handstand shoulder position cues

[Sean Whitley]

In the comments jim posts a video and some small cues to help use the correct muscles in a 'handbalancer' handstand (I say handbalancer handstand as jim has learnt from Yuval Ayalon). https://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/99549583218/timeline/story?ut=2&hash=7668061501363883274&wstart=0&wend=1378018799&pagefilter=1&ustart&__user=100000292016661

This and 'keep hollow' made instant improvement to my one arm handstand practice.

Anyone else have any good cues or exercises that aid realising the correct shoulder position (that are not 'buy h1')

[Ales Glas]

In the comments jim posts a video and some small cues to help use the correct muscles in a 'handbalancer' handstand (I say handbalancer handstand as jim has learnt from Yuval Ayalon). https://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/99549583218/timeline/story?ut=2&hash=7668061501363883274&wstart=0&wend=1378018799&pagefilter=1&ustart&__user=100000292016661

This and 'keep hollow' made instant improvement to my one arm handstand practice.

Anyone else have any good cues or exercises that aid realising the correct shoulder position (that are not 'buy h1')

What has helped me, is doing some serratus acivation work prior to HS, from this video :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMyVvsiBNx8&list=PL630DBD137D11FC40&index=46 and really trying to feel it working. However I still do not know what exactly to do with the shoulder, hopefully someone can share their experiences.

[Mikael Kristiansen]

You want to have elevated scapula through shrugging your trapezius high, along with 180 degrees between your arm and torso without opening the chest to compensate for lack of active and/or passive flexibility. There is also a degree of protraction involved(thus serratus anterior as mentioned in the previous post) as it by default sucks your sternum in when the scapulae move forwards. External rotation can also be mentioned, though its not very important to focus on(until certain very advanced skills). What matters is that the arm isnt allowed to internally rotate as you easily will flare the elbows out and bend the arms. These actions will allow you to lock the shoulder joint efficiently overhead and most of the work will be done by the posterior chain. At the same time it will make it easier to rest the weight more towards the heel of the palm so that you do not need to grip as hard(or at all) to balance.

 

However, overthinking these things often give little result. Most often people will have to do mobility work and wall handstands to be able to access this type of position at all. In the beginning, proper push through the trapezius, which I tend to focus on, feels heavy and uncomfortable, especially when there is shoulder mobility issues, but it is important to work to activate properly. This has a tendency to force people to work more from the scapular muscles, especially when looking through their arms up at their toes.

 

When I balance I do not push to my absolute limit as it expends unnecessary energy, but I keep a high position and my trapezius are strongly shrugged at all times. This push transfers almost directly into press handstands as well. As for the protraction part, it seems to be more efficient to have people think of sucking their sternum in, though this is also a diffuse way of explaining it. I try to imagine that by pushing out the shoulders, sucking in the chest and tightening my glutes and legs, I basically stack the sternum right above the palms, and the sacrum right above the sternum.