This is in an add on to the original Walk On Hands tutorial so if you haven’t read that one yet I suggest you do it before reading this. And for the record, don’t be scared. This is completely normal in any way possible. It’s just upside down.

Walking Down Stairs On Hands Tutorial

A 5 step beginner guide.

First of I’ll start with some terms I’ll use throughout this guide. They are also explained on their first appearance.

• Transition
  This is the term on the technique between your normal stand and into a handstand
• Handstand Hold
  The term of standing still in a handstand. I sometimes also refer to this as the Basic.
• Core
  When I talk about core, i mean the core muscles. These are your abdomen and lower back in this article.

Preparations: Psych?

Walking on hands down stairs is just as psychological challenge as a physical. In a mater if fact, it’s less tiring to walk down stairs on hands; than straight forward – and quite the opposite if your going to walk up stairs. There is a common fear that the risk of falling head first is more common when walking down stairs. This is not true. If you break it down and look at the physiological factors you will see that the chance is just as small, if not smaller. The great thing about walking down stairs is that you have more time to land on feet when you eventually fall. Which must be a good thing right?

Also, I’m not going to go to deep into the walking part of handstands since this is explained in the previous Tutorial. However I will mention the things that changes during a handstand walk down stairs etc.

Step 1: Psychological barrier

As mentioned above walking down stairs is more a psychological barrier than a physiological – if you feel comfortable walking on hands, and have done it for a while, then walking down stairs shouldn’t be a problem. Skip this step.

If you still can’t break it try this: Get two boxes (or something similar) with slightly different heights. To make it easy for yourself take a height that is close to ordinary staircase steps – this will make the transition from the boxes your training on the stairs easier to handle – now put them in front of each other. Spin your transition and get up on your hands on the box, find your hold and place one hand down on the next box. Do this a couple of times. Try not to loose balance and really get used to the height change. See if you can complete all the steps.

It’s time to get rid of your barrier for good. Some of you might be fearless and start on stairs as fast as you can, however – as usual – I will write as if you didn’t. Find yourself the broadest staircase you know of, preferred with little height change between steps and the wider the better. Start the same way you did on the boxes and you will soon realize that this is just as easy. Progress to stairs with more height change – the key still, is to variate.

Step 2: Bent or straight legs.

This is the same cons and pros as when walking on hands regularly. However one main different should be noted, I’ve gotten reports of people telling me it’s easier for a beginner to walk with bent legs and therefore I will explain why this is.With bent legs you’ll don’t have to control your balance with your core that much, this is because the weight of your legs will adjust them on where to be in order to have balance. When your legs are straight you don’t have this opportunity and therefore must balance only with your core, arms and such. The ironically part is that you do have better control of the handstand when your legs are straight. Much because then your legs weight won’t be an issue when moving forward and down. It’s a reason why you’ll gain most speed with bent legs. It all boils down to speed versus control.

Another important issue to address is the arching of your back when you’re using the bent leg technique. Specially your lower back whose the weak link here, be careful, and stop if you feel any pain or such.

Step 3: I can’t get down bigger ones

Sometimes your strength or lack of control will prevent you from successfully stray down that stair. Specially if the stair has a big height between the steps. It really depends on the person however one thing is true; You will always find a stair whom manages to test your strength and if you can walk down all of them, you know it’s time to walk em’ up. Back to the point, strengthening of arms, shoulders and upper back in general will help you overcome such stairs. See if these steps helps:

Arms:
When it comes to the technique of walking down stairs your arms is mainly locked in a firm position. However you still need lift, at sometimes bend , your arm and receive an impact upon landing on each step. Therefor training general strength in arms will help you in every way. Take a look at your strength training and see if you should add a arm isolation exercise or two.

Shoulders:
Much the same as the above, and when it comes to walking on hands, but you still need to take that impact on every step. Shoulders are the next joint after the elbows whom will receive the impact and also the ones to absorb it, strengthening shoulders in every possible way. Both isometric and dynamic. Try to move you hands with the shoulders just like you would do when walking normal.

Upper Back:
General strength to maintain the hold of the rest of your body, in addition you also need to keep some of the balance with your upper back.

Core:
You need more balance walking down stairs than straight forward. Since your body each time you move to a step will be a uneven position. Let me be more specific, you’ll be leaning slightly to whatever side your using your arm with. That means that your abdomen muscles will have to stabilize until you move your next hand in front of you regaining balance. This technique is one of those things that comes naturally when training.

Step 4: Speed, double or single step?

Single moving hands is probably the first technique you will learn when walking down stairs. (this is when you stop at each step, placing both hands, before moving on). This is the safest way, but believe it or not it may be the heaviest. Double is much like the way you usually walk down stairs. Skipping steps as you walk, making the walk much more efficient.

You can do the same thing on hands, simply by skipping on step and place it on the next one and  therefor walking doubles. This method save energy because you are more efficient and can repel the stair much faster. The backside is that if you do it do fast, you will end up loosing control and face-plant. Or something like that. I also should mention that the force of the impact,specially on shoulders, is much higher when using the doubles than the single ones. I use these guidelines when choosing which one to use:

Single:
When in need to have control or whenever I feel unsafe I switch to the single step technique.

Double:
When in need for speed, efficiency and the need to save energy. Or for style of course.

Step 5: Grip

Walking down stairs on hands has an huge advantage against regular walking, or walking up stairs, on hands doesn’t have, you can take a grip on each step. When I’m saying taking I grip I literally mean it, be sure that your palm is so close the edge that you can bend your fingers around it.You can choose between palm and stair grip. The difference between them is the way you wrap your fingers at the edge.

Palm Grip:
Instead of only using a part of the fingers like stair grip, this grip leaves only the palm at the surface and all the fingers extended down the edge.

Stair Grip:
This is a grip where you are gripping with your fingers (mostly the first two joints of your finger)

For a complete guide on the grips read this: Lower Down Tutorial

Anyways, these grips will help your balance a lot and prevent you from falling back or forwards. Each time you move your hand to a new step, take a new grip. This technique will help you quite a lot in the beginning, but whenever your getting hang of it, learn to do it without gripping. As you will need a technique like that when you try to walk up stairs.

Happy Handstand
Tor