Headstand Form

[Christian Nogueira]

Hello,

 

I'm sorry if this has been asked before what is exactly a headstand in proper form.

 

I rarely train headstand and this is probably a failure in my program. Somehow doing handstands even short bursts of hs wall runs seemed less worrisome than doing headstand (I never was confortable with the idea of part of my weight being born with my head).

 

Anyhow, I got the idea that I probably should be doing headstand as a prerequisite for a good handstand and shouldn't skip this step. It will probably help me in the handstand pushup progressions as I'm currently making glacial progress at HeS  pushup negatives. Even doing military press which I'm doing once a week as assistance my sticking point is precisely at the forehead (not the beginning of the press when the bar is at the collarbone as most people).

 

So I did a few and they felt ok, but I'm not sure I was doing it with proper form, because my body seemed to be in a diagonal line toward the floor like a '/'. I don't think it should be vertical but I don't know. I'm supposing the body should be hollow no with neutral shoulders, is this correct ?

[Keilani Gutierrez]

the handstand book will be available soon, so im sure all the doubts that we all have in terms of all the aspects concerning GST will be addressed in that volume. of course, don't do anything that could potentially be dangerous (especially holding our bodyweight on our heads when we have never done that before). 

 

personally, HSPU progressions are something I want to invest in and i'm looking very much forward to the Handstand book and Foundation one

[Christian Nogueira]

Hello,

 

Yeah, I'm looking forward for the handstand course.

 

Meanwhile I've been experimenting a bit with headstand and I must be missing something. A perpendicular body seems to shift more weight in to the head and neck, while a more diagonal line gives shifts more weight into the hands.

 

My essential question is basically this. Does a headstand always look like the bottom of a HeSPU ? I've read here that a freestanding HeSPU will have some the body line diagonal as the head goes in front of the hands. Yet, searching for Headstand pictures you see that for some other drills in the body line is perpendicular.

 

Also, I've seen that there's a tumbling drill where you kip up from headstand to handstand. Does this drill have any value to develop a HeSPU ?

[Adam Williams]

This is my understanding:

 

For the HeSPU, the goal isn't to rest your bodyweight on your head at the bottom of the motion. You want to go down, STOP, go up--not go down, rest, go up. The head will touch at the bottom of a full ROM HeSPU, but the weight/tension should remain on your hands to shoulders, so your body will not be perpendicular. You will lean somewhat to stay balanced.

 

For the basic headstand itself, you do want to aim for perpendicular. You simply have your arms out to provide a longer lever and thus make it easier to counteract tipping forward as you practice staying in position.

[Keilani Gutierrez]

you want to keep handstand body line, yet create a "tripod" with your hands, like they do in yoga. you want to center the balance in equal proportions between your head and your right hand, your head and your left hand, and your left hand with your right hand. I hope that last bit makes sense! 

[Christian Nogueira]

Thanks for the tips people .