Straight-arm straddle press-to-handstand

Also known as: Swiss press-to-handstand.

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Technique

1. From a standing position, lean forward keeping your legs straight and place your hands on the ground right in front of your feet.
2. Slowly shift your weight forward towards your hands, until your feet can come off the ground.
3. As soon as your feet come off the ground, open your legs out to the sides. Open the legs this way will reduce the lever.
4. Hinge at the hips to bring your legs up.
5. Once your legs are up, bring them together into a Handstand position, then reverse the motion.

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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.

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Muscles

Individual muscles

• Lower trapezius
• Serratus anterior
• Posterior deltoid
• Upper trapezius
• Levator scapulae

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Equipment

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Appears in

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Progressions

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Regressions

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