Newbie Problem kicking up into handstand

Hi all,

I am a newbie and i started some basic bodyweight training stuffs 6 months ago; And i am now only able to hold a 20sec L sit.

I have been trying to do a handstand (against wall) but after a few months of trying, i have problem kicking up into a handstand. I felt that i dont know which muscles to activate (feels like the muscles are not coordinating well) and the legs are not kicking up high enough. I would like to ask Is it a hamstring problem or weak core or i am weak on my shoulders? Or should i work on reverse leg lifts? I have started to do some pseudo planche push ups, as i am hoping to work for a tuck planche too.

I really wanna kick up to handstand,as for the past few months i have only walked my legs up a wall to do some handstand hold and i thought i really need to get some advice from you all.

I sincerely hope some kind souls could give me some guide and advice on my way to kick-up into a handstand.

Thank you for your time.

Cheers,

Lance

It sounds more like a commitement problem to me, I cant imagine it takes all that much strength to kick up into a handstand.

I agree with commitment. If you are strong enough to do reasonable holds by walking your feet up the wall you should be strong enough to kick up the other way. If you can find some padding for the floor it will help your confidence. It took me a while to get over the mental factor as well. There are certainly some physical items in terms of balance and some strength, but I bet the majority of it is mental. Don't give up.

http://drillsandskills.com/article/19

Before even kicking up to a HS against the wall I would recommend starting in a pushup position. Not bring your feet closer to your hands so your butt is in the air. Raise one leg and hold it as vertical as possible. This is actually some yoga position that I don't know the name of.

Now in that position, get used to hopping on the base leg while focusing on keeping your arms straight and head in. Then hop and switch the legs in the air. Then start with both legs on the ground and bring one forward of the other by bending the knee so it's in a mountainclimber position

Now kick from that position with the first leg going just short of vertical (all the way up). Now after you kicked the first leg, attempt to chase the first leg with the second leg. Don't just let it fall down by try to swing it back down to the mountain climber position.

I start all gymnasts kicking to HS from a lunge with their rear knee on the ground instead of standing. I have less of a problem with gymnasts simply falling or jumping onto their hands rather than placing their hands on the ground and then kicking their legs.

It also good to learn how to roll out in a forward roll from kicking this 1/2 HS. Start in the lunge or mountainclimber, kick one leg to vertical and then roll forwards by bending your arms. This is an easier way to learn how to do a handstand forward roll than just attempting to kick to HS, lean and roll out which will come in time after the HS is competent.

I just started trying handstands against walls. Instinctively, I just lift one leg off the ground and then use the supporting leg to explosively drive up and then use the momentum to power up both legs. I also lean forward at the same time to increase the momentum if that makes any sense. Unfortunately, I occasionally do power myself up a bit too hard and end up bouncing back off the wall! But after a few attempts, you naturally become aware of how much drive to put into it.

But I learned that as long as I keep my arms straight, there's no danger of anything bad happening. If my arms bend even a little though, I go diving straight onto my head as soon as I initiate the drive. So now I just concentrate on keeping my arms straight no matter what.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but while we're all here - just how do you learn to balance a handstand properly? After kicking up into one against a door for safety, I then go into a free standing handstand which I only only hold for a max of 6 seconds.But this is all luck because I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, I just try and keep totally still and pray my way through it!

J23 said:

....just how do you learn to balance a handstand properly?....

From my experience the balance in a handstand lies in.... the hands. And, well, the center of gravity and moment arm of the motion. The handstand is also a tripod, it just so happens the base of the tripod is just your hands from palm to fingertips. The fingertips do actually need to be engaged to make a stable base. To progress I would:

• [*:1hi5zzyd]Kick up into wall supported HS, when settled there push off the wall with one foot and then the other to test your balance with only one leg balanced on the wall.
  [*:1hi5zzyd]Move away from the wall a bit and kick up into wall supported HS with the knees bent. This will give you a lower center of gravity. When settled extend one leg at a time straight up.
  [*:1hi5zzyd]Repeat above but trying bringing both feet away from the wall.
  [*:1hi5zzyd]Kick into HS 2' from the wall but keep your knees bent, again this will lower your CG and make it easier to maintain your balance.
  [*:1hi5zzyd]Once you're able to hold a freestanding HS with the knees bent practice extending one leg or both legs up to the vertical. You will find that as you raise those heavy feet higher and higher that your CG is pulled further up and the moment arm really starts to tax your tripod (hands).
  [*:1hi5zzyd]Finally, once you've mastered that kick into freestanding HS. The hardest thing to learn is not to overkick otherwise you will simply pass through vertical. It's a learned thing but strong core muscles will help you control the motion.

I'll mention that it's often said that static HS is more difficult to perform than walking HS. If you ever watch people HS walk around the gym you will see that they are not completely vertical but have a slight to significant arch in their back, cocked pelvis and curved legs/bent knees. All this is an attempt to lower the CG to make holding the balance possible...

I can only share my personal experience. My handstand is constantly getting better, and a lot of it has to do with my hand strength going through the roof. A lot of it also has to do with my practicing all the time. If you watch Ido Portal's locomotion training video you will see his progressions in the hand walking. Why is this important? He does not encourage walking until you can do a decent handstand. THe first progression is just a series of kicks up into the handstand, a brief balance, and then a lowering down. You want to practice this, along with wall handstand work. Do the wall handstands stomach to wall, not back to wall. They work much, much better for developing the balance you need for the freestanding version.

After a few months of this, and not working overly hard on it by the way, I can consistently do 6-15 second freebalancing handstands, and start and stop walking at will for short distances. I do attribute a lot of my stability to the thick handle grip work that I do, because nothing else builds hand strength as quickly. Not the wrist pushups, not anything. They're good, but they don't specifically develop the hand strength you need for the handstand.

Hi Guys,just wanna say thank you to you all for the useful inputs. Greatly appreciate them. Thanks. I guess there's really some commitment problem in it and i think my arms alignment was not good too. Will try to build up using the drills Blairbob introduced

jl5555 said:

J23 said:

....just how do you learn to balance a handstand properly?....

From my experience the balance in a handstand lies in.... the hands. And, well, the center of gravity and moment arm of the motion. The handstand is also a tripod, it just so happens the base of the tripod is just your hands from palm to fingertips. The fingertips do actually need to be engaged to make a stable base. To progress I would:

• [*:398gbmoj]Kick up into wall supported HS, when settled there push off the wall with one foot and then the other to test your balance with only one leg balanced on the wall.
  [*:398gbmoj]Move away from the wall a bit and kick up into wall supported HS with the knees bent. This will give you a lower center of gravity. When settled extend one leg at a time straight up.
  [*:398gbmoj]Repeat above but trying bringing both feet away from the wall.
  [*:398gbmoj]Kick into HS 2' from the wall but keep your knees bent, again this will lower your CG and make it easier to maintain your balance.
  [*:398gbmoj]Once you're able to hold a freestanding HS with the knees bent practice extending one leg or both legs up to the vertical. You will find that as you raise those heavy feet higher and higher that your CG is pulled further up and the moment arm really starts to tax your tripod (hands).
  [*:398gbmoj]Finally, once you've mastered that kick into freestanding HS. The hardest thing to learn is not to overkick otherwise you will simply pass through vertical. It's a learned thing but strong core muscles will help you control the motion.

I'll mention that it's often said that static HS is more difficult to perform than walking HS. If you ever watch people HS walk around the gym you will see that they are not completely vertical but have a slight to significant arch in their back, cocked pelvis and curved legs/bent knees. All this is an attempt to lower the CG to make holding the balance possible...

Cool, that's really helpful for everyone new! Thank you very much. It's so much more helpful to actually go into it with a plan rather than just guessing through it all. Now that I have a solid plan, I'm gonna start trying more handstands and probably even enjoy it!

Hey Shanrenbati,

The easiest drill I found to teach slowly but surely how to kick up to handstand against a wall is the following (I have done it with totally out of shape people):

- first work on kicking up to headstand against the wall, safe and easy

- once you get the feel of it, just raise your head a bit higher above the ground with pillows or pads. As your head goes higher, you'll have naturally more weight on your hands. Finally when your arms are close to straight, it will be just like a real kick to handstand

This method works as well to gradually go from free-standing headstand to handstand, and for presses.

I hope it helps

Your method sounds interesting; I'll try it for presses