The Handstand Mindset
If you found your way to this article, chances are you’re intrigued by handstands. With determination and the right mindset, you will see tangible progress in your ability to hold a freestanding handstand. Here is how we think about handstands.
What: it’s a quest
Most people assume they will be able to achieve the perfect free-standing handstand with two weeks of hard work.
When they start with that assumption, they usually end up quitting.
When instead, they approach it as a 6-month “quest” of daily practice, even if just for 5 minutes a day, they end up seeing tangible improvements in their handstand holds.
To achieve high standards, we need to have realistic beliefs about how hard something is going to be.
— Jeff Bezos
Who: it’s for everyone
As we evolve as a species, with a balanced view of what’s important, imagine every single one of us trained in schools to do handstands by the age of 9, and using it as an ongoing method later in life to recalibrate and restore balance.
Fine, let’s be real and have a look at what kind of a person cares about handstands in today’s reality.
It’s in more sports than you think
Sports that put a lot of focus on handstands: yoga, gymnastics, calisthenics, breakdance, acrobatics, Crossfit, capoeira, bodyweight fitness, pole dancing, parkour, Olympic diving, cheerleading, martial arts, skateboarding, etc…
We asked a group of people that are interested in handstands what their top 3 sports are, and here is what they told us. We learned that climbers are also naturally interesting in handstands.
People who do handstands are mostly interested in these sports
By and large, life will give you what you deserve. It is up to you to take full responsibility to connect what you want with what you need to do to get it, and then to do those things.
― Ray Dalio
Why: like all hard things, it’s good for you
Whoever you are, if you’re interested in the art of movement, handstands will be there on your list of great things to achieve. You want to do it so you can improve, evolve, and conquer yourself!
Beyond the sense of achievement, handstands have direct short term benefits on the body and the mind:
Improve Metabolism
Boost your mood
Perfect your core and balance
Strengthen your bones and muscles
We asked a group of people why they do handstands, and here is what they told us:
Why people do handstands
Our top 10 inspiring why’s:
It’s a celebration of what my body can do
Because I think it is a great overall feat of strength and balance.
The challenge, because I can, because it's hard.
To be functionally strong as I enter middle age (for the first time in my life) and a good role model of such to my kids.
It requires a lot of discipline to practice enough to get there. Strengthening my arms and core. Can't deny it looks cool and it would be awesome to be able to do it
.Mastery of yoga pose. Equates to a level of strength, balance, and mental focus.
In Capoeira we challenge each other with handstands.
Personal challenge, advancing in my skills, it gives me a chance to do other arm postures
I just like doing calisthenics and find that I'm getting results mentally and physically from doing it.
To overcome my fear of inversions and to be able to do something I never thought I'd be able to do
We’d love to know your reasons for why you care about doing handstands. Let us know by filling this short survey.
All important things are hard
― Toni Morrison
When: it’s about balance, and it takes grit
Handstands are the ultimate test of physical balance. Clearly, people who have dedicated their lives to sports, have a higher chance of doing handstands, but that does not mean you can’t get there while keeping the rest of your life balanced. Here is the secret:
Practice your handstands for 5 minutes or more, every single damn day.
It’s not about getting an incredible dose of inspiration. It’s about building the daily habits that allow you to stick to a schedule and overcome challenges and distractions over and over and over again. It’s about doing the things you know you’re supposed to do on a more consistent basis.
Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare. Consistency of effort over the long run is everything.
— Angela Duckworth
How: Leverage Tools
You “can” achieve much more with the same effort and the right tools.
Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I can move the Earth.
— Archimedes
In fact, we think we’ve built the best tool, an iOS mobile app, to help you on this journey. Here is a preview of what onboarding looks like, in dark mode:
Alright, so let’s talk about how you can make the most fro this tool to help you achieve your handstand goal.
What is your goal?
Depending on the current level, the general theme amongst people for handstand’s goal is to hold it in proper form from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. More advanced athletes get interested in mastering the one-arm handstand.
Common Handstand Goals
Identify a realistic goal, write it down. Set your goal in the app on how many seconds you would like to hold a freestanding handstand.
Set a daily goal
Great, so you have a goal, but how are you going to achieve it? You will need to have a plan and execute it. Regardless of what the plan is, you will need to practice consistently to achieve your goal.
The app can be really handy in helping you stay motivated to achieve your daily goal of practice. In addition to guiding you towards completing your daily minutes, the app shows you how you are doing day over day, a month from now, you have clarity on why you did not (or did) make progress. It will also remind you, at your preferred time of the day, that it’s time to practice your handstands, even for just 5 minutes, even if simply meditating about handstands.
Make sure to warmup
To avoid any injuries, it’s super important to warm up. Leverage the app to keep your warmups in check. There is a multitude of different exercises the app guides you to do in order to warmup.
Track and Measure
How do you know you are improving if you cannot track and measure your progress? How were you doing last month compared to this month?
Thankfully, the app makes it very easy to track your handstand, using your voice. Not only will it help you with tracking your handstands, but also many other exercises that help you strengthen and build progression towards a better handstand.
Best Handstand Time - Tracking over time: daily, weekly, monthly…
You can also tell how you’re doing on other exercises and if, for example, you are warming up enough.
Share and Stay Motivated
Get your friends to hold you accountable. It’s a great way to get feedback on your development and that nudge when you need it. One way the app can help you here is via the share feature.
Handstand Quest - Accountability in sharing
Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and learned something new. If there’s only one learning we’d like you to seriously take away, it would be this:
If it’s important, do it every day.