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If you’re using plank to build strength for handstands, aim to hold for one to two minutes. In handstand, pushing the floor away and reaching up through your heels will help you balance and keep you from collapsing into your shoulders. At the same time, reach back through your inner heels. Push the floor away with your hands-protracting your shoulder blades (i.e., spreading them apart) so that your upper back rounds a bit. Press the backs of your thighs up toward the sky without sticking your butt up in the air. Next, stretch one leg and then the other back into plank. Press down into the pads and roots of your fingers. Spread your fingers evenly apart, but comfortably so. From all fours-knees under hips and hip-distance apart, wrists under shoulders and hands shoulder-distance apart (or slightly wider)-line up your wrist creases parallel to the front edge of your mat. Pushing the Floor Away in Plank Simpler poses that involve weight-bearing through the arms-like plank-are excellent handstand preps, as they build strength and stability in the upper body and provide the opportunity to practice essential alignment and key actions that transfer directly to handstand.įor example: Your hand alignment in plank is the same as in handstand, and getting familiar with which parts of your hand are pressing into the floor and which are not, how much you’re “gripping” or “clawing” the mat with your fingers, and what happens when you shift forward or back and right or left is essential for both balancing in a handstand and slowing yourself down when you lower from handstand to chaturanga. Try placing your hands just a little farther from the wall than you would for a typical wall-supported handstand-close enough that your feet will simply tap the wall if you overshoot, but leaving enough room so you can balance without touching the wall, and (eventually) drop into chaturanga without fear of hitting the wall with your head. Before You Get StartedĪs you build confidence and figure out your balance, I recommend practicing in front of a wall at the start. And many of the preps can be used to just add a little spice to your flows, even if you’re not looking to add a full-on handstand to them right now. Many of these preps and practices can also be helpful for yogis who are working toward holding a handstand in the middle of the room. Below you’ll find some preps, tips, and handstandy transitions you might try. (And once I got the hang of it, it was!) In fact, along with taking a slight detour into handstand before landing in a forward bend at the top of your mat, there are also a few other interesting ways to integrate handstands into a flow.Īs with any challenging transition, incorporating handstands into a vinyasa sequence (such as a sun salutation) takes time, patience, and plenty of preparation. It took me a few more classes to figure out that this was, actually, a legit option.Īlthough handstanding in the middle of a flow seemed a little intimidating, it also looked like a lot of fun. You can’t just bust out into a handstand in the middle of sun salutations. And I particularly enjoyed the arm balances and inversions that teachers incorporated into their classes-even though the sequencing sometimes surprised me.įor instance, one time a teacher offered the class an option to “step, float, or handstand” to uttanasana (standing forward bend) during a sun salutation. Though it was different from what I’d been used to, I found that I really enjoyed the more physically challenging asana sessions. There, a more vigorous style of vinyasa seemed to reign supreme.
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After two and a half years of living and teaching at a yoga retreat center, where classes tended to be pretty mellow, I moved to the West Coast (of the United States).