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Are Handstands Important?

dmaxashman

Level 5 Valued Member
For general strength, athleticism, and full body health, how important is it getting proficient in handstands? That is, being able to do a freestanding handstand, hold it, maybe walk around on your hands, and doing handstand pushups.

Is getting good at that stuff just a cool side activity someone can do in their spare time as a party trick? Or is it a basic and important ability that most athletes need to train up that will result in better athleticism and sports performance? Thank you for any thoughts and personal experiences you can share on this topic!!!
 
the ability to do when suggests many things - upper body ROM (thoracic, GH, wrist especially), upper body strength. Really it's actually kind of a good screen (assuming safety to attempt)
IMO, the ability to do it against the wall is good enough for gen pop health. Unless gymnastics is in someone's future, or just someone with the goal of bodyweight exercises, I wouldn't spend much time going beyond that.
 
Handstand is a skill that requires lots of thing to be working properly as @wespom9 mention. I am interested to practice handstand skill as a part of my movement practice in a future time just because I want to.

I am sure there will be some carry over to some other exercises naturally however handstand is a kind of a skill that, you develop them if you want to, and just because you want to.

Well I am 100% sure, if I had the stability, strength, and mobility required in an handstand, many other exercises would have been easier for me. No doubt. But to develop any of those attributes, handstand will not be a first choice. You can be fit, strong whatever and never do handstands IMHO. But I would want to do them in the future. And training for a handstand develops a lot of things seriously for sure.

If you want to develop this skill, I think you should work on it and see for your self, anybody practicing handstand is going to develop many attributes.

Since I am re-reading Simple and Sinister, handstands reminded me Pavel’s jokes about broccoli :)

If you love broccoli, eat them and they are quite beneficial, if you don’t eat broccoli you will be just fine :)

Best.
 
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Or is it a basic and important ability that most athletes need to train up that will result in better athleticism and sports performance?
I can only think of a couple sports where handstands would be beneficial. So I'm going to go with no.
Is getting good at that stuff just a cool side activity someone can do in their spare time as a party trick?
Pretty much. There is value in it, but outside of gymnastics the only time you see athletes doing handstands is showboating.
 
John Grimek, Sig Klien, Doug Hepburn, etc. were believers in hand balancing


Arnold as well


There's also isometric training benefit from working up to a decent hold time.

I'm not qualified to say though if you personally need to do it or not.
 
Is getting good at that stuff just a cool side activity someone can do in their spare time as a party trick? Or is it a basic and important ability that most athletes need to train up that will result in better athleticism and sports performance? Thank you for any thoughts and personal experiences you can share on this topic!!!

I can't do hand stands.

(I don't practice them)

But I have sufficient shoulder mobility and strength to clean and jerk more than my bodyweight overhead and hold it there.

Which is greater load than a handstand would provide, especially a wall version.

Ergo, I conclude they're not important for my sports performance.

For me, they'd be a party trick.
 
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Oh, also:

To clean & jerk >bodyweight, I have to have sufficient leg strength clean it, stand it up from a front squat, and then drive it overhead.

Whereas I could hypothetically have chicken legs and do hand stands.
 
Pavel suggested it might help your press, but I think it’s a gamble.

In combat sports, champs tend to have excellent gymnastics skills. Spencer Lee, 3-time NCAA champ and going for a fourth, can walk quite fast on his hands. It could theoretically develop general balance/body awareness.

But really, it’s very low on the list of training priorities. Its far more important to have strength and endurance, sport specific skill, mobility, speed, ect. So if you’re crunched on time, don’t worry about gymnastics/handstands.
 
Pavel suggested it might help your press, but I think it’s a gamble.

Yeah, maybe -- but the press is super finicky about bar path and getting enough momentum off the start to get through the sticking point.

Free handstand doesn't help much with either of those issues.

And the skill acquisition cost of hand stand is high vs just spending more time on pressing.

It wouldn't be my first choice for someone trying to increase their press, but if they're currently pressing so much they're burnt out and already know how to handstand, maybe it would be a novel stimulus to add some volume and mental variety.
 
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In my favorite article by Pavel, he outlines the Freestanding Handstand as a worthy goal for someone who is training for general health and chooses calisthenics as their training method:
Pavel said:
Become a student of bodyweight strength... Master the basics. Reach the “simple” goals like the one-arm-one-leg push-up. Then set your sights a little higher, e.g. the front lever and free handstands.

 
I think in the history of man, Parkour would have been a more beneficial skill then handstand walking.

Pretty much anything that leaves your prehensile hands free to do what they're good at instead of act like feet while your non-prehensile feet flop around uselessly in the air would be more evolutionarily advantageous.
 
I have been doing handbalancing frequently during past years and still do them. Was able to cut 10 non-strict HSPUs when doing them daily.
When I did them (handstands) exclusively, my pressing strength went down considerably. Sure, there are some athletic qualities they develop, but not the two most important ones - strength and power.
Yes, you can develop strength if you can accumulate some volume of strict HSPUs, but military press with equivalent weight seems to be more practical.
I still do them because it's fun and my baby nieces love it.
 
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In my favorite article by Pavel, he outlines the Freestanding Handstand as a worthy goal for someone who is training for general health and chooses calisthenics as their training method:


I think this is really a great article.
 
Hello,

HSPU can increase the kb ovh press, if done on a ROP format. Below is an article:

However, I do not think that's optimal, because there are faster ways to gain strength. As @watchnerd said, HSPU will put way less efforts on core and legs, comparing to a C&P or C&J. To "mimick" these using calisthenics, one would be obliged to add other moves, such as jumping lunges, broad jumps, and also some dedicated core training. Basically, it will be more time consuming and possibly more demanding.

So to the "important", it depends for what: learning a technique ? Gaining strength ? Maintaining strength ? Being able to train in "austere" environment ? Training without putting stress on the spine ?

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
For a year, I put them at the end of my warm-up, practising for a few minutes every day. Eventually I stopped worrying about balance and started doing shoulder-tap handstands and one-arm handstands against the wall. After my OS journey, I will return to them and add one-arm hangs.

There were a few times during grappling where I straight-armed someone in a ridiculous fashion. I remember someone had knee-on-belly on me and I grabbed his belt, then straight-armed him up and over me. We were both shocked.
 
Just realized StrongFirst has a bunch of articles tagged Handstand Pushup.


Paul Anderson's bench press routine which included wall HSPU:

I'd like to do HSPU someday. Of course that implies I also need to acquire the handstand skill.

I did some inversion work during my brief period of attending yoga classes. Of course we used props to help ourselves get upside down. I also did quite a bit of inverted hanging when I was working on GMB Rings One. So I'm easily sold on the benefits of inversion in some form or another. One of those benefits is learning how to control my body when upside down.

But first I'll work up to pressing my bodyweight overhead. Double 32kg KBs would be pretty close. But I know that's not going to automatically get me an HSPU.
 
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