Why You Should Be Doing More Handstands: By Coach Richard Wood

Handstands are an extremely underrated exercise for one main reason and that is because most people think they can’t do it.  

But just because you didn’t grow up doing gymnastics or you don’t have a strong upper body doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to do handstands or handstand push-ups starting today. 

Here are a couple reasons why you should learn how to do them, whether doing them up against a wall or freestanding.

1. They’ll make your upper body super-strong! In order to stay upside down for any length of time, you’ll need a massive amount of shoulder, arm, and upper back strength to hold you up. Most beginners will find it difficult to hold themselves upside down after only a few seconds.
2. They’ll increase your balance. If you’ve ever tried to do a handstand you know that you need to be strong to do them but you need a substantial amount of balancing skills to do them as well.
3. They build your core strength. There is no need to spend hours doing ab workouts when you can work on handstands and build your core strength as well. Since staying upside down forces you to stabilize your muscles, you are constantly working your abs as well other key muscles such as your hip flexors,  hamstrings, inner thighs, obliques and lower back.

So start building handstands into your weekly exercise routine, even just for a few minutes a day. And soon enough you’ll become a handstand ninja.