Handstand Specificity and Functionality

This is an article for the most dedicated handstanders out there.

If your truly dedicated to Handstands, and want’s to progress beyond your own limits. There is a few factors you should consider thinking trough. et’s call it Handstand Specificity. To achieve this specificity we have to sacrifice a few other things.

Try to think of a square. Left side is handstands and right side is anything other than handstands but still regarded to training The square symbolizes the total amount of training. The hard fact is that we cant be experts in every field. We have to choose either to specify to be the best or to be average good at everything. In this square draw two lines – and let me be clear: A important part here is that the amount of time used on training should be dedicated to our goal. However do I not recommend not training feet if you only do handstands and opposite – One going from one corner across to the other. And the second line from top to bottom where you think your dedication between handstand training and running are , for instance. If you want to get real good in handstands your line should be closest to the left, leaving less field left for the running.

If you spend time training both, you will end up in the middle. Good, healthy and strong at the middle. This isn’t a bad thing. But since we can’t experts at everything – or strongest in this part – and we want to be best in handstands, we have to sacrifice a part of something. Less time used on developing strength and technique in our feet, more time developing this in our upper body for instance. I can’t stress enough that I by no means are advicing you to only train your upper body part. Training lower part and conditioning is just as important – but in prior to our goal we want to minimize this to a level were we still can be healthy.

When the topic is strength training in prior to Handstand Training, I have chosen to wrap it up in three different blocks of training. My main reason is the simplicity in making an workout out of it. I choose to call them

• General Training,
• Handstand Specific Strength Training
• Handstand Functional Strength Training.

Further on I will go in depth on each of them.

General Training

This is training that you usually will do for strength training, exercises that you don’t specify to any training. But perhaps to volume, general strength, conditioning etc. When it’s handstand correlated feet is a part of your general training. And since we are using our lower body in our everyday and while training cardiovascular or even just living our lifes, you should still have some weight training in the lower part. The point with this lower part weight training is to reduce chances of damages and maintenance the whole body. High repetitions is the keyword if you want such.

Handstand Specific Strength Training

Handstand specific training is something every serious Handstander out there should incorporate into their strength training. We wan’t to work and stress the muscles used in handstands, and therefor improving our handstand trough strength training. In other words; if your focus is on increasing strength on your chest muscles, your training isn’t handstand specified. The same goes for the lower extremity.

To specify strength training towards Handstands we need to work our lower and upper back, shoulders, arms and core/abdomen and to a certain degree your chest.  These are the prime muscles used during a handstand so by strengthening these we can make our handstand techniques more adapted – or dramatically better handstand techniques depending on your strength training. There is a lot of exercises for this, and the keyword is; Use provided exercises for each of the muscle groups mentioned above, this will in general improve your handstand.

However, the specific training isn’t always narrowed enough to help us in extreme occasions – like the specified technique handstand push up/press up where a rowing exercises isn’t narrowed enough. For that we need functional training.

Handstand Functional Strength Training

To specify it you need to know one thing: Functional training adapted to handstands will be a smarter choice. And to know how to pick exercises that are handstand functional we need to determinate what functional is, and it will help you understand why it is a smarter choice, contra regular strength exercises.

A determination of functional strength training can be the following: “Functional training involves movements that are specific — in terms of mechanics, coordination and/or energetics — to one’s activities of daily living (ADLs)”. (by Steven Plisk) In other words the Deadlift is one of the exercises that are functional to every person in the world. You muscles will work in similar paths everytime you pick an object up from a lower level, this we do on a daily routine. Picking up training bags, grocery bags, garbage and so on..

To get good in handstands, you should do exercises that are functional to your handstand techniques. Both strength and technical.  Back to the two lines you’ve drawn. The first line prediction of the strength balance on an average person. Now the third line (going form top to the bottom represents how to balance your training for optimal Handstands and be able to live a normal life. I can not stress this point enough: This isn’t for the ordinary person, this specificity is for the most dedicated persons out there. Those who are willing to use over 80% + on their training on Handstand related improvements.

Now we need to pick the exercises, and since we now that we need to pick those that in terms of mechanics, coordination and/or energetics are most valuable to our handstand. Certain press exercises for shoulders will work as functional exercises for sure. If you are technically good enough, you can always use your handstand as a part of the strength training. Assisted Handstand Pushups for instance.

Also, the placement of hands is important here. To clarify look at this example: Let’s say you want to be able to do a pressup on a smaller surface, the surface is so small that you can barely hold both of your hands on it, much like a rail. One way to train strength into this small pressup is by doing shoulder exercises with a small grip. Approximate as small as your going to hold. This adapts your muscles so they can perform this task on a later occasion. It’s the same principle if you want to improve your broad hand placement of your pressup. Remember this when handstanding to.

What to choose?

There might be hard to know what to choose between the different forms of training ,or what type of exercises you should incorporate to improve your handstand. Above we summed up what the prior of each training is. I wish we just could do Functional Training for handstands, and only that. But the truth is, this isn’t a good idea,  because of many things. My main point here is the fact that specified training can ruin the opportunity to live a normal daily life, or to – on a much lather occasion – learn other techniques that requires more strength training. Another negative factor towards handstand and functional training is the fact at much of the exercises given to be functional doesn’t aloud us to give our main muscle groups enough stress to develop. Meaning that our maximal strength will stagnate sooner or later. We will always need a part of strength training, to lay a healthy strength base, to prevent injures and so on.

I’ve mentioned before that certain muscles groups aren’t required that much in handstand related techniques. I stand by my sayings, however these muscle groups should not be ignored. I used the chest as an example above.

Another factor is our daily life as mentioned earlier. By only training Handstand Specificity Strength or Functional training will leave us with weak – perhaps injured – lower extremity. That’s a mighty good reason for training General strength – and since I mentioned general training you should also know this. One of the best ways of training, adapting and increasing your strength is by variation. So we don’t loose anything training general strength, even when the prior is handstands.  Your muscles are by nature masters of adapting themselves to each and every strength exercises you should come up with, giving them variation will only force them to grow stronger.

My recommendation is that you train every aspect of the ones mentioned above, and condition for the sakes of your health. (in the methods below Condition is a part of General Training)
These are some models to strength training for handstands.

Novice:
90-70% General Training
10-30% Handstand Specific Training

Intermediate:
45 – 55% General Training
55 – 45% Handstand Specific Training

Expert:
30% General Training
60% Handstand Specific
10% Handstand Functional Training

Dedicated Expert:
10 – 20% General Training
70% Handstand Specific
20- 10% Handstand Functional Training

As you can see at the different models, the amount of general training reduces depending on your skill level. Main reason for this is that your overall strength in the body is increases. With this factor in mind we can put our body trough harder and harder training, and since it is handstands we want to develop in we’ll have to specify our training more and more. At Expert and Dedicated Expert your general training still persist. This is to maintain the overall strength, reduce the risk of injures and to have variation.

The main difference between Expert and Dedicated expert is the percent amount of training put into Specific and Functional Training. The reason for this is your goal. The more dedicated expert will – if my assumptions are correct – try to learn new and more difficult techniques, more combination and an overall more complicated handstand progression. The amount of time used on this is correlated to the technique your trying to learn. Also the handstand specific had an upgrade, and note that to train dedicated results in less general training. To say it nicely, you need a whole lot of training experience, understanding and focus to not end up with injures when training Dedicated or Expert.