I don’t agree with everything Crossfit does, but they still are doing a good amount right. One of which is that there are some handstands in Crossfit. With all their cross training they do hit a little on many different things, In this post I’ll offer a little advice on how to take it further. First, a quote from the founder:
Handstands crossfit, hand walking, and pressing to the handstand are critical exercises to developing your athletic potential and essential components to becoming “CrossFit.”
Historically, these exercises have been collectively referred to as “hand balancing” and have been an integral part of strength and health culture since antiquity, yet today hand balancing seems to have followed the passenger pigeon to extinction. From Crossfit.com
I agree with him that handstands have become a lost art, hence the name of this site. Now let’s look at how handstands are typically included in a Crossfit workout. There are two basic ways.
- Handstand crossfit holds against the wall
- Handstand pushups
Of course being Crossfit they love kipping. And they even kip with handstand pushups! (It’s not just a pullup thing)
An interesting exercise but I would certainly not use it as your mainstay for training. Build strength through other progressions like in this handstand pushups book and you will building stronger arms and shoulders.
Don’t be so concerned with getting 21-15-9 reps of handstand pushups in your workout, when you can’t do one strictly, but start where you are and build from there.
Handstand holds against the wall are great. They help train your position and can build stability and endurance in the position. Great to finish off your training with that.
Unfortunately in most Crossfits this is as far as their handstand training goes. What about the balancing aspect?
First off all this should not be included in a typical Crossfit workout. When you’re gassed and fatigued is not the time to work on fine motor skills. Instead you can perform a little bit of free hand balancing practice before hand. Use it as part of your warmup.
Most people will try to jump right into the handstand but this would be the perfect time to start out with easier lead-up stunts like the frogstand and headstand as outline in the Secrets of the Handstand book.
You build better balancing skills this way and soon be outperforming all your handstand Crossfit buddies at handstands.
