Work Life Balance (2025/165)

That title is a cheeky way of introducing a post celebrating the art of handbalance. But, keeping your workouts and your ordinary affairs in a sensible balance is no bad thing. 

Hand balancing requires strength and a strong core, plus flexible shoulders. And, because your balance organs are in your ears, when you're upside down they are close to the ground - so learning to balance on your hands is harder than learning to balance on your feet. And remember how long that took you!

So, don't despair if it doesn't work for you straight away. Just keep practicing. And remember, the correct stance is a dead straight line through wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, legs, feet and toes. Your chest should be ever-so-slightly hollowed. OK so far? We'll start with that perfection - but feel free to practice against a wall, both ways around, to develop your endurance for supporting your weight wrong-way up!

Which of those is best? Above the waist - left. Below the waist - right (especially the feet) - but  right has a hollow back which we call 'banana back', and you'll see some of that in the images which follow.

 

Those last two are extremely good. Notice that we also had an example of the one-arm back there - that's trickier, so learn the ordinary handstand first! One tip - if you get to some parallel bars, or floor bars ('paralettes') then holding the balance is easier than with hands straight on the floor.

Meanwhile: some action now, starting with a bar, but sideways on and in reverse grip - a gymnast practicing at home - actually for high bar moves, but we won't go into that now:

 

Yes - divers do handstands too.

Some preparation ideas now:

Don't forget to do endurance... go for one minute, using a wall if need be:

Some professionals now:

...and even for them, things never work out first time...

 It's ideal to start young:

Steps to the handstand pushup... 

A bit of fun with two well-practices one-arm balancers:

And a finale from Christiano who puts it all together on two arms: 

...and from  Ukrainian circus boy perfecting his moves at home:

Another 'homie' from Russia: