By stacking the joints from the wrists, shoulders, hips, heart, and head, the handstand becomes much easier to sustain.
Please keep reading to see the four ways we offer handstands, with classes for beginners and advanced practitioners!
People recovering or who have wrist injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, or migraines should avoid doing handstands until cleared by a doctor.
People who are pregnant or menstruating and those who suffer anxiety should also avoid this inversion.
Poses to do instead of handstand include legs up the wall (viparita karani) or standing splits. You can also do a forearm stand to remove the weight from the wrists or donkey kicks from the down dog.
Turn around to face the wall for an L-shape handstand.
Measure yourself on the wall by placing your feet flat on the wall.
Wherever your bum lands, one hand will go there.
Turn around so your feet are against the wall and you’re facing the front of your mat; stack your shoulders over your wrists and lift your hips for a down dog with your heels on the wall.
Handstand Option 1: L-Shape on the Wall
Walk your feet up the wall from down dog
Place your feet so that they are in line with your hips
Press your heels and ball of the foot against the wall to anchor
Press your hands against the ground and puff up the back body
Keep your shoulders stacked over your hands and draw your chest toward your thighs
Take your feet and knees to the ground and rest in children pose to feel the effects of what we’ve just done.
Handstand Option 2: L-Shape on the Wall with Leg Lifts
Take the same shape we created in option 1, stay here, OR add to it by taking one leg off the wall at a time
Anchor your feet up the wall at hip height
Bring your heels together so big toes touch
Press one foot where it is and lift the opposite leg to the sky
Reach from the heel toward the sky straight up out of your hip
Take five breaths here and switch legs.
Take a child’s pose to rest between sides.
How to do handstand hops off the wall:
Come to the middle of your mat with your palms about a foot away from the wall
Come into a downward-facing dog
Walk your feet in towards your hands
Stack your shoulders over your wrists
Lift one leg and point your toes toward the sky
Take little hops on the standing leg
Attempt to reach your extended toes toward the wall
Press the ground away from you with your hands
Take 3-5 hops on one side, and then switch
Take a child’s pose or seat and rest to feel the effect of this in your body.
Jump to a seat for core work:
Stack your knees over your hips
Take your toes in line with your knees
Press your back and ribs into the earth
Take your palms to your thighs and press your legs away from you
Alternately, draw your legs in towards your palm
The resistance creates tension to strengthen the lower abdominal muscles
Inhale and press hands to thighs
Exhale and extend the same arm and leg on one side
Repeat six cycles total on one side, then switch sides
Donkey kicks with heels to bum
Move to a wall and kick your toes to the wall
Today’s class invites you to find balance through breath, movement, effort, and intention as you build toward Adho Mukha Vrksasana (handstand). You’ll move through lunges, warriors, leg balancing, core strengthening, twists, and hamstring lengthening.
Utthan Pristhasana (lizard pose)
Take a backbend of your choice for 15 breaths; options include:
Ananda Balasana (happy baby pose) OR Pavanamuktasana (wind release pose)
Supta Kapotasana (reclined pigeon pose)
Baddha Konasana (seated bound angle pose) with the option to take a neck release OR forward fold.
A closing pose of choice, options:
Savasana or seated meditation to close.
You want the joints to stack so you don’t have to work as hard to lift your legs.
The most efficient way of doing this is to get the hips over the shoulders as best we can. And that’s where bending the knees as you come in, especially if it’s not accessible for the hamstrings or the lower back, is the best thing you can do for yourself because you don’t have to swing with as much pizzazz.
We want to refine it to bring the legs as high as possible.
So, from down dog, I walk my feet in, and as I walk my feet in, I can bend my knees.
Push the ground away and claw the mat with the finger pads. One leg goes up to the sky. If the knee is bent and I kick, it goes rogue, which means I don’t have control over it. Which means the person next to you starts getting nervous. Just to be real about it, we don’t want anybody nervous.
The reason we do so much block work with the block between your inner thighs is that you want to squeeze the inner thighs towards each other whenever you’re inverting.
For those new to handstands, you can take donkey kicks from a down dog, single-leg handstand hops, and split-leg kicks.
Now, anatomically, you’re supposed to look towards the center of the room because your neck is long and your spine is neutral. However, we can’t even get there if you’re new to this. You want to look at where you’re going. So look forward.
You can hold the standing splits instead of kicking up into a handstand.
Standing splits are the prep for the handstand, and you don’t need to put any pressure on the wrists.
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