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Your Handstand Workout🤸♀️🤸♀️🤸♀️
If you’re interested in getting a handstand, it’s best to focus your efforts on that goal.
Creating a handstand workout, there would be many factors, but mainly, your current skill level and goals would come into play.
Remember that learning a handstand is still a challenging task even if you’re already a generally strong athlete. There are muscle, strength and skill requirements involved where you can also read in our other article: From zero to upside down step by step. The most effective handstand progression. Add that there’s also a great deal of focus and mental sharpness needed in attaining a consistent free-standing balance.
🎯In this article we want to show you
1. 👊What are the elements of a successful handstand workout
2. 👊Show you an example of a 45-min sample workout (beginner, intermediate & advanced) that you can do that’s focused on getting you your handstand.
🤔What makes an effective Handstand workout?
So the journey is one of the key concepts in TMA, but the real MAGIC HAPPENS DURING the WORKOUTS through its UNIQUE STRUCTURE.
Let me show you why.
Calisthenics is so powerful because it’s complex.💯
You might have enough strength to do a handstand but if your shoulder mobility is off you won’t be able to hold it.
Then there is a skill element. In the handstand example, the skill would be learning body alignment and entry and exit strategies.
Next is endurance which means improving your work capacity of being on the hands.
And then there is building muscle mass 💪 to support that mobility and ligament development
Programming for all these elements is difficult so 99% of the programs you will see our there will never even mention these different elements.
And this is something that we do very differently than everyone else on the market.
We structure your training program around these elements creating a holistic approach for all-round development.
So your daily Training in The Movement Athlete app will always have these elements:
Warmup + Mobility
Skill Work
Strength Work
Endurance Work
Muscle Building Work
Cooldown + Flexibility Work
It’s SO CRITICAL YET NO ONE IS TEACHING THIS
Ok, Let’s look at each one of those separately.
✨SKILL WORK
The technique is key in calisthenics. These movements are designed to either draw focus to specific technique cues or train important movement patterns for the subsequent strength movements. Skill movements are done at a low intensity and low total volume.
✨STRENGTH WORK
Strength movements or main movements are the reason we are here. These are the movements that will chart your progression through the world of calisthenics and bodyweight fitness. There is a large variation in strength movements, from easy to hard, low volume to medium/high volume, dynamic to static but the reps and sets are optimised for strength building
✨MUSCLE WORK
A bigger muscle has the potential to become a stronger muscle. Muscle movements are movements that are done at low-to-medium intensities and higher total volumes for the purpose of building muscle. The lower intensities also allow athletes to focus on the muscles involved and to get a good squeeze and pump. Many muscle movements are pulled from appropriate strength movements but have a different rep scheme to strength.
✨ENDURANCE WORK
Many calisthenics movements involve static holds. Endurance movements train the athletes’ capability to hold the body in various positions. These are typically programmed to be easier than the equivalent strength movement holds. Instead, more work volume is added for more practice time.
Taken together, these different movement types are designed to produce skilled, strong and complete bodyweight athletes.
And this is what you would be getting inside The Movement Athlete App
HANDSTAND WORKOUTS 🔥
Now, let me just say that at The Movement Athlete Academy we are really against creating cookie-cutter workouts that limit you to beginner, intermediate advanced.
There is a scientific research showing that not only the risk of getting injured is much higher if you follow ready made routines – the risk of you not making any progress is way higher too.
You can read more on this here: Death to beginner, intermediate, advanced workouts that are hurting your training
Hence, the workouts that are shown below are there as an example of workouts that you will see inside our app.
Yes you can use them and follow them – but we really advice that you follow a more personalised training.
You can asses yourself which progression are you currently on by following our handstand progression here 👇
HOW TO CREATE THE MOST EFFECTIVE HANDSTAND WORKOUT FOR YOUR LEVEL?
Here are the steps to follow if you would like to create your own personalised workout.
1. Assessment
Look at the strength progression. Your goal is to pick the exercises in teh strength progression that you can do at the mastery level
2. Match the strength exercises with Skill, Muscle and Endurance
exercises that are on the same line. This exercises is what when achieved will enable you to level up.
3. Put it into a workout with given programming
Below are example of workouts that are created based on where are you in the progression – either in early stages (we called in a beginner), middle stages (intermediate) or advanced (closer to the end of the progression.
👉Beginners 45-Minute sample workout
As a beginner learning a handstand, you would want to learn your handstand while achieving an overall good baseline of strength, mobility, and endurance.
This would allow you to progress faster, see faster results, make the process more enjoyable and will keep you motivated to train your handstand overtime.
Also do remember, even if you’re trying to learn a handstand, it’s better to set a larger and long time goal. Long time goals keep you motivated and will help you more disciplined in your training.
Don’t give up!
Regarding your beginner handstand workout, more basic progressions are used and exercises are aimed to develop overall strength.
👉Intermediate 45-Minute sample workout
For more skilled athletes, we’ll be providing you more advanced exercises.
You’ll also be preparing more shoulder strength and core since they will be the major muscle groups working to get you to hold a free-standing handstand.
Strengthening exercises are not solely for strength as they will also help you increase your mobility mainly on your shoulders. Shoulder mobility is one of the main problem areas that hinder people from learning a good form of a handstand.
👉Advanced 45-Minute sample workout
If you’re already an advanced athlete, you are expected to already have a good level of core and shoulder strength. Well, your whole body should already be strong and well-balanced at this point.
So the focus of your workout will be on strengthening key areas and common weak links in a handstand.
Common weak links mostly include shoulder mobility issues that hinders you from opening your shoulders. Open shoulders let you stack your full body in a straight line.
Lying shrugs is a good example. Don’t underestimate this exercise. It looks so easy, but if done correctly, it’s still a humbling exercise.
Core strength is another area that needs to be addressed.
No, sit-ups won’t help you that much. Handstand needs a transferable strengthening exercise that mimics the position when you are in a handstand. A good example of this is a hollow body hold.
Train your weak links and you will soon hold your handstand.
🔎Ready-made workouts are not the best
Just before you jump straight into this workout and expect some gains, you need to know that these types of workouts are not ideal to progress in calisthenics.
At first glance, the workouts seem promising. It’s divided into levels in which you can categorize yourself into.
But these questions and realizations will come into mind especially once you got to try the actual workout:
- ✊ How can you really tell if you’re already an intermediate, advanced athlete or still a beginner?
- ✊ The difference in difficulty from each level is too drastic.
- ✊ Some exercises are too easy or too difficult for you.
- ✊ There are lagging body parts that I need to address.
- ✊ The whole workout makes me progress too fast or too slow.
With these realizations in mind, you might end up demotivated, uninspired and ultimately quit your training.
Such training programs also post a higher risk of injuries due to the sudden jumps of difficulty and inability to address weaknesses.
🔓🔑What you actually need are
personalized workouts similar to what
The Movement Athlete Academy
provides 💪💪💪
Powered by a powerful Artificial Intelligence, The Movement Athlete Academy app creates a program that is perfect just for you.
Personalized workouts are the exact opposite of the ready-made workouts.
First, since personalization is specific to your needs, goals and current situation, an assessment will start your program. The assessment bases the structure of your program so you’ll have the right level exactly just for you in every aspect.
Your new program isn’t set in stone. As it’s fully personalized, it will continue to adjust based on your current progress and ability to train that day.
Let’s be realistic. There are just those days that we can’t perform like we want to because of other factors in our lives affecting our performance. The Movement Athlete app adjusts for you.
If you badly want to reach your handstand, train realistically.
Train safely, effectively, efficiently and with purpose. All of these while keeping it fun.
If you want to learn handstand, train with The Movement Athlete.
