Tag Archives | Shoulder Girdle

Handstand Shrugs

By on July 9, 2012 in Flexibility & Contortion, Handstands

Handstand shrugs are a seldom used exercise yet they can be quite important.

Ask any professional hand balancer, or just watch them at work, and you’ll see how much their shoulders are shrugged up towards their ears. (Here is an example of Cai Yong.) This is necessary to get the locked out position that makes balancing much better.

Hand Balancing Made EasyHandBalancingMadeEasy_on_Amazon

But this isn’t necessary to do just a regular handstand. Handstands can be done even with the shoulders packed in, but this is not optimal.

Handstand Shrugs

Shrugged vs. Not Shrugged

Kick up into a handstand against the wall. Keep your arms locked at the elbows the entire time. Just using the muscles of your shoulder girdle and traps, shrug up, trying to make yourself taller. Stretch as far as you can go. Then lower using the same muscles and repeat.

The most important thing is that this exercise can help build the shoulder flexibility you need to get into the best handstand position possible.

Handstand shrugs are also a great way to build up to handstand pushups as I cover in my book.

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One Arm Handstand Shrug

By on April 9, 2010 in Handstands, One Hand

When talking to Jim Bathurst the other night we we’re discussing the one arm handstand. Several points came up but I want to focus on one of them right now. And this actually applies to any hand balancing you do.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing
The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing on Amazon

That point is shrugging up your shoulders.

When you go into a handstand you want to reach your shoulders towards your ears. Do not let gravity depress your shoulders. Why? This makes it so that your body is fully locked out. This improves your position as well as your endurance.

Shrugged Shoulders

Shrugged vs. Not Shrugged

This is even more essential in the one arm handstand. But here’s the thing. Some people may not even have the strength in the shoulder girdle and scapula to do it properly.

As is many times the case in hand balancing it’s a good idea to go back to the wall for this one. Doing the one arm handstand against the wall, where you don’t need to worry so much about balance, you can focus on getting the shoulder shrugged.

In The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups there’s an exercise called the Handstand Shrug. This is just to repeat this shrugging motion over an over for reps. While I didn’t think about it at the time, you could do this exact same exercise on just one arm. (I just tried it against and found it to be quite fun.)

This will strengthen the area, giving you the strength to really begin to progress toward the one arm handstand.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

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