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Technique

  1. Start in a Pike stand position, with your feet on an elevated surface, your hands on the ground, and your hips placed vertically over your shoulders and hands.
  2. Slowly shift the weight forward towards your hands, so that your feet can come off the support.
  3. Hinge at the hips to bring your legs up and stack them vertically to reach a Handstand position.
  4. Be careful not to let your legs drop on the box.

Form tips

  • A common mistake is to allow the shoulders to close (= reducing the angle at the shoulders and leaning more forward). This makes the exercise, which is already difficult to start with, much harder from a strength perspective (and more similar to a Planche). So focus on keeping the shoulders as open as possible, to keep your hips, shoulders and hands stacked vertically.

Muscles

Strength

Primary

  • Back
  • Serratus anterior
  • Shoulders
  • Neck

Secondary

  • Pelvis
  • Quadriceps
  • Hip adductors
  • Lower trapezius
  • Serratus anterior
  • Posterior deltoid
  • Upper trapezius
  • Levator scapulae

Equipment

Appears in

Joint movements
trains stretches

Progressions

e0c0

Straight-arm straddle press-to-handstand

Advanced
e0p3

Wall straddle press-to-handstand

Advanced
e0s7

Incline bridge

Intermediate
e0re

Wall handstand block walk

Advanced
e02m

Straight-arm pike press-to-handstand

Elite
e0rb

Straddle handstand block walk

Advanced
e04h

Handstand walk

Advanced
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