Handstand Mechanics
Whether you’ve been doing handstands or have just started, it helps to understand the physics of the handstand, in order to do it with maximum efficiency and prevent injuries.
The Hands
First, we humans are not used to “standing” on our hands. Remember how long it took you to learn how to stand on your feet? Well, maybe not, but you get the point.
The table below shows the general weight of Human Body Parts as percentages of total body weight.
| Segment | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| Total Arm | 5.70% | 4.97% |
| Hand | 0.65% | 0.50% |
| Total Leg | 16.7% | 18.4% |
| Foot | 1.43% | 1.33% |
The weight of hands/arms are ⅓ proportionally to feet/legs.
Geometrically, the foot can easily form a 90 degrees angle with the leg, which means we don’t have to put a lot of effort to stay balanced when we’re standing. Healthy wrists can usually go downward (flex) 90 degrees and upwards (extend) 70 degrees.
So when we’re upside down standing on the hands, we need those extra 20 degrees of extension to be at a natural geometric form, where the arms meet the palms at a 90 degrees angle.
Because of the weight proportions, angles and the fact that your hands are not used to carrying your whole body weight, it’s important to warm the wrists up before doing a handstand, in order to prevent injury. In the long run, to be able to hold the handstand for longer, it’s important to create that mobility in the wrist and get to 90 degrees extension.
Doing wrist warm up exercises, planks and downward dogs are a good first step to gain awareness of your wrists, get a sense how much weight they can take, and also get a feel on what it’s like to be inverted. For example, by holding a downdog for as long as you can, you will get an idea/baseline about what you can do with 60-75% of your weight on your hands.
Balancing on the Hands (Cambered Hands)
Just as we can balance between toes and heels, we can do the same in our hands with our fingertips and palms. Putting your hand in a form where you can balance between the fingertips and palms is called the Cambered Hand technique.
Cambered Hands Technique
This reinforces what we’ve talked about already: in order to stay balanced in a handstand, you will need the flexibility in your wrists in order to bounce in between your fingertips and palms. Most people don’t do this, but it’s critical to do regular work on your wrists to prevent injury and have the natural structure to hold handstands longer.
The Shoulders
When inverted in a handstand, the body will stack up on your wrists and shoulders, so the more you push away from the ground with your shoulders, the better you will be able to hold the handstand position. For that reason, it’s very important to build strong shoulders.
A healthy shoulder flexes upwards at 180 degrees angle, but because of so many modern activities sitting on chairs and couches looking at screens, our shoulders are becoming tighter. When the shoulders are tight, it’s hard to keep the body in a straight line when inverted upside down, which makes holding a handstand harder. Work on the flexibility of your shoulders to remove inefficiencies and be able to hold handstands longer.
The Elbows
In climbing, one of the first things to learn is to keep the elbows locked most of the time and only move them when transitioning from one place to another. Over time, you get used to it and your tendons build enough strength and won’t tire quickly. The reason this is important is because the bones and tendons are a lot more effective than muscles at carrying weight and won’t require as much effort to stay in position.
Flip it upside down, locking the elbows is even more critical in handstands. Not only will it make balancing easier (straight line), but your much stronger bones will contribute to taking on your weight instead of having your muscles do most of the work.
The Core
In a handstand, your upper body is basically carrying your lower body. The core connects everything together and is critical to stay balanced. Imagine a pencil with a gum at the center, will it hold together in a straight line if the gum does not fully harden like concrete?
Your core is what’s guiding and carrying your hips to line up above your shoulders in a straight line. Without a strong engaged core, it’s impossible to hold a handstand.
The Legs
Yes, it’s possible to hold a handstand without strong legs. However, think about swimming and the role kicking the feet plays in helping you move faster. Squeezing your glutes and pointing your toes will help you truly form that straight line and hold the handstands a lot longer.
Conclusion
Holding a handstand requires whole body strength and upper body flexibility. That’s why it’s such an impressive movement that has become a practice of its own (hand balancing), in addition to being popular across many sports that focus on mastery of the whole body.
If you’re interested in practicing handstands regularly, check out our app, currently available on iOS, and let us know if you’re interested in an Android version.
We've also got a super friendly web app called Exercise Catalog, where you can dive into all sorts of exercises. Discover helpful videos and handy tips to make sure you're performing each exercise safely and efficiently.