In the planched version of this drill, you will is that the f i r st va riati o n is m o re
set up the movement by letting the shoulders a b o u t pre c is i o n to g e t i nto b a la n c e ,
drift forwards. One of two things will happen, a n d the s e c o n d is m o re a b o u t us i n g
u pp er b a c k stren gth to e sta b l ish
either the body will keep straight like entering
b a la n c e
a planche, or, more likely, it will bend and end
up in a closed shoulder arched body position. + Push stro n g l y thro u g h the tra p s
For our purposes in this exercise, both are cor- a n d a i m to g e t the we i g ht thro u g h
the b a la n c e p o i nt o f the ha n ds
rect and the correction at the shoulder level is
the same. To pull off the wall, you will need to + No pushi n g o ff the wa l l w i th the
push hard into the floor, while also thinking of fe e t
restacking the shoulders into your handstand
line, similar to the shoulder flexion stick exer- + B e rea d y to hi t the f i n g er s l i ke the
he e l pu l l c o rre c ti o n o r t w ist o u t i f
cise. This should shift the weight off the wall, y o u o ver sho o t the b a la n c e p o i nt o n
and enable you to stack your shoulders back th e s e
into a balanced position.
R EBAL ANCING
TICK TOCKS
T
hese combined rebalances, or Tick Tocks,
are where we put both the toe pulls and
the heel pulls learned earlier into action.
With this exercise you will begin to feel when
you need to apply which correction, and how
this becomes an intuitive process over time.
While this is demonstrated with a partner, it

can be done equally in a squat rack with bars
set at the right height or a hallway.
The spotter here isn’t assisting or balancing

the motion but just holding out the arms at a
distance that is appropriate to your level. The Ke yp oints
Keypoints
more you advance, the further apart the arms
of the spotter can be.
+ Fi n d a na rrow spa c e to d o the s e i n ,
a ha l lway, b e t we en a s qu at ra c k o r
When you’re doing this you’re going to start w i th a pa r tn er as d em o nstrate d
correcting the shape with, for example, a heel
pull, then drifting through the centre, then + No pushi n g o ff the su pp o r t , a l l b a l-
a n c e c o m e s fro m
doing a toe pull etc. As you drift through the ha n ds / sho u l d er s / b o d y
centre, try to feel the point of balance where
everything is stacked and the weight is going + G o o n e way then the o ther, then
sta r t tr y i n g to f i n d paus e s
directly vertical into the ground. You won’t feel
it immediately but when you do it is unmistak-
able and will start to ingrain the centre point of
the handstand for your body.
After some familiarity with this movement you

can start trying to balance in the middle, and
then when you lose balance just doing the ap-
propriate correction.
KICKING UP
T
he kick up is the basic and fundamental entry to a handstand. Like so much in handbalanc-
ing, the kick up is something that seems easy on first appearance, but consists of a lot of
key details you need to have ingrained in order to take it from something that is a bit hit and
miss to something that has a high degree of accuracy and consistency.
The style of kick up we teach differs from what is commonly taught in other disciplines such as
gymnastics. It differs in that we want to establish balance and control as early in the process as
possible. To achieve this, we are aiming to establish the pushing into the ground from the start,
while at the same time reducing momentum to the bare minimum needed to achieve the inverted
position.
We break the kick up down into two segments: the half kick up and the leg lift to balance. Then,
as skill increases, we combine them into one smooth motion that is composed of the two.
Once you have gained some degree of control in the kick up, you ideally want to begin picking
and working on specific details and getting them ingrained before you move onto another. We
suggest, for example, focusing on learning to move the legs and keeping them locked with toes
pointed as much as you can.
A word of warning that we might add at this point is that the kick up can take some time to get
consistent. It is quite common to get to the point that you might be holding 20s-30s handstands
regularly, but the kick up is still only accurate five out of ten times. This will get better with
practice, but do not despair if you feel like you should be more consistent at this, reconsider and
always go back to refining the basics.
KICK UP
HALF KICK UP
A
s we have said above, the kick up is two
motions combined into one. This being
the first one is generally where you will
find more errors so take your time to get this
one correct and consistent.
The set up is personal in this movement, you’ll

need to find what works for you to fulfill the
keypoints of shoulders over wrists or slightly
ahead of them while also being able to swing
with the back leg to develop momentum to get
on the hands.
You want to be strongly pushing into the ground Keypoints

from the very start. Think of it like this: once
your hands are the only point of contact with
+ Ta ke y o u r ti m e to s e t u p the ha n d
the floor all your body weight is now going d ista n c e a n d fe e t d ista n c e a n d
through that spot. If you weigh 80kg but have ma ke i t c o ns istent
only 40kg of push going through the hands then
once the full body weight goes up the arms will + Pra c ti c e g e tti n g the l e gs l o c ke d
a n d ti d y b y g o i n g l ower to b e g i n
bend under the load but if you’re pushing and w i th
ready to catch the weight by strongly pushing
then the arms will stay locked and the weight + A i m to b e a b l e to ho l d the ha l f p o -
will be pressed upwards. s i ti o n then us e the f i n g er s qu e eze
to c o m e d own
One of the key mistakes here is that people will
set up nicely, but then as they kick up they will
let the shoulders drift back towards the feet
as they start to swing the legs. The issue here
is the wrist becoming the pivot point, which
means you have to rely on pure momentum to
make the half position. Whereas if you keep the
arms vertical the shoulders become the pivot
point similar to the pike press movement and
the motion becomes one of controlled momen-
tum and muscle strength.
At the start it is better to get used to the half

kick up and not to worry about establishing bal-
ance or getting the leg vertical to the ceiling,
but just aiming to get the floating pressing type
feeling in this.
One more key point regarding the coming down

from the half kick up is to start using the finger
action as learned in the heel pull correction to
initiate the coming out of the motion in a con-
trolled way.
KICK UP
WALKING HALF KICK UP
T
he walking half kick ups are good for
learning how to use the body’s move-
ment as a pendulum to efficiently enter
into a handstand position. You want the lean
down towards the floor to initiate the leg going
up so that you need very little extra force to
kick yourself up. The same principles as for a
normal kick up apply; you push into the floor to
stack on the way up and you want to look for
the floaty point at the top.
Taking a few steps between each repetition

will let you pick which detail to work on, as you
get more comfortable with the movement then Keypoints
it can be done on every step.
+ ke ep a stra i g ht l i n e fro m he e l to
sho u l d er a n d l e t the l ea n d own to
the f l o o r he l p y o u u p w i th the l east
a m o u nt o f m o m entu m
+ l e t y o u r a rms g o natu ra l l y towa rds

f l o o r b y l e tti n g them ha n g to y o u r
s i d e , n o n e e d to sta r t w i th a rms
o verhea d
+ as y o u l ea n fo r wa rds l e t g rav i t y
pla c e the ha n ds d own (n o t l e tti n g
them w i d en) a n d push i nto the
g ro u n d fro m y o u r tra p s
+ a i m fo r a s o ft la n d i n g w i th ha n ds o n
g ro u n d
+ Play w i th the a m o u nt o f step s ta ken

b e t we en ea c h ha l f k i c k u o n g ro u n d
KICK UP
LEG LIFT TO BALANCE
T
he leg lift to balance is the second com-
ponent to complete the full kick up to
handstand.
Take your time to set this exercise up: Make
sure to first have your shoulder, hip, and wrist
alignment sorted out before pressing strong-
ly into the ground. When you begin lifting the
leg up there will be a moment where it kind of
locks into place and you can feel the weight
flow through your structure and into the
ground. When this happens keep pushing and
don’t sag, then as you push feel the leg getting
lighter on the support and let it float off. When
you have achieved a somewhat split leg posi- Keypoints
tion, and manage to balance that,Once the leg
is off the support, try to join the legs. + Ma ke su re the su pp o r t y o u us e is
n o t to o l ow to b e g i n w i th
Be prepared to have to either do a heel pull
correction as the legs join, or that you might + E sta b l ish the sho u l d er a n d hi p s
o ver ha n ds then l i ft the f i r st l e g
need to twist or cartwheel out.
+ Ta ke y o u r ti m e a n d wa i t fo r the
The other thing that can happen in this posi- s e c o n d l e g to b e we i g htl e s s o n the
su pp o r t then l i ft i t sl owl y. Ma ke
tion is that you might find a really solid balance su re to j o i n the l e gs i n the c entre
with the leg’s split. If that happens we suggest a n d b e rea d y to a ppl y the he e l pu l l
just going for it and enjoying the balance while c o rre c ti o n
its there, particularly the first few times it hap-
pens
KICK UP
FULL KICK UP
T
his movement is built on the previous
steps, so if you are experiencing difficul-
ties with this you can always figure out
which part of the move is causing problems
and then work more on the leg lift or the half
kick up.
It is normal for this to take some time to get

consistent. As mentioned, it is quite common
for people to already be able to hold a decent
20 to 30 second handstand before the kick
up starts to feel consistent. It is also the kind
of exercise that will always benefit from be-
ing broken down and worked on the different Keypoints
components again.
+ K i l l the m o m entu m a n d paus e i n the
ha l f k i c k u p p o s i ti o n
It’s also normal to have some big swings in
consistency in the kick up, some days you’ll + Ma ke su re to j o i n the l e gs i n the
nail them all with ease and grace and the next c entre
day you’ll feel like your arms and legs are now
tentacles with a mind of their own. + Tr y to ma ke su re the l e gs a re
l o c ke d here , p o i nti n g the to e s c a n
he l p that
I have a bonus routine that I give to people
when they reach the stage of 20-30s hs but
still have an inconsistent kick up, its called kick
up therapy and its simple but effective, at the
start of every training session for a month do
50 kick ups. I even make people extend this
to other parts of their training e.g leg day or
before aerial class. It’s great for jumping your
consistency from the 3-4 out of 10 to the 8-9
out of 10 ranges.
FREESTANDING HANDSTAND
Y
our success in the handstand will be built on the foundation of all the work that has come
before. The better and nicer those fundamental parts are, the easier the handstand will
come. There will come a point when all the exercises in this program need to be put away
and you just work on the handstand. The analogy of making a nice salad is useful, a salad is a very
simple dish, some chopped veg in a bowl. But what makes a good salad is having the nicest, fresh
ingredients.
So to run with this, until this point we have been developing the ingredients, and in this chapter
we assemble them. More than in any other point in the program you will start to feel the vari-
ance of the practice. This is where handbalancing departs from being “simple” body preparation
in terms of strength and flexibility, and becomes a skill. That will mean that the bulk part of the
progress you will make on this is simply by “trying”. The handstand is inherently a reactive skill.
You cannot decide how you balance, you react to the chaos of variables and movements and over
time you become good at doing so. This is why it is important to not over analyze as you practice
because you need to let your nervous system figure out how to do all these corrections.
Of course the more technical and better prepared you are, the faster you will progress, but there
is a lot of random factors to this that your body simply has to figure out over time to get the un-
derstanding of how to put the pieces together.
F R EES TA N D I N G H A N DSTAND
ASSEMBLING THE HANDSTAND
T
he handstand, when done well, is a very easy skill as the body is adapted enough physi-
cally and in that it, in the end, will take less force to hold than in the beginning. When the
technique is solid, the shoulders are strong and mobile enough and the reaction capacity is
developed, you will not fly far out of the zone where you can comfortably control your handstand
until you are very fatigued. Getting the entire control to rest in your hands and shoulder position
is also something that gives you a lot of freedom as you do not need to think about everything at
once any more.
F R EES TA N D I N G H A N DSTAND
EXPLAINING THE LINE
T
he line we are looking for in the handstand is the line between the centre of mass (COM)
and the base of support (BOS). Your centre of mass is a conceptual point that will fluctuate
all the time since your body is largely liquid and in constant small motion. In a handstand
position it will be located somewhere inside your body around the belly button area and it is this
point we want to keep over the middle of the hands.
If we move the hips, we will need to shift our shoulders in one way or another to keep the COM
over the BOS. This will also apply vice versa; shoulders move, hip needs to react, or else we fall.
When practising the handstand we want to keep a stacked position through the shoulders as that
allows us to carry the weight in the most efficient way. To build up this position it is important to
not open the shoulders too far as we will then be “hanging” in the end range of the shoulders in
an alignment which relates more to a mexican handstand than a straight position. The reason we
want the straight position with a closed chest is that this will more efficiently carry over to the
tuck handstand, pressing and eventually the alignment needed for a stable one arm handstand.
Flexibility
FLEXIBILITY COMPONENTS:
DEVELOPING SHOULDER AND PIKE FLEXIBILITY
I
n order to achieve a comfortable and balanced two arm handstand, there are a few flexibility
requirements (mainly overhead shoulder mobility, but also the forward fold) that will be ad-
dressed in this section of the Push program. It is important that you begin actually working on
your handstand from the start, but complementing your training with specific flexibility work as
outlined in our template programs will help you develop all the necessary physical baselines in a
timely manner.
In general, flexibility development of athletes in any discipline is often hidden in the day to day
activities of the disciplines themselves, so there is no point waiting until you have the ideal shoul-
der or hamstring flexibility before beginning to train the handstand. Doing the actual handbal-
ancing training will ensure that your new gained range of motion is used on a regular basis, and
so becomes more readily available.
The flexibility exercises in this program are largely based on the Modern Methods of Mobility
syllabus. Our approach to flexibility is unique in that we aren’t allied to one specific method or
dogma. All modalities and techniques have been considered in the making of these programs,
and we have selected the exercises and techniques that, in our experience, have worked for the
most people.
In terms of developing flexibility we have to allow our bodies time to adapt. Generally we advise
people to think in eighteen month time scales to make serious and lasting improvements in flexi-
bility. So do not be in a rush, and do not worry if progress seems slow at first. Generally, we have
found that flexibility progress comes in chunks versus a more linear progression.
SHOULDER FLEXIBILITY
I
n this program we are looking at developing the flexibility in the shoulder girdle for the straight
line handstand. The closer you can get to this ideal alignment the more vertical, and so effi-
cient, your balance will be.
In the program there is some direct work on your flexibility with the exercises from this section,
and some subtle work that is done in the main exercises that once they are done in the manner
we prescribe they will also contribute to the development of the shoulder girdle.
We have two templates based on different flexibility needs. One is aimed at developing the
necessary strength of the shoulders for those who might have adequate range of motion or even
hypermobility, and one for those who are stiffer and need to develop a greater range of motion
in the shoulder girdle.
Eventually, once the goals of this programming are met, both case examples above will be able to
use the same templates progressing on, the stiff shouldered having achieved the range of motion,
and the hyperflexible having developed better strength in their range.
S H O U LD ER F LEX IB IL IT Y
SIDE LAT STRETCH
D
eveloping flexibility in this muscle, the
Latissimus Dorsi, is essential to being
able to both keep the ribs down in a
handstand and also being able to elevate the
shoulders with ease in the handstand.
This muscle crosses a very large area of the

body going from the arm, covering the whole
flank and attaching close to the lumbar spine.
As such we need to place the whole length of
the muscle under a stretch to get it to develop.
This is achieved with the set as shown in the
video.
Keypoints
We generally don’t tell people where they
should or should not feel a stretch, but as a + Ma ke su re to pla c e the fo o t b e hi n d
rule of thumb with this one you need to feel the b o d y, i t w i l l a lway s b e the s a m e
it all along the side of the body, and not just s i d e l e g as the s i d e that is b e i n g
stre tc h e d
localised around the armpit.
+ Fi n d the a n g l e that su i t s y o u
If you find grip to be an issue here you can
use the straps people use for weight lifting to + Tr y to avo i d a rc hi n g i n this o n e a n d
help lock you in place so you can focus on the l e t the sho u l d er c o m e u p to the
ea r
stretch.
STICK FLEXION
I
n this video we show this exercise using a
partner applying the resistance, but if you
are training alone other options would be to
use the bottom rung of a set of stall bars, put-
ting the stick through the handle of a kettlebell
or holding two heavy dumbbells.
The way we demonstrate the second part of

the exercise (the lifts after being done with the
isometric) is with an unweighted stick, but as
you progress you will want to add weight to
the stick as you would in normal strength train-
ing.
Keypoints
One of the key things to think of here is that
we’re trying to replicate the handstand line + Push a ga i nst a n i m m o va b l e o b j e c t
and position at the shoulder level, so make
sure that you are slightly protracted and have + The a i m is to g e t to the ha n dsta n d
line not beyond it
the shoulders elevated. There’s a limit in this
movement to how high you can lift without
needing to move into retraction and inter-
nal rotation. Once this begins to happen, the
movement then becomes closer to a disloca-
tion type motion, and is not what we’re going
for here.
As a general note this drill serves as an excel-

lent warm up for the shoulders once you have
gained the required range of motion needed
for the handstand or any other activity requir-
ing the use of the hands over head.
PRONE EXTERNAL ROTATION
W
hen training external rotation in
the way you would normally see it,
there’s a point where the forearm
and resistance begin to line up with gravity on
the vertical, meaning the last bit of the range
of motion is not loaded as effectively as it
could be.
To achieve the goal of end range strengthening

we need to lie prone as shown in this video and
focus on working on this particular segment
of the range of motion. Like the stick flexion
above we demonstrate with a partner provid-
ing the resistance, but you can find an assort- Keypoints
ment of items to help in the set up. It will also
help if you have something with a handle or a + Us e s the o verc o m i n g is o m e tri c
ball to squeeze with your hand. te c hn i qu e , pushi n g a ga i nst a n i m-
m o va b l e o b j e c t
In the isometric contraction you want to try + Ma ke su re to a d d re s ista n c e as y o u
to ramp up all the power you can muster. You g e t us e d to the te c hn i qu e
might find that as the contraction progresses
you will find that there is an extra gear to be
found and you can contract further and further
in this.
In the external rotation, after the isometric you

want to treat them like strength training in that
you start unweighted but with time don’t be
shy to start using light weights and progressing
heavier.
PRONE STICK PRESS
T
he prone stick press is a nice motion that
combines aspects of the external rota-
tion and the stick flexion. You want to
have the scapula set in a manner similar to the
handstand line, protracted and the external ro-
tators firing to lift the stick. Then you press the
stick and finish with the elevation of the scap-
ula to the ears.
This one gets heavy fast so be careful of the

jumps in weight from set to set.
Keypoints
+ A i m to repl i c ate the ha n dsta n d l i n e

w i th the a rms as the y ex ten d
+ On c e y o u g e t the ha n g o f this w i th
the sti c k , a d d we i g ht
WALL SHOULDER STRETCH
I
n this stretch, the goal is to isolate the shoul-
der flexion from the thoracic spine. Place
your hands shoulder width apart on a wall
(or elevated surface) and lean into the stretch.
Imagine you are pulling the sternum up to-
wards the ceiling as you apply the lean. This
will cause your shoulder angle to close slightly
and for the stretch to be focused on the actual
flexion of the shoulder rather than being dis-
tributed into the thoracic spine as well.
Flexing the thoracic spine in this stretch is not

necessarily bad per se, but we try to avoid it
here to reinforce the type of shoulder place- Keypoints
ment we are looking for in regards to handbal-
ancing. As you lean into the stretch, make sure + Pla c e the ha n ds ro u g hl y the s a m e
you are not letting your shoulders internally w i d th as y o u wo u l d i n a ha n dsta n d
rotate.
+ R o u n d the b a c k as y o u l ea n i nto the
stre tc h
+ Avo i d i nterna l l y ro tati n g the a rms
FINGER STRETCH
T
his stretch for the fingers is to help de-
velop the ability to press the fingertips
harder into the ground for rebalancing
purposes.If the “spider fingers” type of grip
is your preference this will help get the mid-
dle knuckles up. It also serves to help further
increase the wrist extension needed for the
handstand and, and will become extremely
useful for achieving the more advanced skills
like the stalder press to handstand.
One thing to note is that we’re working on

Ke yp oints
more passive structures of the body, so we will Keypoints
need to hold this stretch for longer periods of
time compared to other stretches. This stretch + Sta r t g entl e o n this o n e
also gets more intense over time so at first, set
up at a very comfortable level to start with. + Us e a m o d erate i ntens i t y at the
sta r t o f the exerc is e
Also be conservative with the finger raise.
A few of our students over the years found do-

ing this stretch with the hands submerged in a
warm water bath to be a game changer, so that
might be a nice thing to play with every now
and then.
WRIST EXTENSION WORK
T
his stretch is quite simple to set up, but
to really make the most of it you want to
spend the time hunting the details in it.
Play with all the angles to find where you per-
sonally experience the greatest stretch. Once
this tight line has been found you want to per-
form some gentle contractions of about 3-5s
respecting the order proposed in the video:
First pushing through the fingertips then the
whole hand pushing in the contraction. Then
sink and relax a bit further into the stretch. You
will do 3-5 rounds of this to set up the final
hold. Ke yp oints
Keypoints
In the final hold you have two options: Either ++ iFi

nintigate
er sfromp o i nttheb ahicp,kwa
s hirds
fti ng
a nto a
d stay
you can hang out in a relaxed type stretch, di
i nagaonal
l i n e ,p lnac
o tement
sprea d
calmly breathing, or you can maintain the iso-
The fsuurre
+ make ther youthehave hasntop
ds pfroed mthethe
s i de-
metric contraction for a longer period of time, kn e e movement
ways s the d e ep er thep ustre
before tc hfu rther
s hi ng
for example 30-60 seconds. Both methods i n the s hou l der to s tac k
work and it is more a matter of preference than + Play w i th the a n g l e s to f i n d the
anything else. ti g hte
+ keep st trap
the l i n e ez
s oi ufsthe
s hrufog rea
g ed rms
on the
free arm and only bend at the el bow
when m ovi ng to fi ng erti p s u p p ort
The active side of this drill is then done after
taking a short break when having finished the
first part. Here you will pull the hands into ac-
tive extension, aiming to pull the fingers back
with a flat hand as far as possible. Expect some
cramping here when you start doing this mo-
tion.
ELBOW HYPEREXTENSION
Like we stress in the video, really take this one

gentle and while it does need some pressure to
get moving, it doesn’t need to be forced.
If your elbows already hyper extend then you

do not need this stretch.
Ke yp oints
Keypoints
+ Ta ke y o u r ti m e w i th this o n e , n o
fo rc i n g o r d is c o m fo r t
PIKE FLEXIBILITY
D
eveloping the pike is one of the key entry points into getting the press handstand, while
this might be a lofty goal for you at present we decided it would be better to get working
on the basics for that now, instead of waiting for your handstand to get solid.
In the pike, or forward fold as it is also known, we’re working on two things. The lengthening for
the back, or posterior, side of the body and on the shortening of the front side of the body.
For acrobatic purposes we want the position to develop active shortening strength at about the
same rate as it goes deeper into the stretch. This will enable the position to be usable, as opposed
to one where you can get flat but the compression side is lacking.
PI K E F L EX IB IL IT Y
SINGLE LEG CALF STRETCH
F
or this stretch you’ll need to find some-
thing solid to put the foot on, foot wear is
optional but if the object you are using has
an edge it might be best to have some shoes, or
some other kind of padding under foot.
One of the key things in this stretch is to use

the muscles at the front of the leg so think
about pulling the toes up towards the shin,
locking the knee and when you engage the
hinge to not just fold but to try and pull your-
self forwards into the hinge.
If you find pike stretching to be felt mostly Keypoints

around the back of your knees, then this is the
go to exercise as your first drill in your stretch- + S qu e eze the mus c l e s o n the fro nt o f
ing session. the l e g
Play with the angles here and find your own + Pu l l u p the kn e e
tight line. + Hi n g e as b e st y o u c a n at the hi p s
PIKE COMPRESSION OVERCOMING ISOMETRIC

AND LIFTS
W
e have to be honest here: the cramp-
ing in this exercise sucks and is ba-
sically unavoidable.The good news,
though, is if you use the isometrics layered with
the compressions as we suggest, the cramping
goes away much quicker than if you were just
using the lifts alone as is common in normal
compression work.
Once again, in the video a partner is applying

the resistance but any kind of heavy object will
do. If the cramping gets too intense here, just
stand up and give the quads a bit of a thump
with a relaxed fist. In the long run, you should Keypoints
strive to work through the cramps as much as
possible though. + Push as ha rd as y o u c a n a ga i nst the
u n m o va b l e o b j e c t
If you find you are rocking back and forth on
the sit bones, sit with your back to the wall to + Pay attenti o n to the l i n e o f y o u r
l e gs
stop this.
+ If y o u ro u n d b a c kwa rds s i t a ga i nst
Think of this motion in terms of short term suf- a wa l l
fering, long term glory.
JEFFERSON CURLS
T
his is one of the top movements for de-
veloping the pike when working solo.
Initially, be conservative with the load. Starting

as low as 5kg will be fine, and then slowly build
up the weight from there. The main goal here
is to articulate the spine in the flexed position,
then letting the hips roll over before lengthen-
ing out further towards the ground.
There’s one key detail that is the game chang-

er in this motion: When you are in the bottom
of the stretch, do not just hang there but pull Keypoints
yourself deeper. It can help to think of pushing
the weight away to the floor or pushing the top + Pu l l y o u r s e l f d e ep er o n ea c h rep e -
of the head towards the floor. ti ti o n at the b o tto m , d o n’ t j ust ha n g
at the en d
While you do see people online doing max ef-
+ Fi n d a ta rg e t to rea c h a n d then tr y
fort jefferson curls, we prefer to be cautious go beyond
on these and use them mainly for flexibility de-
velopment.
BENT LEG PIKE
F
or this exercise you’ll need something that
can slide on the floor. Its a nice exercise if
you struggle with getting the hips to roll
over in the pike itself or want to try find the
what sensation feels like in a deeper pike so
you can replicate the sensation of the hip and
femur position.
The key thing is this stretch is to make a task

out of keeping the quad and stomach connect-
ed and pressed together, It is very tempting to
let them come apart or just not notice but this
must be worked on.
Keypoints
+ L o c k the c he st to the kn e e s
+ Do n o t a l l ow the c he st to s epa rate

fro m the thi g hs
+ Us e a l e g cu rl i n g a c ti o n to re sta r t
the m o ti o n
Appendix:
Program
Templates
TOTA L BEG I N N ER S TEM PL AT E
TOTAL BEGINNERS TEMPLATE
P ha se 1 ( Week 1-4)
Day A
Ord e r E xe rc is e S e ts Re p s No te s Pa g e
Wrist warm up
A 1 N /a 47
P i c k o n e se gm e nt o f
B Strai g ht b o d y ho l d 4 3 0- 6 0 s th e b o d y to w o r k o n , 48
e i th e r l e gs o r c h e st
A s y o u get m o re c o n-
f i d e nt , m ov e h i g h e r
In cl i n e b o d y l i n e
C 3 2 0- 6 0 s w i th th e l e gs a n d 52
d ri l l
c l o se r to th e wa l l
Wo r k o n h o l d i n g th e
p o s i t i o n f o r 5 -1 0
D Crow re balan c e d ri l l 5 -10 5 -10 s se c o n d s , th e n p us h 65
y o u r se l f o u t o f ba l-
a n c e w i th th e f i n ge r s
Day B
Wrist warm up
A 1 N /a 47
B S cap ular p ush up 3 5 -10 49
A s y o u g et m o re c o n-
In cl i n e b o d y l i n e f i d e nt , m ov e h i gh e r
C 3 2 0- 6 0 s 52
d ri l l w i th th e l e gs a n d
c l o se r to th e wa l l
p o s i t i o n f o r 5 -1 0
D Crow re balan c e d ri l l 5 -10 5 -10 s se c o n d s , th e n p us h 65
a n c e w i th th e f i n g e r s
TOTA L BEG I N N ER S TEM PL AT E
Day A
Wrist warm up
A 1 N /a 47
N ow tr y to c o m b i n e
B Strai g ht b o d y ho l d 3 3 0- 6 0 s 48
th e m i nto th e fu l l h o l d
Entr y to wal l P e r f o rm as ma ny
C han dstan d 3 3 0- 6 0 s wa l k s as y o u c a n f o r 53
th e t i m e d u rat i o n
P ra c t i c e m ov i n g y o u r
w e i g ht o u t f ro m th e
Car t whe e l o u t at the wa l l , ma ke a s ma l l
D 5 -10 59
wal l ste p w i th th e ha n d
a n d p l a c e th e l e gs
d ow n
2 0– 4 0 B e gi n w i th v e r y s ma l l
E Hal f k i ck up s to ta l k i c k u p s w i th f o cus o n 71
re p s p us h i n g i nto f l o o r
Day B Ord e r E xe rc is e S e ts Re p s No te s Pa g e
Wrist warm up
A 1 N /a 47
S cap ular p ush up to

B 3 5 -10 50
stan di n g p i ke
P ra c t i c e f a l l i n g to a
c a r t w h e e l f ro m th e
Car t whe e l o u t at the
C 5 -10 wa l l . Ma ke th e se v e r y 59
wal l
s ma l l at f i r st to bu i l d
confidence
Wa l k i n as c l o se to
D Che st to wal l ho l d 3-4 2 0- 4 0s th e wa l l as y o u c a n 54
c o m f o r ta bl y h o l d
S T RO N G BU T LAC K I N G F LEX I BI LI T Y T EM PL AT E
STRONG BUT LACKING FLEXIBILITY TEMPLATE
Day A
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
B Strai g ht b o d y ho l d 1 45-60s 48
C1 Che st to wal l ho l d 4 3 0- 4 5 s 54
C2 Si de L at stre tch 4 45-60s 81
10-15
D1 He e l p ul ls N /a to ta l 67
re p s
I f gath e r i n g th e l e gs
10-15
S ciss o ri n g i nto i s to o d i ff i cu l t , h o l d
D2 N /a to ta l 66
balan c e i n th e sta gge re d p o s i-
re p s
tion for time
2 0– 4 0
E Hal f k i ck up N /a to ta l 71
re p s
C h o o se a n a p p ro p r i-
F ate e xe rc i se f ro m th e
Bai l i n g e xe rcis e o f
(optio nal) 5 -10 “ ba i l i n g” se c t i o n i f 5 8 - 62
yo ur cho i c e
y o u n e e d p ra c t i c e at
falling
C h o o se a n e xe rc i se
Su g g e st- f ro m “ R e f i n i n g th e
G Play ed 20 min ha n d sta n d ” o r
to ta l p ra c t i c e w hat y o u
want
P hase 1 ( Week 1-4)
Day B
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
3 x 10 s
c o ntra c -
C Sti ck fl e x i o n l i ft 5 82
ti o ns +
6 - 8 l i ft s
10-15
re p s
C h o o se o n e o f th e
10-15
t w o to e p u l l va r i a-
D2 To e p ul ls N /a to ta l 68
t i o ns a n d tr y to st i c k
re p s
ba l a n c e f ro m th e m
2 0– 5 0
re p s
On c e c o m f o r ta bl e ,
Wal l tu ck sl i d e s work on holding for 3
F 5 3-5 57
se c o n d s at th e b otto m
o f th e tu c k
Day A
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
B Strai g ht b o d y ho l d 1 4 0- 6 0 s 48
C Che st to wal l ho l d 4 3 0- 4 5 s 54
D Si d e L at stre tch 4 45-60s 81
2 0- 3 0
E He e l p ul ls to ta l 67
re p s
2 0- 4 0
S cis s o ri n g i nto i s to o d i ff i cu l t , h o l d
E2 N /a to ta l 66
re p s
tion for time
2 0- 4 0
F Hal f k i ck up N /a to ta l 71
re p s
Su g g e st-
f ro m “ R e f i n i n g th e
G Play ed 30 min
ha n d sta n d ” o r p ra c -
to ta l
t i c e w hat y o u wa nt
Day b
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
3 x 10 s
c o ntra c -
ti o ns +
6 - 8 l i ft s
2 0- 3 0
re p s
15 -2 0
S cis s o ri n g to i s to o d i ff i cu l t , h o l d
D2 N /a to ta l 66
re p s
tion for time
2 0- 4 0
re p s
work on holding for 3
F Wal l tu ck sl i d e s 4 5 -10 57
o f th e tu c k
F LEX I BLE BU T LAC K I N G S T R EN GT H T EM PL AT E
FLEXIBLE BUT LACKING STRENGTH TEMPLATE
Day A
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
3 x 10 s
c o ntra c -
ti o ns +
6 - 8 l i ft s

D 4 3-5 50
p i ke
E Che st to Wal l ho l d 5 -10 10- 3 0 54
F Wal l shrugs 3 10-15 56
C h o o se a n a p p ro p r i-
ate e xe rc i se f ro m th e
G Bai l i n g e xe rcis e o f
5 -10 “ ba i l i n g” se c t i o n i f 5 8 - 62
(optio nal) yo ur cho i c e
y o u n e e d p ra c t i c e at
falling
Su g g e st-
f ro m “ Re f i n i n g th e
H Play N /a ed 20 min
ha n d sta n d ” o r p ra c -
to ta l
Day B
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
15 -2 0
S ciss o ri n g i nto bal-
C N /a to ta l 66
an c e
re p s
15 - 3 0
D He e l p ul ls N /a to ta l 67
re p s
p o s i t i o n f o r 5 -1 0
E Crow re balan c e dri l l 5 -10 10- 3 0 se c o n d s , th e n p us h 65
a n c e w i th th e f i n g e r s
F Wal l tu ck sl i d e s 5 3-5 57
o f th e tu c k
G
Che st to wal l ho l d 3 3 0- 6 0 s 54
(op tio nal)
Day A
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
3 x 10 s
c o ntra c -
ti o ns +
6 - 8 l i ft s

D 4 3-5 82
p i ke
15 -2 0
i s to o d i ff i cu l t , h o l d i n
E L e g l i ft to balan c e N /a to ta l 73
th e sta g ge re d
re p s
position for time
F Wal l tu ck sl i d e s 3 5 -10 57
o f th e tu c k
G Wal l shrugs 3 5 -10 56
Day B
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
2 0- 3 0
S cis s o ri n g i nto i s to o d i ff i cu l t , h o l d
C N /a to ta l 66
re p s
tion for time
2 0- 3 0
D He e l p ul ls N /a to ta l 67
re p s
Su g g e st-
f ro m “ R e f i n i n g th e
ed 30 min
E Play 5 -10 ha n d sta n d ” o r p ra c -
to ta l
F Che st to wal l ho l d 3 3 0- 6 0 s 54
R EF I N I N G T H E H A N D S TA N D TEM PL AT E
REFINING THE HANDSTAND TEMPLATE
Day A
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
2 0- 4 0
C1 Hal f k i ck up N /a to ta l 71
re p s
2 0- 4 0
C2 L e g l i ft to balan c e N /a to ta l 73
re p s
Fre e stan di n g Han d- 2- 5 m i ns

D N /a se e b e l ow
stan d ho l d to ta l ti m e
Su g g e st-
f ro m “ K e e p P us h i n g”
E Play ed 30 min
o r p ra c t i c e w hat y o u
to ta l
want
D: You’re going to set a time limit of 10-20min or whatever you have for the day then
try to get as many good quality holds as possible aiming to build up 2-5 total time in
balance.
We suggest working on your freestanding handstand for the amount of time where you
can find quality balance and then return to using a wall setup for the rest to get more
time on your hands in balance. Once you fatigue you will likely start losing the ability
to control underbalance first and there is where working on the wall will benefit you.
Day b
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
15 - 3 0
C Ful l k i ck up s N /a to ta l se e b e l ow 74
re p s
On l y c o u nt set s that
e sta bl i s h a g o o d
Fre e stan di n g Han d- Ma x ho l d
D 3-8 ba l a n c e .
stan d ho l d ti m e
se e b e l ow
E Che st to wal l ho l d 2 Ma x ti m e 54
C/D: In this if you stick a particularly nice balance on a kick up, go for the hold and
count this as one of your holds for set D
D: 3-8 is suggested on the day depending on energy and consistency, if its an off day
know when to say enough is enough, if its a good day try hit all 8 sets with quality
Day A
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
A i m to h o l d ea c h re p
f o r 2- 3s a n d th e n use
C Ful l k i ck up 1 2 0- 3 0 th e f i n g e r s l i ke a h e e l 74
p u l l to c o m e o u t
Fre e stan di n g Han d- 2- 5 m i ns

D N /a
stan d ho l d to ta l ti m e
6 -10
Wal l shrug an d ho l d shru gs +
E 2 5 6 &5 4
2 0- 3 0 s
ho l d
Day B
Wrist warm up
A 1 1 47
A i m to h o l d ea c h re p
f o r 2- 3s a n d th e n use
C Ful l k i ck up 1 2 0- 3 0 th e f i n g e r s l i ke a h e e l 74
p u l l to c o m e o u t
Fre e stan di n g Han d-

D s e e n o te se e b e l ow
stan d ho l d
E Tu ck sl i de s 3 5 -10 se c o n d s at th e b otto m 57
o f th e tu c k
D: For this we want you to set a max hold time on the day in your first few sets then
you’re going to try hit as many good quality sets of 75% of that time as possible in
10-20 mins.
FLEXIBILITY TEMPLATES
W
e have three programs here for the flexibility components of the program that you can
choose to add on an as needed. One working on wrist flexibility, one for shoulder flex-
ibility and one for pike / front folding flexibility.
Generally we would advise following one of the templates for the initial 4 weeks before adding
in the shoulder or wrist templates as a lot of the flexibility work in the program is embedded in
the routines already.
The pike program you can start right away.
Generally we advise to do these templates twice a week to begin with and give yourself some
time to get the most out of the least.
S H O U LD ER F LEX I BI LI T Y D EV ELOPM ENT
SHOULDER FLEXIBILITY DEVELOPMENT
Orde r E xe rc is e S e ts Re p s Pa g e
Si de L at stre tch
A 2-3 6 0- 9 0 s 81
Pro n e E x te rnal 3 - 5 is o -
B ro tati o n 3 m e tri c s + 83
6 - 8 l i ft s
3 - 5 is o -
C* Sti ck fl e x i o n 3 m e tri c s +
82
6 - 8 l i ft s
8 -10 +
C* Pro n e sti ck p re s s 3 10-15 s 84
f i na l ho l d
For exercise C pick one. If you find you want more range pick the
prone stick lift, if you have ok range but need more “stiffness”
then pick the prone stick press.
W R I S T F LEX I B I LI T Y D EV ELOPM E NT
WRIST FLEXIBILITY DEVELOPMENT
Orde r E xe rc is e S e ts Re p s Pa g e
A Fi n g e r stre tch 2 6 0- 9 0 s 86
3 0- 4 5 s +
Wrist e x te ns i o n
B 3 3 - 5 x 10 s 87
wo rk
ho l ds
PI K E / F RO N T FO LD D EV ELOPM ENT
PIKE / FRONT FOLD DEVELOPMENT
Day A
Ord e r E xe rc is e S e ts Re p s Pa g e
9 0 s p er
A Cal f stre tch 2 90
side
5-8
B1 Je ffe r s o n curl 3 to ta l 43
re p s
3 - 5 x 10 s
91
B2 Pi ke c o m p re s s i o ns 3 + 6 -10
l i ft s
Day B
Ord e r E xe rc is e S e ts Re p s Pa g e
9 0 s p er
A Cal f stre tch 2 90
side
B1 Be nt l e g p i ke 3 44
3 - 5 x 10 s
B2 Pi ke c o m p re s s i o ns 3 + 6 -10
91
l i ft s
Push
H an ds tan d Fact ory
by Em m et Lo u i s & M i ka e l Kr i s t i a n s e n
Ed i t ed by El i se M i s s al l
G r ap h i c s & D esi g n by S op hi e M i s s al l
g en er al ad m i n ass i s tanc e by i s aac L u c ks ted
V i d eo g r ap h y by A& R Bel fas t
P h o to g r ap h y by Se ve L i g htdrawi ng and A&R Bel fas t
M o d el s: Sev er i n e De M al ei ng reau, I s aac L u c ks ted and El i s e Mi s s al l
Ap par el : Ar d o u r
Sp ec ial t ha nk s to a l l of o u r s u p p o r te rs t h at b a cke d u s o n o u r
Kic k st arter c rowd fu n d i n g c a m p a i g n to b r i n g t h e s e p rog ra m s to
l ife in t he fa stest way p o s s i b l e .
P r o d u c ed by M o t i o n I mp u l s e Ltd

HandstandFactory Push Manual

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

HandstandFactory Push Manual

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

push

H o w to u se thi s p rog ram 05

P r o g r am m i n g and i ntel l i g ent p rac ti c e 08

B AL AN C I N G T HE TWO ARM HANDS TAND 21

F U N DAM EN TALS OF THE S TRAI G HT, TWO ARM

Ap p en d i x : p r o g ram tem p l ates 94

T o tal B eg i n n ers Temp l ate 95

Str o n g b u t Lac ki ng Fl exi bi l i ty Tem p l ate 97

F l ex i b l e b u t L ac ki ng S treng th Temp l ate 101

R ef i n i n g t h e hands tand Tem p l ate 105

F l ex i b i l i ty T emp l ates 109

Learning a handstand has to be divided into its various components to learn it

Emmet Louis and Mikael Kristiansen, August 2019

4. Start training the program, filming and journaling as you go

Has your general capacity on your hands increased?

Has your control of underbalance improved?

f lex ible bu t Pick one strong bu t

Choose the “Total Beginner” template if:

+ You have no experience with successfully kicking up into a handstand

+ You are afraid of handstands, even with the wall

+ You don’t trust your arms to carry you in a handstand

+ The crow rebalance drill feels easy and controlled

Choose the “Strong but Lacking Flexibility” template if:

Move on to the “Refining the Handstand” template when:

+ Your kick up to handstand is possible but not consistent

+ Your tuck wall slides feel controlled and strong

Choose the “Flexible but Lacking Strength” template if:

+ You have good shoulder mobility

+ You can get into a chest to wall handstand

+ You struggle with heel pulls or balancing from your fingers

Move on to the “Refining the Handstand” template when:

+ Your kick up to handstand is possible but not consistent

+ Your tuck wall slides feel controlled and strong

+ You can bail out of a freestanding handstand with no risk

Choose the “Refining the handstand” template if:

+ Your chest to wall handstand is consistently struggle free at 45 - 60 seconds

+ Your freestanding handstand needs work

+ You can balance well but want to straighten your alignment

+ You are able to consistently do a 30-60 seconds freestanding handstand

+ Your alignment is starting to become solid (again, “perfect” isn’t necessary)

+ You have a solid understanding of the technique of the straight handstand

Rid e the wav e.

2. The arms bend to let the shoulders move forwards

In the above diagram we have illustrated the

The degree of disturbance of the centre of

At the bottom of the diagram, in zone 1, the

As you progress up the line close to zone

If the amplitude of loss of balance exceeds

one or the other direction (either overbal-

Then, in zone 3, the balance wave exceeds

But, regardless of your skill level as you fatigue you will

A general note is that if your weight goes too much over

If you want to progress towards higher level movements

The reasoning for this is, while it is relatively easy to brute

6 6 : sho u l d er s pushi n g i nto f l o o r a n d e l e vate d

7 7 : e l b ows stra i g ht o r sl i g htl y hy p erex ten d e d

For further clarification of how the handstand alignment functions,

The continuation of the sink leads to the placement in figure 3, where

A common attempt at fixing this is by piking the hips to “straighten”

This is a concept that is rather misunderstood as there is a general

A very common idea is that the open shoulders/piked hip handstand

That said, in this program, we have included exactly one exercise

The main difference in the application of these positions would be

In regards to how we teach finding your handstand line, this means