The handstand push-up is a killer upper-body exercise with almost endless possibilies. You can assist this exercise by first placing your feet on a high wall or rail, and making it closer to an extremely steep decline push-up. Once that is easy you can do it balanced against a wall, then begin to attempt them free-standing. Once you have free standing HSPU's down pat, you will have mastered a good bit of strength, power and body control. For a full range of motion, try them out on a set of parallettes .

1.)    Though a free-standing HSPU is the eventual goal, must people will need assistance of some sort. The most common way to assist the balance aspect is by performing the exercise with your back against a wall.

2.)    Face the wall, bend over and place your hands a bit wider than shoulder-width, around a foot from the base of the wall, fingers spread to assist stability

.
3.)    Kick up into the handstand, leaning your heels against the wall to assist your balance.

4.)    Lower slowly. The goal is to get your face to floor level.

5.)    Press back up, it helps to “grip” the floor with your fingertips and engage your core, drawing your abdominals towards your spine and engaging your glutes, hamstrings and quads, this enhances stability and allows efficient transfer of power from your triceps through your shoulders.

6.)     If you can’t push-up from full range of motion, work on repeated eccentrics, where you lower slowly, return to your feet and kick back into the wall to repeat the lowering portion.

--Handstand Pushup Video --  (requires DivX )
 

Display 38 of 38 comments