Handstand Press Negative

[Robert Pretorius]

Hey there,

 

I've been working on my handstand presses a lot lately and would love it if anyone had some insights or wisdom they'd like to give me that might accelerate or fix some things with my freestanding negative press

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI1A74fEFpk

 

With the advice from some great individuals here (notably Yuri), I've completely changed my training towards this and have been focusing on making sure I don't develop any bad habits since last week. Progress already feels a lot better with just a weeks worth of practice.

 

Currently doing negative presses with my butt to the wall and freestanding negatives to train this skill.

 

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated !

Thank you:)

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Not bad. You start to fall when you pass 90 degrees, but you are on the way. From where you are now, you really want to get the feeling of compressing your abs as you go lower and lower down. Imagine pulling the legs to your torso rather than letting them go downwards at the same time you press really hard through your trapezius. If you feel your abs and/or lower back getting fried from doing this, you are on the right track. You want to keep your shoulders in place as much as possible and roll down vertebrae by vertebrae from the sacrum to your sternum. The range of movement where you have strength will increase with time so keep working!

 

If butt tot the wall feels like its helping you, by all means keep doing it, but I would focus on the freestanding. The freestanding will build your balance and consistency at the same time, and at this level you are starting to do it with correct form. I believe that doing negatives from decent/good position, is one of the best ways to learn proper activation and movement for pressing. You must keep your trapezius active at all times to minimize lean and to ensure maximum potential for compression.

 

Together with what you are doing now, I would recommend you to do tuck handstands. Lower into your tuck in the same way that you lower into straddle and squeeze your knees towards your chest. The lower you can get with good form, the better. 

[Robert Pretorius]

Not bad. You start to fall when you pass 90 degrees, but you are on the way. From where you are now, you really want to get the feeling of compressing your abs as you go lower and lower down. Imagine pulling the legs to your torso rather than letting them go downwards at the same time you press really hard through your trapezius. If you feel your abs and/or lower back getting fried from doing this, you are on the right track. You want to keep your shoulders in place as much as possible and roll down vertebrae by vertebrae from the sacrum to your sternum. The range of movement where you have strength will increase with time so keep working!

 

If butt tot the wall feels like its helping you, by all means keep doing it, but I would focus on the freestanding. The freestanding will build your balance and consistency at the same time, and at this level you are starting to do it with correct form. I believe that doing negatives from decent/good position, is one of the best ways to learn proper activation and movement for pressing. You must keep your trapezius active at all times to minimize lean and to ensure maximum potential for compression.

 

Together with what you are doing now, I would recommend you to do tuck handstands. Lower into your tuck in the same way that you lower into straddle and squeeze your knees towards your chest. The lower you can get with good form, the better. 

Thank you so much for the detailed write-up, the cue you specified feels like it's really helping me progress, although after a week it still feels like I'm falling at half-way, my abs are definitely feeling it and I believe it's just a matter of time at this point. 

 

Great, I will just focus on free-standing then, should the split of my straddle be reduced as I'm lowering back down?

 

I've taken your recommendation and have been working the tuck handstands and have found that they work my abs the most, the compression feels great and it adds a little more variety to the playful fun of being on my hands. Should I be striving to include an arch to get my knees lower to my chest and eventually bring my head neutral and to look up at my knees much like I see other handbalancers doing ?

 

Thanks again for all the help, incredibly appreciated ! 

[Mikael Kristiansen]

You will start to fall at some point, but the range will increase with time. First goal should be to be able to lower all the way to the floor with control. Keep your straddle for now on the way down and as you progress you should work towards going to a pike as you get close to the floor. When you get some consistency in this, and start to become able to stop the negative on the way down to some degree, start to work on lowering as far as you can and press back out, as well as box presses.

 

When working tuck, you arent really looking for arching to bring the knees to the chest. You want to hollow so much and push through your shoulders so that you can tuck completely without any arch. Same thing goes when you look at your toes. Of course you CAN do the same but arching, but I consider that a different type of handstand.