Handstands Week 2 - Shoulder: The Burden

Last post I promised to talk about mobility, so here it is! If downward dogs don't get you down, and you feel confident in your mobility, this probably isn't necessary for you. If you're like me, this is going to be your starting point, whether you want to do a handstand, or just about any other physical endeavor. Primarily: mobility takes time. It takes approximately 3 times longer for connective tissue in joints to recover than your actual muscles. This slow recovery means a lot of things for your training. Firstly, you're gonna wanna get as much of a head start on mobility as possible, because you really can't rush it. The joints need time to recover, and pushing your body more than it's capable of fixing is only going to hurt your gains and put you at risk of injury in the long run. It's a counter-intuitive approach that's eluded me for years. This is going to produce results that come about as fast as turtle shit, aaand if you're anything like myself, this is going to murder your march into mobile magnificence; which is a shame, because it does so many wonderful things for you. Wonderful things like reduced risk of injury, increased physical performance, more efficient training in other areas (maybe the reason you've hit a plateau), and most crucially: reaching the remote without getting off the couch.

So how do you get there? I'm far from an expert, so I'm going to mostly (ironically) direct you to people who sound like they don't get all their information from youtube. What I do know, is that whatever you've heard about "no pain, no gain", mostly and pleasantly doesn't apply here. If you're stretching to the point where you can't help but show outward signs of discomfort, you're probably doing it wrong. If you want those gains, shoot for strain instead of pain. If a joint is starting to hurt (basically my wrists for this whole challenge) that's a good sign you should stop and give whatever that happens to be, some rest. If you continue to train specific areas, you'll become more in tune with how much stress your body can take.

Since this is still about handstands, obviously training is going to be heavily centered on specific parts of the body that aren't specific to leg-stands (aka regular-stands). For most people living in the 21st century, you'll need some major work on your shoulders, back, and wrists; with some minor attention paid to hips, chest, and arms. Most yoga is going to be really beneficial here, but just to list some really solid stretches you should be doing: unilateral chest opener, behind back finger touches, sitting tricep stretch, rotator cuff bar stretches, shoulder extensions, door stretches, supine groin progressives, cobra pose, cat pose, laying hip twists, supermans (men?), these wrist stretches, and whatever else you can find. Two moves that may be considered a little more advance, but are supposed to be extremely beneficial are the bridge and the jefferson curl. If you struggle with proper bridge form like myself, I'd recommend elevating the feet high enough to keep the arms relatively straight. With the jefferson curl, you're going to want to take not only the movement very slow, but also the loading, because this is a potentially hazardous movement if done incorrectly. Hey! If you can't get massages on the regular, you should also invest in some lacrosse balls and look into self-myofascial release (it's more SFW than it sounds).

Lastly, and unrelated to mobility; I'd like to go over progression really quick with you. In my research, most resources cite the importance of proper progression in handstands. If you can do one with proper form, then you can move on to the next. It's pretty simple, but here are the movements I've been advancing with, from easiest to hardest:

1. Headstand

2. Wall Handstand (front and back)

3. Crow/ Frog Stand

4. Forearm Stand

5. Handstand

I'd recommend doing at least 30 seconds of one, before tackling the next. Of course, I've broken that rule with the forearm stand because I seem to lack the strength or mobility to hold that specific pose well, and I'm pressured to move into actual handstands early in the name of progress.

I'll try to update some of these movements with links over the next week, but here are some other excellent mobil-centric links to check out until next time.

Basics (w/ lots of mobility stuff)

Handstand Stretches

Interview with Gymnastics Coach Chris Sommer (Lots of awesome in-depth info if you have the time)