How to do a handstand

Most people learn the handstand by kicking up in the middle of a room, falling over, and trying again. A few hundred attempts later, some of them can stay up for a second or two. The rest decide they are not built for it.

A handstand is a balance skill sitting on top of a strength position. Learn the position first, against a wall, and the balance comes far faster than it does from kicking up and hoping.

What a good handstand looks like.

Hands shoulder-width apart, fingers spread, arms straight. Shoulders pushed up towards your ears, which is the opposite of what you do in a dip. Ribs in, glutes tight, legs together, so your body makes one straight line from wrists to toes.

You balance through your hands, not your hips. Press into your fingertips when you start to tip over, ease off when you start to come back. A banana-shaped back is the most common fault, and it makes the balance much harder than it needs to be.

Learn to come down before you go up.

Fear of falling stops more handstands than weak arms do, so practise the exit first. From a small kick, step one hand to the side and turn out of it, like the end of a cartwheel. Repeat it until it happens without thinking.

Practise on grass or a mat, with a body length of clear space around you. Nothing breakable, nobody walking past.

Warm up your wrists first.

In a handstand your wrists carry your whole bodyweight at an angle they rarely see in daily life. Give them five minutes every session: wrist circles, rocking forwards and back on hands and knees, stretching with palms down and then with the backs of your hands down, and easy rocking in a straight-arm plank.

If your wrists ache during or after a session, cut the volume and spend longer on the wall rungs.

The ladder.

1. Pike hold on a box. Feet on a box or a step, hands on the floor, hips stacked over your shoulders. Push the floor away. Work towards 30 seconds. This teaches the shoulder position while your feet still take some of the weight.

2. Wall walk. Start face down with your feet against a wall. Walk your feet up the wall and your hands in towards it, only as far as you can control. Hold for a few breaths, then walk back down slowly.

3. Chest-to-wall hold. Stomach facing the wall, hands 10 to 20 centimetres from it, body straight, shoulders open. This is the line you are aiming for, and it is where most of the work happens. Build to 45 to 60 seconds.

4. Heel pulls. In a chest-to-wall hold, take one heel a few centimetres off the wall, then both, and balance for as long as you can. Steer with your fingers, not your hips.

5. Kick-ups to balance. Back on open ground. Small, controlled kicks to find the balance point, not big swings. When you overbalance, use the cartwheel exit. Short sets, plenty of rest.

6. The freestanding handstand. Straight line, steady fingers, a few seconds at first. 10 seconds held cleanly is a good first target. Then 30.

How often, and how much.

A handstand is a skill, so little and often beats long and rare. 10 to 15 minutes most days, at the start of a session while you are fresh. Rest between attempts, because the quality of each go matters more than the number of them.

Change one thing at a time: a longer hold, hands closer to the wall, one heel off instead of none. Stay on a rung until it is easy and consistent, not until you have scraped through it once.

Where it fits with the rest.

The handstand belongs with pushing work. A solid support hold from the dip ladder trains the same straight-arm strength, and the chest-to-wall hold builds the overhead shoulder position that pressing relies on.

If you are also working towards your first pull-up, the two ladders sit well in the same week: one pushing, one pulling. Together with the muscle-up, they make up most of what people mean by calisthenics skills.

Where the app comes in.

The free Living Fit app puts this ladder in order and moves you up it on evidence. Clear a tier at target quality and the next one appears. Struggle with it, and the app steps you back rather than leaving you stuck on something you are not ready for.

It reads your readiness first, from three quick questions or a synced wearable, and sizes the session to the day. Every movement in the app has a video demo, which helps when you are checking your own line against a wall.

No card, no trial clock. It is free, and it stays free.

Training with a coach.

All you need is a wall and a patch of flat grass. What a wall cannot tell you is whether your back is arched or your shoulders are closed, and both are hard to feel from upside down.

If you would rather have someone checking your line and your wrists, that is what calisthenics coaching in Malta is for. Sean is an Advanced Level 3 coach, handstands are one of the skills he coaches, and the first session is free.

One caution.

If you have high blood pressure, glaucoma, a heart condition, or a wrist, elbow or shoulder problem, talk to a doctor or physiotherapist before you start going upside down. The same applies if you are pregnant or postnatal. Living Fit Malta provides personal training, not medical or physiotherapy advice, and individual results vary.

Two ways to start: book a free first session, or start free in the app.