Many of you will know that handstand pushups are one of my favourite exercises. They build upper body strength, all they require is a wall unless you do them freestanding and they make your shoulders look nice.
[This is the sort of strength I hope to acquire one day, building a fit and functional body is a good thing to aim for. A good body comes with the package]
Whenever I train my shoulders I always make sure I do handstand pushups. Lets look more into this classic exercise and why I incorporate it so much.
What Is The Handstand Pushup?
Always an important place to start when introducing an unfamiliar exercise. The handstand pushup is mainly a shoulder exercise where you press your entire bodyweight from an upside down position. You can use a wall as I do, or do them freestanding which is much more impressive but requires a lot of balance.
How To Do Handstand Pushups
I learnt all about proper handstand technique in the excellent strength bodyweight book Convict Conditioning. Face the wall and place your hands flat on the ground about shoulder width apart about 6-10 inches away from the wall. Bend at the knees and kick up against the wall into the handstand position. Maintain a slight arch in your back by looking forwards instead of the ground and proceed to bending your elbows and touch your head to the floor. Pause for a second before pushing yourself back up under full muscular control.
Handstand Pushup Video
Handstand Pushup Benefits
Doing a handstand pushup is in effect the equivalent of shoulder pressing your bodyweight. It can take a very long time trying to military press your bodyweight, but the average Joe can learn to do handstand pushups in a matter of months. As a result of handstand pushups, you get incredibly powerful and muscular shoulders in a short space of time.
The handstand pushup also teaches your body balance and coordination skills that you can’t replicate with the military press. Stabilizing yourself upside down, causes your vestibular system (balance organ of inner ear) to adapt and become more efficient.
Being upside down also has many benefits. There is actually something called inversion therapy to treat back pain. How effective that is I don’t know. Doing a handstand pushup reverses your blood supply and the veins and arteries work against gravity in the opposite direction, becoming more supple, stronger and healthier. This also has a good effect on the digestive organs. Your head receives a supply of fresh blood and you should feel refreshed and alert upon completion of the handstand pushup.
Strength, muscle, agility and health compacted into one exercise. What more could you want from an exercise, start incorporating them into your routine now. A lot of you may not be able to do handstand pushups, but you can check out Convict Conditioning which taught me how to do handstand pushups using a 10 step progression system.
Going Beyond Handstand Pushups
This may sound insane, but handstand pushups are only step 5 of 10 in convict conditioning. The goal is to work your way up toward 1 arm handstand pushups, not even sure that is possible, but who knows.
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