2026 - The Year You Cracked Hand Balancing? (2026/003)

Supporting your weight on your hands is easy: manipulating your body into the various positions (handstand, planche, one-arm etc) however needs a great deal of practice, with advice from those who have already achieved it... and it also needs good core strength to hold decent shapes, and reasonable shoulder and upper-body strength. 

There is one 'core' principle: in any hand balance, your centre of gravity has to be directly above the supporting hand(s). You may well need help from your coaches or friends to get the 'feel' of that, and to keep it steady (that's where the core strength comes in). Expect many failed attempts.

So: some examples to enthuse you.

Some drills demonstrated by young gymnasts:

(Moral: if at first you don't succeed... ... have another go!)

Back with the young gymnasts:

 

 ...and don't let the weather get in the way of your training...

The crucial points for perfect handstand shape (on two hands) are 'open' shoulders, tight glutes, stomach held in, and thus a perfect straight line from the wrists to the tips of the toes. Compare these two:

 Yes, left is correct. Here, Riley deliberately shows us the poorer form, known as 'banana back', where the back has to bend (sometimes a lot more than shown here) to compensate for stiff and immobile shoulders.

This diver has it perfectly...

Handstand pushups are a key exercise for developing the required strength once you have some sort of sustainable two-hand balance:

Finally, professional acts: