How to Do Handstand Pushups

Handstand pushups are considered by many fitness experts to be the gold standard in body resistance shoulder exercise. By almost completely isolating shoulders and using a functional, bodyweight-based exercise, handstand pushups train your muscles to perform under extreme load but with precise control. Follow these steps to do handstand pushups.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Warm up the shoulders. Most people exercise their shoulder muscles very little on a daily basis. Even many athletes get stiff and inflexible shoulders. So before you start handstand pushups, you need to warm up your shoulders. Use a flapping motion with your elbows bent. Then, still with elbows bent to an almost maximum degree, make circular movements forward and then backward.
2. Get in handstand position. Unless you are a gymnast or professional athlete you will probably need the assistance of a wall to stabilize you. So, do a handstand approximately one foot in front of a wall. Kick your feet up and over so that they touch and come to rest on the wall. Get your balance and make sure you are in a stable position.
3. Lower down. Lower yourself down as much as possible. The key to the lowering phase of the handstand pushup is control, since if you lower too quickly you will come crashing to the ground, head first. Lower until you feel your are about to losing control and then stop lowering, even if your head is not yet touching the ground.
4. Push back up. Keeping your feet against the wall to stabilize you, push back up explosively until your arms are straight. As with the lowering phase, you may not be able to push back to full extension. So push until failure. Then stabilize yourself, take a breath and prepare to return to the lowering phase.