Handstand push-ups are an incredible display of strength, balance, and coordination. They're impressive to watch and fun to do. Let's be honest, most people will never get there. But if you're willing to take consistent, small steps you can be one of the few who are part of the club. The first person I remember seeing doing them was Brandon Carter in one of his youtube videos. It looked really cool and I knew I had to try to figure out how to do them myself.
Do you remember when you couldn't do a regular push-up? It seemed impossible then. But in time, you learned how. So if you can't do a handstand push-up now, it may seem hopelessly out of reach. But it's not. You can get there.
This is a step-by-step guide. There's a logical progression you can follow. Even if you don't follow it all the way to a freestanding handstand push-up (I still haven't gotten that far myself), you'll still develop amazing upper body strength and body control along the way. Oh, and your shoulders will look the part, too.
Handstand push-ups are the calisthenics version of a barbell shoulder press. It's an upper body pressing exercise that will develop your shoulders and triceps. Like the shoulder press, your upper chest and core are also involved. Instead of the barbell, your body is the resistance. Your muscles move your body against the pull of gravity.
An obvious difference is you're upside down and balancing on your hands. Unless you normally walk on your hands being inverted isn't your typical viewpoint of the world. You'll have to get used to spending time upside down. You'll adjust to the feeling of blood rushing to your head. Learning to balance works the smaller stabilizing muscles of your shoulders in a way that pressing a weight just won't.
This isn't to say handstand push-ups are objectively superior as an exercise. But they have a few things in their favor. The biggest advantage is you can do them anywhere. You can train your upper body even if there's no gym equipment nearby. You train your coordination in a way that you can't with a barbell or dumbbell. The main benefit of using external weights is you can choose the precise load and increase it incrementally. We'll cover ways to scale the handstand push-ups. There are good reasons to do both. But this is about handstand push-ups.
Ready? Good. Let's begin.
Your shoulder muscles (or deltoids, or delts) have three major parts. The front (or anterior delt) works mainly to raise your arm straight out in front of you. Imagine you were walking like a zombie in an old movie. The side (or medial delt) works to raise your arms away from your sides, like when you're doing jumping jacks. Your rear delts move your arms behind you. Underneath the deltoid are your smaller rotator cuff muscles. They help keep your upper arm stable in your shoulder socket. All the muscles of the shoulder work together to allow your arms to move freely and safely.
Your triceps are the large three-headed (hence the tri- prefix) muscle on the back of your upper arm. They function to extend your elbow and straighten your arm. You use them whenever you push something away from you.
Let's get on the road to your first handstand push-up! You'll want to get very comfortable with each step before progressing to the next one. Keep in mind this is a really advanced exercise. Be patient. It will take a while to master. We're talking many weeks, probably months here. Take your time with each step in the progression.
The first exercise in the progression is your standard Push-Up. It's a horizontal upper body pushing exercise. It works mainly the chest and triceps, but also the shoulders. Start with your hands a little wider than shoulder width apart. Keep your body straight. Lower yourself under control until you're an inch or two off the ground then push yourself back up to the starting position.
Shoulder push-ups are next. You bend at the waist to change the angle of the push-ups so there's more emphasis on the shoulders. It will take a little while to get used to them.
After that, find something on which you can elevate your feet. This makes the angle for your push-ups even more steep. You can see it's closer to the handstand position. As you get increasingly vertical, your chest will be doing less of the work and your shoulders will be doing more.
Crow stands help you practice balancing on just your hands. Start from a crouch. Place your hands on the ground. Keep your knees just outside your elbows. Gradually tilt forward until all your weight is on your hands. This is harder than it looks, so be prepared to spend some time on this before the balance is second nature.
Now you're ready to walk your way into a handstand position. Place your feet against the wall and walk your hands back towards the wall until your body is vertical. Then walk them back out. Don't rush. You want to be under control the entire time.
You're getting close! It's time to learn how to kick up into the handstand position. You're going to end up facing away from the wall. You'll want a folded up towel or small pillow beneath your head from now on, just in case. Place your hands a comfortable distance apart from each other and about 6-12 inches from the wall. Kick one leg up to the wall, then the other. Your heels will be against the wall. Spread your fingers wide. This gives you a wider base on which to balance. You'll have a natural arch in your back, so don't worry about being perfectly straight up and down. But you don't want it to be excessive. You're working on being stable and comfortable doing a handstand. Gradually build up the time you hold this pose. Kick one leg, then the other, back down to the starting position.
The last step before you're doing handstand push-ups is doing negatives. Kick yourself up to the handstand position. Hold it for a beat. Make sure you're stable. Lower yourself as slowly as you can. Once your head is touching, kick yourself down to the starting position. Take a break and reset for the next rep. It's essential to be able to control the descending part of the handstand push-up.
Time to put it all together! This is the same as the negative except you won't lower yourself quite as slowly. Make sure you're still in control of the descent. When your head is just barely touching the towel, push hard through your whole hand to drive yourself back to the top.
Congratulations! You did your first handstand push-up. Just one is an awesome achievement. Keep working and gradually building up your reps. Your upper body strength and balance is way more developed now than when you started. No doubt your shoulders reflect all the hard work you've put in.
If you get to the point where you can knock out sets of 10+ and you want more of a challenge, you still have options.
Use parallette bars to elevate your hands. You'll be working in a greater range of motion that adds to the difficulty.
Still want more? You can build up to a freestanding handstand push-up. Like I said, I'm not there yet. Practice starting from the crow stand position and pressing into a handstand. You'll want something soft to land on. There will be plenty of falling as you build up the skill. Once you've got the handstand, work on doing freestanding negatives. And then a full freestanding handstand push-up. You'll also likely enjoy learning to walk on your hands.
I'll leave you with a couple thoughts. There's no need to go to failure when doing repetitions of any of these progressions. Yes, you're building strength but you're also developing the skill. You want high quality reps so keep the fatigue level low. You don't have to train the progressions daily. Give your body a chance to recover.
You'll have to be the judge when it's time to move to the next progression. As you get comfortable with each one you'll get a feel for when you should advance. It's not a race.
I prefer to do my handstands facing away from the wall but some people like to face it. You'll be more vertical facing the wall. Go with whichever way feels more comfortable to you.
You're absolutely ready to start right now, so get to it. Have fun building those boulder shoulders!
It would be awesome to see you build up to handstand pushups! Tag me on IG @jason.quinn.21.
Any questions, please hit me up at jquinn.fitness@gmail.com.