Welcome to Week 3 my little handstand family.
Hope you are all feeling stronger than ever!

You know the drill, same set up, longer holds and different exercises

Take your time to warm up your body. With all the movements go slow and conscious move through full range of motion of the joint(s) being worked.

Drop one ear to the same shoulder to initiate the movement.
Roll the chin towards your chest and then ear to the opposite shoulder.
If it feels comfortable to complete the full circle with the head dropping back do so. 

10 Clockwise rotations
10 anti-clockwise rotations.

Neck Rolls

Completing full circles with the arms. 
Be sure to move slow, moving through the whole range of motion of the shoulder. Be aware if your ribs are flaring when your reach back.

10 x backward circles
10 x forward circles.

Arm Circles

With your hands on your hips begin circular motion with the pelvis.
You can start small and increase the circle every round you go.

8 clockwise circles.
8 counter clockwise.

Hip Circles

Don't know where the name for this one came from but let's run with it!
Extend one leg infant of you and bend the supporting leg.

Lean over the extended leg and pulse twice to open up in the hamstring.
If the hamstrings are tight you can bend the leg that's extended.

If you know you are hyper mobile in the leg create a micro bend behind the knee and energetically pull the heel back towards you to engage your hamstring instead of sinking into it.

8 Reps each leg

Ostrich Walk

Time to get into those all important wrists.
These finger flicks are a great and active way to fire up the muscles in the forearms we need for our handstands.

Flick your fingers as fast as you can:
20 x with arms extended
20 x with arms above the head
20 x with arms out straight to your side (T shape)

Finger Flicks

Place the palms of the hands facing each other and begin to rock from side to side.
You can also make circles if you wish.

We are not aiming to stretch the wrists here. Just adding pressure and movement to wake up and activate.

Lastly place the finger tips to face the knees and gently sit back to iron out the forearms, remember we're not here to find the maximum stretch but a nice sensation in the forearms.

Wrist Rocks

These will hopefully wake up your shoulders and have you nice and ready for handstands.

Think about lowering the chest towards the floor (without bending the elbows) and squeezing the shoulder blades together.

When you reverse the action push the floor away as much as you can to send the back of the heart towards the sky.

Think so and controlled movement through out.

2 sets of 10 reps.
If you feel like you need more these can also be done from plank position

Scapula Push Ups

Warm Up

Now the warm up is done we can move onto to first set of the workout and our static holds.
2 rounds to be completed with a minutes rest in-between.
Have a stop watch or the stop watch on your phone handy.

Now it's time to kick up against the wall.

Bring the hands on hand width away from the wall and kick up.

Keep EVERYTHING Tight, core butt, legs and don't forget TO PUSH!

Wall Holds

Most important part to your boat is to make sure the spine is straight with your thighs pulling in towards your belly.

Take variation that’s suitable for your level.

Navasana - Boat Pose

Back knee should stay around 90 degrees.
Straighten the front leg and keep the spine straight.

Bring your hands to rest on blocks or books if you need to.

Half Split

Set 1 - Static Holds

Now Let's add the main work out.
Ideally the following circuit should be completed 3 times with a minute or 2 rest in between.
If at any point it gets to much or your energy isn't great on one of the days feel free to only repeat this round once or twice.

Treat these as your handstand play time.
Begin with the hands on the floor, shoulder width apart with the fingers gripping into the floor.

Step the dominant leg (the one it feels most natural to use) close to the hands, hamstring flexibility might affect how close you can place it, lift the opposite leg into the air.

Now already start to engage. Grip the floor, set your gaze and push into the floor to activate the arms. Begin to round the upper back a little and think about already making the handstand shape with the upper body. The more you can align here the less work the body has to do to find the alignment.

Now don't worry what it looks like, we're just getting use the to feeling of weight on the hands.

Kick up 10 times

Kick Ups

Start in Low boat/ hollow body
Lower back pushing into the ground and hands behind the head, elbows wide.

As you lift up the leg and upper body bring the opposite elbow to the thigh.

Take modification when needed.

Straight Leg Bicycles

Keep the core nice and tight as you do these.

15 reps each arm - 30 in total

Shoulder Taps

Lifting up and away from the ground.
Squeeze at the top and lower

Back Extension

Set 2 - Conditioning

Taking the time to release through the shoulders now.
Again move slow and connect to the breath.
Deeper breaths will mean connection to the parasympathetic nervous system - it plays a crucial part in telling your body to relax, it's safe to be In this posture and give you a little more room.

With your hands on the wall, round your upper back tuck your chin and tail bone in.
Now reverse the action.

Start by untucking the tailbone (sticking your butt out)
let that movement then roll up the whole of the spine, bringing belly towards the floor and opening up through the chest.
Lastly take the gaze upwards.

Wall Waves

Come to lie down on the belly and extend one arm.

 Arm should be completely in line with the shoulder. Bend the other elbow and place the palm underneath the shoulder. 
Bend the knee and roll the body over towards the extended arm.

Relax the head and neck and breath into the stretch

T-Stretch

Stretch and Release

Practice 🤸🏻‍♀️ - Week 3 (days 14-20)

I was very excited to start then very frustrated of how bad i am for now. . I can’t even do a handstand against the wall... do you recommend being very lean to do this?

Milena

Loved it! Seeing progress even after a couple of lazy weeks xx

Noor AlKharusi

Practice 🤸🏻‍♀️- Week 1 (days 1-6)

It seems so easy for you! It’s inspiring thank you

The sound is a little difficult to hear. But other than that, great tutorial!

Hellen

Tips & Tricks - Kicking Up 🤸🏻‍♀️

Tips and Tricks - Hand Positioning

Practice 🤸🏻‍♀️ - Week 2 (days 7-13)

Still learning can’t do hands stand yet thanks any way but help me in life too if suddenly near to full .

Practice 🤸🏻‍♀️ - Week 3 (days 14-20)

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