Handstand Challenge

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Replies

  • TiisTitanium
    TiisTitanium Posts: 235 Member
    I am living vicariously through you both today as I had a double miss - had to miss my weekly hand balancing class or do any practice. Stupid work and stupid work policies of not doing handstands when in corporate logo'ed clothing.

    Back to it tomorrow.

  • tropicalchicy
    tropicalchicy Posts: 27 Member
    I'm loving reading about everyones progress, thanks @TiisTitanium for starting this.

    I can't see myself meeting my goal - which is to kick up into a wall handstand. I am seeing progress in other ways - my upper body strength has improved. I can now manage an chatarungas (high plank lower to updog) on my toes with proper form. I also just feel stronger in class - I think its the daily (well almost) practise at home.

    Tonight was a vinyasa class followed by a few practice kick ups and arm balances.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    28 Jun – 5 mins, warmup, wall, cartwheels

  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,069 Member
    tropicalchicy wrote: »
    I'm loving reading about everyones progress, thanks @TiisTitanium for starting this.

    I can't see myself meeting my goal - which is to kick up into a wall handstand. I am seeing progress in other ways - my upper body strength has improved. I can now manage an chatarungas (high plank lower to updog) on my toes with proper form. I also just feel stronger in class - I think its the daily (well almost) practise at home.

    Tonight was a vinyasa class followed by a few practice kick ups and arm balances.

    You are seeing improvements, so that is a great thing. Take it slow and one step at a time. I was watching a youtube tutorial on handstands once by a yogi and she said it took her 5 years to get her first handstand. FIVE YEARS. And now she's a teacher. That made me feel a lot better about my slow progress. I've been working on mine for two years now.
  • TiisTitanium
    TiisTitanium Posts: 235 Member
    Glad you enjoyed the challenge @tropicalchicy.

    Slow and steady wins the race or in other words sometimes it feels like you are making no progress with something but after all the little changes that you make along the way turn into something massive. I work on my handstands and splits a lot and progressive is painfully slow for me at times and it seems like everyone in the universe learns physical stuff so much quicker than me and that I will never be at the level of other people, but I just keep going as I can guarantee i will never get better if I stop.
  • tropicalchicy
    tropicalchicy Posts: 27 Member
    Thanks for the encouragement @mom23mangos and @TiisTitanium :)
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,069 Member
    My gym buddy's been watching me work on my handstands between sets and had to just show off and stick one for 40+ seconds. :tongue:
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    29 Jun – 5 mins inc push-ups, wall, cartwheels, 10 sec handstand

    https://youtu.be/TYyUy02HOoY

    (43 sec vid)

    Really happy with my 10+ second handstand. Felt strong and upright, and could control balance between the heels of my hands and the tips of my fingers.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    edited June 2018
    mom23mangos wrote: »
    My gym buddy's been watching me work on my handstands between sets and had to just show off and stick one for 40+ seconds. :tongue:

    You mean you did that?!!! @mom23mangos
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,069 Member
    Orphia wrote: »
    mom23mangos wrote: »
    My gym buddy's been watching me work on my handstands between sets and had to just show off and stick one for 40+ seconds. :tongue:

    You mean you did that?!!! @mom23mangos

    Noooooo!!!! HE did. I couldn't stick one for longer than 5-6 sec today. 🤣
  • Tallawah_
    Tallawah_ Posts: 2,475 Member
    mom23mangos wrote: »
    Orphia wrote: »
    mom23mangos wrote: »
    My gym buddy's been watching me work on my handstands between sets and had to just show off and stick one for 40+ seconds. :tongue:

    You mean you did that?!!! @mom23mangos

    Noooooo!!!! HE did. I couldn't stick one for longer than 5-6 sec today. 🤣

    You shoulda pushed him over after 4! :sweat_smile:
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    01 Jun – 5 minutes wall drills
    02 Jun – 5 minutes wall drills
    03 Jun – 4 minutes wall drills + 1 minute of Crow poses
    04 Jun – 5 minutes wrist/arm/shoulder exercises
    05 Jun - 5 minutes - headstand, Crow, wrist strengthening
    06 Jun – 5 minutes – Crow, planks, Firefly, wrist strengthening
    07 Jun – 5 minutes wrist exercises, 38 second headstand
    08 Jun – 5 minutes wrist exercises, 1 minute headstand
    09 Jun – 5 minutes wrist exercises, 40 second headstand
    10 Jun – 5 minutes wrist exercises, 39 second headstand; 50 km run
    11 Jun - 5 minutes wrist exercises
    12 Jun - 5 minutes wrist exercises, headstand, and planking
    13 Jun – 5 minutes wrist exercises, 1 minute headstand
    14 Jun – 5 minutes inc planking, 5 second handstand
    15 Jun – 5 minutes wall drills inc 6 second handstand
    15 Jun – 5 minutes wall drills
    16 Jun - 5 minutes wall drills
    17 Jun - 5 minutes wall drills inc 9 second handstand
    18 Jun – 5 mins wall drills inc three 6-10 second handstands
    19 Jun – 5 mins wall drills inc 10+ second handstand without wall
    20 Jun – 5 mins wall drills inc 8 second handstand
    21 Jun – 5 mins inc Crow, headstand + freestanding split handstand
    22 Jun – 5 mins freestanding handstand practice
    23 Jun – 5 mins wrist exercises, headstand, plank, 1 min handstand practice
    24 Jun – 5 mins free, wall, plank, Crow
    25 Jun – 6 mins free, Crow, Firefly, stretching
    26 Jun – 10 mins balance practice, stretching
    27 Jun – 5 mins, warmup, cartwheels, wall
    28 Jun – 5 mins, warmup, wall, cartwheels
    29 Jun – 5 mins inc push-ups, wall, cartwheels, 10 sec handstand
    30 Jun – 5 mins, warmup, wall, cartwheels


    Yay! 5 minutes done every day in June! Did 10 second handstands a few times, so that's definite progress for me.
  • TiisTitanium
    TiisTitanium Posts: 235 Member
    Well done @Orphia. You have been amazingly consistent.

    Big thank you to everyone that participated in the challenge this month. It was good to see everyone's progress. I definitely will keep posting here as I have lots of handbalancing goals including 1 minute balance and my big goal of being able to do a press handstand
    .

    I am thinking of joining an instagram challenge of 365 days of handstands which is next level challenge but something that is appealing to me - and saves me from boring people on MFP with my handstand snaps.

    Anyway last photo's for the challenge from me below :smile:

    ospvpdzrw0gl.jpg

    fxcvf970ici4.png




  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,069 Member
    Absolutely beautiful form @TiisTitanium !! Please keep posting here.

    My husband and I biked to the park this morning and I did my handstand practice while he did his 7 minute workout. I tried to get a handstand from every direction, but East wasn't having it. 😜

    https://youtu.be/xjdffoLlL9k
  • Tallawah_
    Tallawah_ Posts: 2,475 Member
    Last day of the month successes... :smiley:

    9b2kup7pmczz.jpg

    ...and failures! :sweat_smile:

    nfn7hiww86wz.jpg
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    @TiisTitanium Please keep posting pics! I've been wishing you'd post more, plus videos.

    @mom23mangos Great handstands and video! Cool idea too.

    @Tallawah_ LOL love both!!

    Did my usual 5 minutes today, which is different every day. Usually a couple of minutes workout, then handstands of some sort.

    Hmm, a 365 day challenge sounds good. Hmm, I'm on 31 days. Better keep going!! :smiley:
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    mbaker566 wrote: »
    Wohoo a whole 4 sec freestanding handstand

    @mbaker566 Yay!!!
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Handstand Practice

    July 1 – 5 min
    July 2 – 5 min

    In my warm-ups, I'm practicing things like downward dog, frogger, planking, pushups, crow pose, firefly pose, and also doing some stretching and wrist strengthening.

    My handstand practice is only a couple of minutes, as I find that my form goes out the window if I try it any longer.
  • Deviette
    Deviette Posts: 978 Member
    I want to do more handstands, I really struggled fitting them in last month. The thing that's holding me back is my wrist strength so I really need to work on them daily (from old old injuries). Because I was getting wrist pain when up I lost motivation to keep at my handstanding. Going to try working on wrist strength before going for handstands again.

    July 2nd - 5 minutes wrist stretching in 1 minute chunks
  • TiisTitanium
    TiisTitanium Posts: 235 Member
    @deviette - try working on headstands and elbowstand if your wrists are painful as it helps with the balance element.

    I had an awesome time in my contortion class tonight as my instructor didn't turn up so me and one of my contortion buddies decided to freestyle it up so i spent ages working on handstands and elbowstands with bendy back positions. So much fun and nice to do what i wanted rather following someone elses program though my old person hips are nwo hurting a lot as i pushed myself too far in the splits part of the freestyling.

    Thanks for the words of encouragement @Orphia and @mom23mangos. I don't think i will get round to transitioning to videos but it is nice too know that people don't mind the pics :)
  • MaryBethHempel
    MaryBethHempel Posts: 513 Member
    I have been thinking about doing my headstands and handstands again for the last 2 weeks now. Perfect timing for this Challenge! I am looking forward to watching your links! Thank you for posting! :)
  • TiisTitanium
    TiisTitanium Posts: 235 Member
    Welcome @MaryBethHempel. The first couple of pages of this thread has some great resources which everyone has found if you need resources.

    No need to restrict yourself to handstands - i like to think any kind of handbalancing activities (but I am biased as I am quite liking elbow stands at the moment).
  • TiisTitanium
    TiisTitanium Posts: 235 Member
    Tallawah_ wrote: »
    Last day of the month successes... :smiley:

    9b2kup7pmczz.jpg

    ...and failures! :sweat_smile:

    nfn7hiww86wz.jpg

    Haha - The highs and lows of handstands :)
  • OHammykins
    OHammykins Posts: 97 Member
    I'm going to give it a try this month :-)
    I've been talking about wanting to do a handstand for months now - today is the day I take action!
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    July 3.
    5 min inc 7 and 10 second handstands
  • Deviette
    Deviette Posts: 978 Member
    TiisTitanium wrote: »
    @deviette - try working on headstands and elbowstand if your wrists are painful as it helps with the balance element.
    I will do :smile:

    Did about 5 or 6 free standing handstands yesterday, each of about 2 seconds. About half over balanced, half under balanced. I definitely need to be more consistent with my kickups
  • TiisTitanium
    TiisTitanium Posts: 235 Member
    Wednesday is officially my favourite day of the week because I have handstand class and it always makes me happy especially when my instructor is happy with my improvements - nice to have feedback from an independent source that things are getting better. Even though it is so hardcore for the 50 minutes we work on conditioning before freestanding handstands are attempted. And as an added bonus I apparently have great cartwheel form :smiley:

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    TiisTitanium wrote: »
    Wednesday is officially my favourite day of the week because I have handstand class and it always makes me happy especially when my instructor is happy with my improvements - nice to have feedback from an independent source that things are getting better. Even though it is so hardcore for the 50 minutes we work on conditioning before freestanding handstands are attempted. And as an added bonus I apparently have great cartwheel form :smiley:

    You're lucky to have a handstand class near you. I think the nearest ones to me are a few times a year, 300 km away.

    I'm lucky to have your thread, and YouTube.
  • huango
    huango Posts: 1,007 Member
    Thanks to @mom23mangos : I'm joining in.

    I've never been able to do a handstand.
    Currently working on my wall-stands.

    Appreciate your help and support.
    Thanks,
    Amanda

    36639141_10217177070324775_7917940027433156608_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=02a962263e4196e8bee42fe842673c1d&oe=5BDD8DFB

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