Beginner Handstand Follow Along Workout - Beginner Calisthenics

Hey guys and welcome to this handstand workout. Now I just wanted to do a little intro to this one. If you want to skip straight to the workout I will put the time stamp down below so you can just head on over into the warm-up. But I wanted to give a little bit of background into this workout and also give you a bit of information about how you can progress your handstands and potentially the time frame that it will take as well. Now this workout is taken from my handstand program on my app which is designed for complete beginners and really doesn't have a specific time frame in which it should be completed. Now learning a new calisthenic skill takes a long time and handstands are no different. For me it took between two and three years to be able to hold a somewhat consistent handstand for around two to five seconds and so don't go in with the expectation that you'll be able to learn handstands within four weeks because it's just not going to be realistic. However what this program and this workout is designed to do is to give you all the right progressions to be able to work your way up towards your handstand in a safe and secure manner and also to work on mobility drills that are going to help you as well as learning your entry and bailout drills as well. As much as handstands are physical they are also mental as well so it's really important to have all of the pieces of the puzzle together. Now to give you a better idea of what the program is like I've tried to incorporate a few different progressions into this one workout so what you'll notice is that we're going to do three rounds of work and we're going to repeat similar exercises and similar drills however they're going to be progressing each round. So if you do round one and you're happy with that and that's your limit I want you to stick with that until you feel like you can progress to the next one however if you try round two and it feels good you can crack on with me and join round three or you can just stay at round two it's completely up to you and I want you to think of your handstand training as exactly that it's not a hard and fast rule and really just training in a way that feels good for your body and trying to get as much hang time as possible and slowly working towards progressing over time is what you want to be aiming for here and finally for this workout I'll pop all the equipment that you're going to need down below but you're going to need a little bit of wall space potentially if you join me in round three you're going to need a chair a table or a stool that's around knee to hip height so somewhere in between and you can have a little play around with things around your house. I use a bench in this workout which for me was a tiny little bit short but it gives you an idea of what we're aiming for and then you're also going to need a resistance band and that's just for a bit of mobility work if you don't have one that's totally okay you can use a belt from a dressing gown or a normal belt or even a broomstick and if you have none of those you can just use your arms it's totally fine. Other than that you're just going to need your body and a little bit of floor space you don't even need to wear shoes in fact I would recommend that you don't wear shoes when you do handstand practice. All right with all that said we're going to head on into the workout we're going to crack on with some mobility drills please don't skip these these are super super important and try and do them as often as possible because it'll give you nice healthy strong shoulders and wrists. If you want any more information about the app there's a link to a webpage down below or you can head over to my website and it's got a little bit more information over there as well. There are tons of programs handstands aren't the only one there's lots of different ones and they're constantly being updated so go and check it out if you feel like it's interesting to you otherwise let's go do some handstands. All right we are going to start out by getting our wrists nice and warmed up and ready for the workout ahead now the goal here is just to do whatever feels good for you your wrist mobility and the movements that are going to be accessible to you are going to be completely different to me but you can use what I'm doing as a little bit of a guide as to what you can try so for example I'm just going to move my fingers around from facing me to facing away from me having my palms on the floor and then the tops of my hands on the floor I'm going to paddle my hands at some point and do some nice little circles as well this really has got to be probably one of my favourite things to do at the beginning of every workout because it really gives you that time to have a think about what's going to be ahead of you and just enjoy moving your body and starting to feel some weight in your hands all right the last few seconds here and I'm just pointing my fingers out to the side and doing some little circles with my shoulders make sure you go in both directions all right beautiful work we're now going to move on to a shoulder mobility drill now shoulder mobility is super important for handstands so this is something that I would suggest you try to incorporate as much as possible and if not every single day in your training so you're just going to find a surface which is relatively low just has to be accessible to you and place your hands on it and drop your chest down towards the ground and that's all you're going to do just going to stay there for around 30 seconds try to release it at some point and then go a little bit deeper into this one but this is quite a passive movement you shouldn't be having to put too much work in here nice work moving on we're going to do some shoulder dislocates this is going to again warm up our shoulders and help us with our mobility in that regard as well so it's going to grab yourself a thin resistance band a broomstick a belt or if you have none of those you can just simply use your hands and you're just going to raise your arms up and over your head trying to keep them straight and then back over towards the front with this exercise the wider your hands are the easier this exercise will be so if you're just starting out make sure they're nice and wide otherwise you can start to narrow them and work on making that smaller and smaller awesome work and the last little bit of prep work that we're going to do before our main workout is some wall slides so you're going to go stand next to the wall and you're just going to place your hands above your head in a y position and then trying to keep your forearms running along the wall so putting some pressure into the wall you're going to bring your elbows down towards your hips and squeeze your shoulder blades together now you want to be inhaling on the way up and exhaling on the way back down this movement looks like it's super super easy but it's actually quite challenging after the first few reps amazing and that is your warm-up complete you can go and have a 30 second rest get yourself prepared for the workout ahead and i will see you back here for round one all right let's get into round one so we're going to start with some scapular push-ups now i just want to mention if you need to perform these on your knees that is totally fine and you can always do this on an inclined surface as well so we're going to start in the plank position with our hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart and then from there we're going to keep our body nice and straight in alignment so from the head all the way down to the heels of your feet and instead of coming down to the ground we're going to think about just dropping our chest in between our arms and then when coming back up protracting our scapulas which means pulling them apart next up we have some back extension so you're going to come down onto the floor and lay on your stomach and then you're going to extend your arms out straight out in front of you lift your feet off the floor and while squeezing your glutes you're going to raise your chest off the floor and your arms as high as possible and all you're going to do is simply try to hold that for the entire 30 seconds so we've got 15 seconds left really squeeze pull that chest up nice and high make yourself really long point your toes to the back of the room your fingers to the front of the room last few seconds and you are done all right next up we're moving into a tucked handstand hold so for this one you're going to need a surface which is just below hip height so the higher this is the easier it's going to be what i'm using is just a little bit too low but it gives you the idea of what we're aiming for you're going to pop your knees onto that surface and then you're going to place your hands as directly under your shoulders as possible really what we'd like here is for your hips to be as stacked over your shoulders and hands as possible but in this tuck hold that's always going to be difficult to manage and we're just going to stay here what you want to think about is pushing the ground away gripping the floor with your fingers so really think about putting some pressure into all of your hands and spreading those fingers out and you are done nice and easy and the final exercise for this round is just going to be a tucked hollow body hold so this is going to really be working on core strength and we simply want to think about pushing our lower back into the ground so try to minimize any gap between your lower back and the ground and keep pulling that belly button down as if it was anchored to the ground and pulling you in we're going to keep our knees bent at 90 degrees and our hands are going to come off the floor pointing palms upward i'm just going to peel your shoulders off the floor and stay here keep thinking about pushing that lower back into the ground don't let it come up we've only got two seconds left and you are done you've now got a 30 second rest and you can either repeat this round again or you can go on to the intermediate level which is going to be round two all right so we are starting round two with some tuck handstand presses so we're going to be in that tuck handstand position so we're going to have our hands stacked below our shoulders and you're going to try and bring your hips over as much as you possibly can and from there we're just going to simply move our scapula through protraction and retraction so pulling your shoulder blades apart pushing the ground away from you really gripping the floor and then letting your shoulder blades come together before repeating that again just a few more seconds here and we are going to be moving on to some back extension and this time instead of just staying in that static position at the top of the movement we're actually going to come down towards the ground and repeat it so we're going through a range of motion so you're going to set yourself up lying on your stomach extend those hands out in front of you and you're going to really think about squeezing your glutes pulling your hands and your feet away from the floor and then slowly and in a controlled way coming down towards the floor when you're about half an inch to an inch off the floor you're going to then pull back up squeezing those glutes pulling your chest up off the floor and reaching out in either direction so straight out in front of you with your hands and point those toes to the back of the room as much as possible try to control this and keep this nice and strong so moving on we are now going to move into some pike handstand holds so instead of being on your knees in a tuck we're going to be up on our toes instead now this should allow you to be able to get your hips stacked a little bit more over your shoulders so again we're aiming for hands shoulders and hips to be as aligned as possible now this looks relatively easy but can feel really really challenging once you're in that position you want to really think about again pushing the floor away with your hands gripping the floor with each of your fingers spreading your weight equally through there and just holding on and for the last exercise of the round we're going to do a so you're going to think about pushing that lower back into the ground again drawing your belly button in so you want to reduce the amount of space between the ribs and your hips on the front of your body arms are going to extend out behind you and you're just going to peel your shoulders off the floor slightly and then we're going to switch legs really think about pointing that toe and keeping that lower back pushed into the ground and just breathe through the movement awesome work guys go and have a rest for 30 seconds i'll see you back here for round three all right let's get stuck into round three it's the same same but different we're just going to take those exercises and tweak them slightly to make them a little bit harder so for the first exercise we're going to be doing those presses again but instead of being in a tuck position we're going to be in the pipe position so you're going to be up on your toes trying to keep your hips shoulders and wrists aligned as much as possible and once they're protracting and retracting the scapulas in a nice controlled movement don't forget to spread your weight through your fingers and remember that quality is always better than quantity when it comes to work like this so you don't need to rush this at all but we are done and we're going to be moving on to the next exercise which is going to be back extension again but this time we're going to do pulses so from that face down position you're going to squeeze your glutes peel your chest off the floor and then you're going to come to the top of that movement and it's going to pulse here for 30 seconds now don't forget if you need to regress this exercise and do the one that we did in the first round or in the second round that is totally fine or you can just switch it halfway through but we are only 10 seconds left to go so keep at this don't forget to keep that core nice and strong try to make the movement just a little bit bigger a little bit higher each time and you are done well done all right instead of doing the handstand on the bench this time we're actually going to use the wall so you're going to come with your back to the wall and then simply walk your legs up the wall we're going to stay in a tuck position tucks are nice and strong and it really helps us with the alignment so it might help you feel a little bit safer as well because you're not extending all the way up but you're going to put your knees against the wall if you feel comfortable to and wrap your toes and again we just want to focus on that alignment so hands are just slightly wider than your shoulders and we want to think about stacking our wrists our shoulders and our hips above each other keep holding that movement and just stay as strong as possible pushing the ground away with your hands and spreading your weight through your fingers only two seconds left and you can now walk yourself down and safely come off the wall and our final exercise is going to be our hollow body hold so you're going to lie on your back put yourself into a posterior pelvic tilt so scoop your pelvis and your tailbone under and really think about drawing your lower back into the ground pulling through with your belly button and staying as strong as possible both your feet and your arms are off the ground so you're going to have them extended out think stay as long as possible and then really just keep that core nice and tight don't let those ribs flare out think about knitting your ribs together staying strong in that core and of course don't forget to breathe and you're done head off for a quick rest and I will see you back here for a cool down stretch all right guys awesome work all the hard work is behind you now so we're going to do a quick cool down stretch it's going to come into upward facing dog here you can keep your thighs on the ground if you want to if you want to come up onto the tops of your feet feel free to do that as well but just peel your chest forward look up in front of you keep your chin down you should feel a nice stretch down the front after those hollow body holds this probably feels really good now I'm just going to slide back into child's pose if you struggle to get your head onto the ground feel free to cross your arms and just place your forehead on top of your arms otherwise you can take your hands over to the left you should feel a nice stretch down the right side of your body and then walk your hands over to the right and likewise feel the stretch on the left side of your body now we're just going to walk our hands forward into a version of puppy pose so you're just going to let your chest drop down towards the floor and it doesn't have to go all the way down but if it does that's great you can keep your knees bent here so no stress just work to whatever feels comfortable to you really it should just feel like a nice opening stretch for you after all those handstands and finally we're just going to come into a seated kneeling position and take our right hand up and over our head you should feel a nice stretch down your body so try to keep your torso as long as possible while reaching over and then switch sides so your left hand comes over your head to your right side and finally we're just going to give those wrists a little roll out so he's going to grab around your wrist joint with your thumb and middle finger form a fist and then just roll around in different directions just to really rejuvenate the synovial fluid and just it really feels nice after all the stuff that you've been doing on your wrists switch to the other side give that a good roll out too and you are done guys thank you so much for joining me for that handstand workout keep your eyes peeled for more follow-along workouts on this channel and otherwise i will see you guys in the next video have an amazing day