Thoughts on HS press

Hey guys,

I was thinking about some of the major components of the handstand press (tuck, straddle, or pike from standing, as opposed to from an L or straddle-L). These are what came to mind:

-Spine rolling/rounding: really keeping the back round as possible, straightening out one piece of the back at a time as the hips move to over the center of gravity, starting from the upper back straightening up to the lower.

-Compression: actively flexible pike/straddle/tuck, pulling the legs close to the chest until the hips get to the balance point.

-Strong scapular elevation (and protraction?) in the "open" shoulder position

-Actively flexible shoulder flexion: keeping the shoulders in an "open" position while the lean happens. Otherwise extraneous strength is required in "planching" up the handstand. Having the strong shoulders to "planche" up the handstand can make it easier to get up, but is ultimately not the proper form for the normal HS press.

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I'm not saying that all or any of these concepts are completely correct. I'm still in the beginning stages of being a student and practitioner. Which of these do you agree with? Any of them do you not agree with? Anything you would add?

I am hear to learn and I appreciate any thoughts any of you want to add.

micahclimber said:

Hey guys,

I was thinking about some of the major components of the handstand press (tuck, straddle, or pike from standing, as opposed to from an L or straddle-L). These are what came to mind:

-Spine rolling/rounding: really keeping the back round as possible, straightening out one piece of the back at a time as the hips move to over the center of gravity, starting from the upper back straightening up to the lower.

If you are doing it from the floor you should get your hips up as high as possible (or rather as over your shoulders as you can to initiate the press) this will cause a little bit of rounding but very far from keeping the back as round as possible. Someone (I believe Yuri) mentioned that you want to imagine a string attached to your tailbone and someone pulling on it, I found this to be a great analogy.

-Compression: actively flexible pike/straddle/tuck, pulling the legs close to the chest until the hips get to the balance point.

Yes flexibility is important in a handstand presses but once again it's lifting the hips up not gettting the legs as close as possible. They will get close to your chest as a result of you lifting the hips up but if you only attempt to bring the legs to the chest you can still do that and planche the skill, which is wrong.

-Strong scapular elevation (and protraction?) in the "open" shoulder position

Elevation yes, to me it always felt as the amount of handstand presses I can do (or the variation) is directly limited by how hard I can shrug the shoulders into the ground and keep them shrugged. Not protraction though, if you are protracting you'll be planchign the skill

-Actively flexible shoulder flexion: keeping the shoulders in an "open" position while the lean happens. Otherwise extraneous strength is required in "planching" up the handstand. Having the strong shoulders to "planche" up the handstand can make it easier to get up, but is ultimately not the proper form for the normal HS press.

Open shoulders and lifting the hips up are the two most important technique points in a handstand press. Both are required for a proper handstand press.

----

I'm not saying that all or any of these concepts are completely correct. I'm still in the beginning stages of being a student and practitioner. Which of these do you agree with? Any of them do you not agree with? Anything you would add?

I am hear to learn and I appreciate any thoughts any of you want to add.

I found that handstand presses against the wall really teach most of the key technique elements.

http://www.drillsandskills.com/article/16

I'm doing the last two exercises (seated leg lifts), and it's what's been helping me a lot with the presses. I have a decent upperbody strenght and that's not what's stoping me from doing them.

The seated leg lifts help teach you the feel of compressing the abs and hip flexors with straight legs, mimicing the feel when you're pressing to the HS. You're suposed to feel the same thing when doing press to HS. The more flexible and the more capacity to compress the hip flexors at a greater rom greatly improves your ability to press to HS, because you don't need to lean too much forward, and thus, not stress the wrists and use less shoulder strenght. At least that's how I see it.