Tag Archives | Handstand Pushups

Freestanding Handstand Pushups

One of the moves that got me into hand balancing in the first place was the freestanding handstand pushup. I had built up to doing handstand pushups against the wall and I always wanted to do them balancing on my own.

Well, having the strength to press yourself up and the balance to maintain the handstand are two completely different things. And to do the free handstand pushup you need both.

I hadn’t practiced this move much, at least not in recent times. But, just over a month ago I decided to really go after it. In my training I used three different methods to work on the move. Below you can watch one of those three.


Freestanding Handstand Pushups

This clip is from the December issue of Acrobat Accelerator. On top of the three primary methods of training you’ll learn about little shifts you can do in your position to make this move much easier or harder to suit your level.

I wouldn’t say I completely mastered the move yet, but that’s just a matter of more work. Stay tuned for next time when I’ll be sharing a story of someone who has.

Plus in this month’s Acrobat Accelerator, I share a warm-up routine I’ve been using everyday before hand balancing. Plus some startling studies on stretching that may have you re-thinking what you’ve been doing.

If you’re not already a member you can get this month’s issue for free with any of the following products:

Hand Balancing Mastery Course
Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide
Tumbling Course

Or just by itself here – Acrobat Accelerator

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick
ow to do the One Hand Handstand on Amazon

But there’s only a few copies left and when its gone its gone. If you want to master the freestanding handstand this is the one to get.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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On Handstand Pushups

One exercise that brings more people into hand balancing more than any other is the handstand pushup. Many people do them against the wall to build up strength. Sooner or later they figure how much better it’d be without using the wall for balance.

Even if you have the strength to do them against the wall and the balance to hold a handstand the free standing handstand press can be a bit more challenging.

In this new video Bob Jones tells you what you need to do to make the move easier…or harder!

Bob Jones on Handstand Pushups

Learn How to Back Flip in 31 Days
Learn How to Back Flip in 31 Days on Amazon

There’s much more on pressing where that came from.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Make Your Handstand Pushups Harder

Handstand pushups. I don’t know if anyone would deny this as a great exercise.

It’s amazing when someone tells you they can do 15 handstand pushups. But what KIND of handstand pushups are they talking about, assuming they are even telling the truth?

There are many ways to skin this cat, so to speak.

The thing is almost every handstand pushup is a partial rep. Do you touch your head to the ground? Some would call that full-range but it is far from THE full-range.

Trampoline Handbook
Trampoline Handbook on Amazon

In fact, it’s only about half. Full-range is down to your shoulders.

Now, if you don’t have something raised off the floor to place your hands on you won’t be able to do a true full-range handstand pushup.

But here’s a tip to increase your range without anything but the floor.

Touch your nose to the floor rather than the top of your head. That’s about a 3 inch difference.

And trust me, those three inches make a big difference. Because that range is right near the sticking point for most people.

Go ahead and try to max out each way and see where your numbers lie.

That’s just one way of many you can change the handstand pushup to make it harder or easier.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Handstand Questions Answered

Gonna drop into the mailbag and answer a few questions today.

“Is it possible for a weak old man to develop the strength necessary to do a handstand? (presently outa condition and overweight). when will the dvd be available again?” -Dennis

The Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide has been sold out for a couple weeks. But it will be coming back, better than ever, and soon. Stay tuned for that.

Anyone, no matter their age can get started hand balancing. To be truthful, the normal handstand doesn’t require a whole lot of strength. It’s a matter of using the body in the correct way to support itself.

That being said, if you are really out of shape, handstands may not be the best starting point. Use other easier exercises like regular pushups to build up your strength levels before you begin.

“Heyy! I can do a hand stand but my only problem is I can only stay balanced for a few seconds maybe about five. How could I improve that??” -Shae

Well, Shae just keep practicing. While there are helpful tips to keep you up in the air, nothing takes the place of practice. Get into a good position and work the balance.

“Hello. I’d like to know how the arms move when doing HSPU’s. I mean do the shoulders stick out to the sides, or do the shoulders stick out in front of the person? Thanks” -Daniel

Where your shoulders and arms point can make a big difference in doing handstand pushups. You can do it either way but one will be harder than the other. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which one is what.

Tumbling Illustrated
Tumbling Illustrated on Amazon

As far as freestanding handstand pushups you’re going to have to take the elbows in position unless you do a handstand with a large base, that is the arms spread out wide.

That’s it for today.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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Walking on Your Hands

Here’s a good question from Tony.

“Dear Logan Christopher, I am a 44 year old male that just decided to do handstands since it was a great workout. I can do a handstand and pushups against the wall. I just read your 10 handstand tips and will work on these great ideas. My problem is when I try to walk on my hands my legs tend to fall toward the “wall direction” when I try to stand without the wall. I feel that it is fear of falling flat on my back. Sometimes my hand strides are a little too big as I am trying to go too fast and then my legs fall toward “the wall direction.” I can hold a handstand probably at least 30 sec. I am usually sustaining myself up after doing 13-15 handstand pushups through a short ROM. I initially thought it was my ab/core strength and I just started with Eddie Baran’s gymnastic abs dvd which is fun and challenging. I am improving but got a little concerned when you said that walking is easier than standing. Your hints have clued me into improving my body awareness with standing and increase my length of time. Any other ideas?”

I should have clarified the position on standing vs. walking. For most people the walking is going to be much easier. This is because you can shift your weight around and take a step with your hands toward any direction you are falling.

If you take the time to learn how to stand still, and remain in a good handstand position than you are much better off than someone who can merely walk on his hands.

When you are walking on your hands the legs tend to ‘fall forward’ in overbalancing. This is a good thing because that’s the forward momentum you want to walk with.

The key is to maintain control. You don’t want to be overbalancing so much that your hands can’t keep up or that you just fall out of the handstand.

To work on the control even more so, you should practice different size steps as Prof. Orlick teaches in Walking and Jumping on Your Hands. Go for small steps. Next try to clear a yard with each step.

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick
ow to do the One Hand Handstand on Amazon

You can also vary the speed with which you walk. Even try running on your hands!

But first and most important is to learn to stand on your hands. So that you can maintain a good handstand and not just stay on your hands by catching yourself from falling.

Just keep training and you’ll be able to walk, stand, run and hop on your hands without a problem.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Click here for more on walking, running and jumping on your hands.

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Handstand Pushups and Handstand Hand Positions

Got two more handstand questions I’ll dig into today. I have to admit the quality of the questions has stepped up recently at least for the most part. Submit yours at https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/question.html.Here we go. The first one is from Ari.

“OK, Logan, I can balance on my hands, and I have the strength to do handstand pushups, but maintaining balance in an HSPU seems almost impossible. As I lower from the handstand my weight always starts to move to the ventral (stomach) side and unless I bend my legs at the knees so my calves counterbalance the weight, I lose my handstand. How do you maintain a straight bodywhile doing a handstand pushup?”

The first step is to make sure you have the strength to perform the move. When most people do handstand pushups against the wall it’s in an alignment that makes the pushup easier than the form you have to take for a free standing handstand pushup. This is a big topic in and of itself that I’ll have to dig into another time.

The important thing is to have an excess of strength. It’s not good to be burned out after two attempts, since you need to ‘practice’ the move. Onto the balancing.

It is going to be slightly different depending on how straight or arched you are. The thing is that your body will be at an angle and not perfectly vertical from the ground. When your head touches the ground it should be in a triangle formation with the hands. Like the headstand except you don’t rest on the head.

Because of this the upper body and lower body are on different sides of your center of gravity. As if you were lowering down toward the planche.

The most important thing you have to do in order to keep the balance and not fall toward the feet is keeping yourself toward overbalancing. The pressure must be toward your fingers at all times. If you go toward your palms you’ll lose it.

Of course the body has to be kept real tight at the same time. But keep the weight toward your fingers and you’ll be able to stay balanced while doing the pushups.

And here’s one from Ron.

“I’ve been doing handstand training for the past 4 months. For the purpose of experimentation, what are the effects of different hand positioning? In other words, if you spread your hands wider apart, does that provide any benefits, as opposed to keeping the hands at shoulder width?”

Here’s the words of Professor Orlick, from the beginning of chapter 11 in Hand Balancing Made Easy.

There is a two-fold purpose for learning these (that is handstands with different hand and arm positions). The first is for the stunts themselves, they look good, impress your audiences and give you personal satisfaction.

The second is for excellent balance they develop. When you vary the position of the hands you are forced to balance less and less with the fingers and hands themselves and more and more with the body as a unified whole. This may not be clear to you right here but after you learn a few of the stunts which are described you will understand exactly what is meant.

He then goes on to list 14 handstand exercises with different hand and arm position and even more in the next chapter. For details on the exact ones check out Handbalancing Made Easy.

But that explains it well enough. Changing your arm position will work your balance to a higher degree. These variations are good to throw into the mix from time to time.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Just to let you know there’s going to be changes to a few of the products next week.

Learn How to Back Flip in 31 Days
Learn How to Back Flip in 31 Days on Amazon

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Increase your Hand Balancing Abilities

Got a question from Patrick. “I am a beginner at hand balancing. How can I find exercises and stretching drills thats will increase my abilities”

C’mon people. This is a call to all who submit questions. Be more specific. I can provide better answer when I know what you want. In fact the more detailed the better.But I will take a blind shot at this question.

To increase your abilities you need to work on the specific abilities themselves. I’m going to assume that you’re talking about your hand balancing abilities.

Walking and Jumping On Your HandsWalking and Jumping On Your Hands on Amazon

Depending on what you are specifically having trouble with this could mean any number of things.

If your having problems with balancing than I would recommend even easier skills than the handstand itself. Skills like the frogstand, headstand and forearm stand. Here’s the easiest way to learn how to do the handstand.

If you need strength I would recommend holding handstands against the wall and doing handstand pushups.

For flexibility, lets say in the shoulder region, you can do many drills. In a handstand against the wall you can bring your chest outward thus working the shoulder flexibility. That’s just one example of many. The gymnastic bridge also works wonders and for more than just the shoulders.

The concepts are universally applied to almost any exercise question. If you can analyze where you are at and where you want to be than break that down into things to work on you can attain any goal.

It’s a useful skill to have. Breaking down the seemingly complex into simple steps to follow.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Now if you want the whole hand balancing plan laid out for you than I recommend you check this one out – Hand Balancing Mastery Course.

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Changing up your Handstand Pushups

In sticking with the pressing theme started earlier this week I want to cover a little bit more in this tip.

Many people get into hand balancing as a result of doing handstand pushups against a wall. This was the case for me and I know its the same for many others.

I learned that holding a handstand then doing pushups is one of the ultimate bodyweight exercises for your upper body. But when I started I couldn’t do a single rep.

Still the idea of one day being able to rep out handstand pushups AWAY from a wall always inspired me and I have made my way toward that goal.

Being able to do freestanding handstand pushups is a feat very few can replicate. Many people do not have the strength. Even fewer have the balance.

One thing I noticed that tends to throw people off is their hand and arm position.

If you were to kick up against a wall to do pushups what position would you take? Is this the same position you’d take away from the wall?

Trampoline Handbook
Trampoline Handbook on Amazon

Play around with the width and angle of you hands and arms and you will find you can change the difficulty of handstand pushups considerably.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. There is no way I would have made this much progress without the help of these two men – Professor Paulinetti and Bob Jones.

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Weightlifting and Hand Balancing

Does lifting weights help to hand balance? The answer is yes and no.

Let me qualify all the following by saying there are many different ways to lift weights. Whether you are doing power lifting, Olympic lifting, bodybuilding, or just good old fashioned strength training with barbells and dumbbells. How you lift matters as much as anything.

Certain exercises are going to help you out. And others won’t do much for you.

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Trampoline Handbook on Amazon

Specifically for pressing movements. It requires a tremendous amount of strength to be able to push your bodyweight overhead. You need strong triceps and shoulders.

Since many presses take you through different planes of movement, not strictly overhead work, such as a press from half planche to handstand or the frogstand press you will also need strong pectoral muscles. Of course your back and abdominals are used to keep you stabilized.

If you use weights to make these muscles stronger than you will be able to do these stunts easier.

Of course hand balancing takes a huge degree balance. While weightlifting can help your coordination, it is nothing compared to what you need to stand on your hands.

Being able to press a heavy barbell overhead has no carryover to being able to hold a handstand.

A handstand is a skill and needs to be practiced in order for you to get good at it.

These days many people are moving away from weights because they think they are not functional. To that I have to say it all depends on how you use them.

Whether you decide to build you upper body strength with barbell presses or with handstand pushups is up to you. They both build strength.

Spend some time using both and see how well they work for you.

Professor Orlick outlines a full on course of barbell, dumbbell, bodyweight and other exercises in Hand Balancing Made Easy. If an accomplished hand balancer like him believed in them, than there surely is value in the exercises.

In addition, in the interview I did with Jim Bathurst he talks about his favorite weightlifting exercises and which ones carryover to his hand balancing best.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,

Logan Christopher

P.S. Professor Orlick even has some very creative weightlifting exercises to help with the one hand handstand. Now you can get How to do the One-Hand Handstand by itself.

Hand Balancing and Weightlifting Combined

Hand Balancing and Weightlifting Combined

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