Should I do Handstands if I lack the mobility?

I understand the first few mobility iMs in H1 are designed to get us ready to do handstands with proper alignment and shoulder activation.  Getting this in place not only allows for proper form, but it stops bad compensation habits from sneaking in.

I am currently stuck on PE2 iM (though I'm finally seeing some progress since dialing the weight down even more!).  I also cannot do a shoulder dislocate at anything close to shoulder width.

That said, Zach has said that 10min of handstand training is beneficial, but it has to be up to your level.  It's also possible to 'play' with certain advanced moves that you haven't gotten to yet, as long as you keep it light and after your work sets.

My question is, should I do handstands at all?  Would even playing around with it now give me bad habits?  More importantly, would doing handstands negatively affect my mobility work?  Thanks for any input.

Other than developing bad habits I think the real problem could be injuring yourself because of your lack of mobility. If I were you I would do a little bit of Handstand "play" on the wall after my workout, but at the same time focusing on performing the HS as good as I can.

I would say to keep at your level and resist playing around with handstand, because old habits die hard. And playing around with handstand before the full mobility is there means you will be making poor habits.

True, if you focus on protracting, opening shoulders, ppt as best as you can, a good mindset is developing. But, still, the position wouldn't be excellent and you will get used to feeling body parts in a certain way. I think my main concern would be that the PPT is not yet developed well enough in the early part of the series that if you play around with handstand you can develop poor habits in the pelvis positioning.
 

absolutely agreed with Micawberian.

in terms of mobility, if you can perform upto PE5-6 with 10% of your BW, including the mobility, im sure you can play on the wall and not create any issues but like M, i share the concern of developing bad habits with the pelvis position. i didnt really put forth much effort to going to the wall until recently after having my work supervised at the seminar and really, you'd be surprised how absolutely strenuous it feels to be fully locked in PPT for so long. it gives ya cramps.

so, not that we're saying "no don't do this because we dont want you getting ahead of yourself" if you feel like you need to do it, have some fun but know that working on the mobility portion with focus is the thing you'd be doing anyway to take your handstand to another level, only in this case, it's in bits and pieces sooner rather than later.

You can do headstand practice every day. When Zach said one should do handstands pratice everyday I believe he means headstands for you, if headstands is your level.

My strictly personal opinion: I would say yes, train your freestanding handstand too. Not a lot, but at least try to balance a few times a week. Play, like Coach says. For an adult, learning how to balance on your hands can take a very, very long time, and you will be ahead of the game, if you already have some basic experience when you approach the SE's in H1.

Ideally yes, you shouldn't learn any bad habits, but realistically, we all have them, and need to deal with them as we go along.

Then again, my case is a bit special, because I have had my shoulder repaired for labrum tears, and consequently I will probably be on the Dislocate PE's for years, before they are at mastery levels - My progress is very slow on these, but progress nevertheless. Seems counterproductive then to abandon my not-so-bad-but-certainly-not-perfect handstand due to not having mastered the required mobility.

Wow, I never even thought about the potential injury aspect.  That's a good point.

My concern isn't so much that I want to play, or that I'm bored with headstands (well, I am, but training is training; you do what you've got to do).  I was thinking about what Ravn touched upon, simply learning to balance and getting some experience in that position.  I was also drawing a parallel to the MN progressions.  Some people have terrible straddle flexibility, but they still do MN PE2.  It's not ideal, the mobility limits them, but they can still get some value out of it.  I wondered if the same might be true for handstands.

I agree with Ravn as well. There's no harm in getting used to being inverted and supporting your bodyweight on two hands. Just keep in mind that you're not aiming for long holds at this time.

I would definitely go for wall HS before freestanding, however.

idk about injury because the only weirdness i've felt from playing free HS has been wrist related. I was pointing more towards the huge difference between the balance(sensation due to body positioning) of a planched HS and a stacked HS.

stacked HS after getting the mobility sorted feels like im opening up for a reverse planche / mexican handstand, it isnt but it just...feels SO weird at first.

why not play with the partial wall HS? if you can do it with a spot or a mirror to let you know how stacked you are.

Keilani Gutierrez said:

idk about injury because the only weirdness i've felt from playing free HS has been wrist related. I was pointing more towards the huge difference between the balance(sensation due to body positioning) of a planched HS and a stacked HS.

stacked HS after getting the mobility sorted feels like im opening up for a reverse planche / mexican handstand, it isnt but it just...feels SO weird at first.

Second that. The difference in feel is immense. By all means should you go for a stacked handstand rather than the banana version.