Handstands Archives - 12 Minute Athlete

Handstand Challenge Week 6: Freestanding Handstands

At the beginning of April, we started a brand new 6-Week Handstand Challenge.

During the few weeks, we’re going to be working on different exercises you can do to help you build up to doing a freestanding handstand. Don’t be too intimidated—it doesn’t matter if you’ve been practicing handstands for a while now or you’ve never even tried to do one, this handstand challenge is for you.

During Week 1, we focused on building strength and endurance with wall handstands. Week 2 was all about protecting our wrists and avoiding injuries. During Week 3 we focused on our shoulder and hip positioning with pike rolls. During Week 4 we started working on our balance with handstand wall splits. Week 5 was all about building up our core strength for a better handstand line.

We’re about to start Week 6, but if you’re new to this challenge, no worries, you can still jump right in! To get the most out of this handstand challenge, make sure to join our private Facebook group where you can share your experience and get in touch with fellow members of the 12 Minute Athlete Community.

For Week 6 of the challenge, we’re going to be working on our freestanding handstands.

I’ll be totally honest with you guys: if you’re still pretty new to handstands, it may not be the best use of your time to spend too much time on freestanding handstands just yet.

Freestanding handstands can be incredibly frustrating so if you’re still struggling to build up your handstand endurance and still find drills like the wall handstand splits we did in Week 4 pretty challenging, I’d recommend you mostly keep working on those skills for now until you’re feeling more comfortable with them.

But if you’re feeling more and more comfortable upside down and think you’re ready to try a few freestanding handstands, let’s give it a shot!

Open Up Your Shoulders: 5 Stretches You Can Do With a Broomstick

We’ve been doing a lot of handstands around here lately and if you’re anything like me, your shoulders are feeling super tight as a result.

Handstands and other exercises like push ups, planks, and pull ups put a ton of pressure on your shoulders, and keeping your shoulders mobile and flexible is super important to help you maintain good form and prevent injuries.

Unsurprisingly, open shoulders are also important for good posture, so if you don’t want to appear hunched over, make sure to keep your shoulders nice and flexible!

We’ve already touched on warming up the wrists during our Handstand Challenge, and now it’s time to focus on the shoulders.

You can do the following exercises with a PVC pipe or a pilates stick, but the easiest thing to use is a simple broomstick. Everyone has one at home, so put it to good use!

Handstand Challenge Week 5: Core Strength: Hollow Body Holds

At the beginning of April, we started a brand new 6-Week Handstand Challenge.

We’re about to start Week 5, but if you’re new to this challenge, no worries, you can still jump right in! To get the most out of this handstand challenge, make sure to join our private Facebook group where you can share your experience and get in touch with fellow members of the 12 Minute Athlete Community.

For Week 5 of the challenge, we’re going to be working on building up our core strength for a more efficient handstand.

So far in this challenge we’ve talked a bit about avoiding “banana back handstands” when you’re practicing your handstands, but this week we’re going to dive in to how—and why—you should avoid them.

Handstand Challenge Week 4: Balance Practice: Handstand Wall Splits

At the beginning of April, we started a brand new 6-Week Handstand Challenge.

We’re about to start Week 4, but if you’re new to this challenge, no worries, you can still jump right in! To get the most out of this handstand challenge, make sure to join our private Facebook group where you can share your experience and get in touch with fellow members of the 12 Minute Athlete Community.

For Week 4 of the challenge, we’re going to be working on our balance.

There’s no question that for most people, the hardest part about learning to do a handstand is understanding how to balance.

Handstand Challenge Week 3: Shoulder & Hip Positioning: Pike Rolls

At the beginning of April, we started a brand new 6-Week Handstand Challenge.

During the next month, we’re going to be working on different exercises you can do to help you build up to doing a freestanding handstand. Don’t be too intimidated—it doesn’t matter if you’ve been practicing handstands for a while now or you’ve never even tried to do one, this handstand challenge is for you.

During Week 1, we focused on building strength and endurance with wall handstands. Week 2 was all about protecting our wrists and avoiding injuries.

We’re about to start Week 3, but if you’re new to this challenge, no worries, you can still jump right in! To get the most out of this handstand challenge, make sure to join our private Facebook group where you can share your experience and get in touch with fellow members of the 12 Minute Athlete Community.

For Week 3 of the challenge, we’ll be working on our shoulder and hip positioning in a handstand.

One of the hardest parts of learning to do a freestanding handstand is understanding where exactly your hips and shoulders should be.

While we’re pretty good at understanding where our hips need to be when standing to avoid falling over, this is much more difficult to do when upside down, and for good reason—we spend a lot more time on our feet than we do on our hands.

When you’re in a handstand, your hips should be directly over your shoulders. And while this may sound simple enough, until you develop the body awareness it takes to remain in a good line upside down, it can be extremely frustrating.

Here’s an exercise that can help you to start developing that body awareness you’ll later need for freestanding handstands:

Handstand Challenge Week 2: Wrist Health

At the beginning of April, we started a brand new 6-Week Handstand Challenge.

During the next five weeks, we’re going to be working on different exercises you can do to help you build up to doing a freestanding handstand. Don’t be too intimidated—it doesn’t matter if you’ve been practicing handstands for a while now or you’ve never even tried to do one, this handstand challenge is for you.

Last week, we focused on building strength and endurance with wall handstands.

We’re about to start Week 2, but if you’re new to this challenge, no worries, you can still jump right in! To get the most out of this handstand challenge, make sure to join our private Facebook group where you can share your experience and get in touch with fellow members of the 12 Minute Athlete Community.

For Week 2 of the challenge, our focus will be working on our wrist health.

Handstand Challenge Week 1: Wall Handstands

Today is the official start of our brand new 6-week challenge and I couldn’t be more excited to be focusing on handstands.

During the next month and a half, we’re going to be working on different exercises you can do to help you build up to doing a freestanding handstand. Don’t be too intimidated—it doesn’t matter if you’ve been practicing handstands for a while now or you’ve never even tried to do one, this 6-Week Handstand Challenge is for you.

For the Week One of the challenge, our focus will be working on our wall handstands.

Even if you can hold a freestanding handstand relatively well, I’d still recommend working on your wall handstands to help build endurance and perfect your handstand positioning. Just try and hold them even longer to make them more challenging 🙂

Here’s everything you need to know to get started with week one of the Handstand Challenge:

The 12 Minute Athlete 6-Week Handstand Challenge

Get ready you guys—because we have a new 6-week challenge coming your way.

You’ve probably noticed by now that I do handstands pretty often and many 12 Minute Athlete HIIT workouts on the website and app include handstands and handstand variations as well. If until now you’ve been skipping those workouts, it’s time to get to working on your handstands.

Handstand Push Ups: Why They Rock (And How to Start Doing Them)

If you’re like most people I know, then then there’s a high probability that of the hundreds of different exercises we do during 12 Minute Athlete workouts, handstand push ups intimidate you the most.

Maybe they’re so intimidating that you’ve never even tried them, and have a habit of skipping any workouts where they’re included.

In fact, you probably think they’re near impossible — that they’re only for gymnast types with insanely broad shoulders, and strong, compact bodies.

But let me tell you a secret: you can do handstand push ups.

I don’t care how strong you are, how long your arms are (my nickname for years was spaghetti arms, so I can relate), how unbalanced and uncoordinated you are.

Unless you have a shoulder injury or something else actually prohibiting you from standing upside down, there’s absolutely no reason you can’t do handstand push ups.

Because here’s the thing: you don’t have to be superhuman to do handstand push ups. And just like anything else, you can break them down into progressions that will eventually lead you to working the full thing.

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