Workout Wednesday is a series on YBC where I discuss the workouts I do to complement my yoga practice.
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If you've been following along on instagram, you will know that I recently learned how to do these handstand push-ups from my trainer.
I find them to be really hard, but really fun and when you combine those two things with consistent practice, you wind up feeling like you're building strength. Upper body strength has been one of my fitness goals over the last few months, and I've really noticed a difference since beginning to incorporate these into my workouts.
Set up for the handstand push-up.
Before you jump right into it, you'll need to set up properly. I recommend using a balance pad as shown here unless you're, like, super strong and know you can bang out a bunch of these no problem. Otherwise, take my word for it, you're gonna want one of these. I tried it without and let's just say it did not go so well. #concussed #justkidding #butfeltlikeit!
Anyway, set up like you would for tripod headstand. Picture a triangle, and set the hands at the base of the triangle, and the head at the top. Keep the elbows magnetized (ie don't let them open up).
Then,
1. Walk your way into a headstand pod.
2. Find your sense of balance and focus on pushing into the hands, rather than having the majority of the weight in the head.
3. Tuck your knees into your chest and feel your hips tilt in as if you're doing a reverse crunch. Take a deep breath in and then....
4. Explode from the hips into a handstand. From there, slowly lower your head back down with control into Step 2 and repeat for as many times as you can.
Let me know how it goes for you down in the comment section below!
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