She is isn’t holding it
That’s right, you read it right.
Our hero in the picture above isn’t holding 💩.
The photo was taken “at the right time”.
Or, like many on social media, they just screenshot the footage.
If you can tell me exactly:
❌ what she is doing wrong…
AND
👌 what she is doing right...
You will get a solid, consistent, straight handstands in a matter of weeks.
Curious?
Good. Keep on reading
REPETION ISN'T THE MOTHER OF ALL LEARNING
Here is a simple truth:
Unless you have been trained as a circus artist since the tender age of 3 - you probably think handstands are an elusive art that doesn't come naturally to you.
While fortunately, this is not true...
Unfortunately, most of us are literally wasting our time on some poorly effective drills instead of focusing on what really matters.
For many reasons, the way we are approaching the acquisition of movement skills as adults is obsolete.
It seems like most, or their teachers, hold the belief that :
→ An adult learns the same way a child does
- → An amateur should use the same training methods as a professional
- → Achieving a skill is just a matter of time and repetition...
This is simply not true
THE WAY HANDSTANDS ARE TAUGHT MAINSTREAM IS JUST OBSOLETE.
Everything just doesn't come as organically as we grow older and we try to learn movement
There is a cohort of reasons for that:
Life gets in the way:
We like training. We want to get better... But we also have to work,
to make choices,
to study,
to raise the kids
to socialise,
to make our relationships work,
Fill in the ______ of your own story.
Truth is: for most of us, life isn't training 6 hours a day!
And quite frankly, contrary to what many gurus preach, it shouldn't be.For me, smart Training is time-efficient Training.
When done properly, handstands can be learnt by practicing 30 minutes, 3 times a week.
If you feel the need to practice 2 hours per day... you are doing it wrong.
Let me rephrase that:
If you haven't made much progress towards your freestanding handstands - it has more to do with the training methods than your diligence and discipline.
To understand this deeper, let's compare the art of learning handstands with the art of learning... cooking
WHAT COOKING CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT HANDBALANCING
Learning skills like handstands as adults has little to do with chance or sheer dedication.
Kicking up against the wall until “it sticks” like kids do simply doesn’t work for us.
Why?
> They have different bodies.
> They usually have much, much more time to practice.
> Above all, they have a very different brain…
Therefore, if
- Your success plummets every time you remove the wall
- Your kick up consistency is chaotic,
Your handstands can’t get any straighter, and/or
- You experience some fear chest to the wall...
Chances are your training is missing one or several crucial elements…
Or better say: You are missing a simple yet effective recipe 👩🍳
You are trying to cook a master piece for your dinner, but not only are you missing the main ingredients… you are yanking in the pan everything you have in the fridge at once, praying for the best (!!)
Most people think that...
✔ Pointing your toes
✔ Squeezing your butt
✔ Posteriorly tilting your pelvis
✔ Engaging the core
✔ Pushing on the shoulders
✔ Orientating the scapulas
... are the most important things you should focus on...
In reality, these, at best, are good add-on ingredients.
But they won’t take you very far.
They are a cherry without a cake.
Handstands are basically a simple cake that you want to cook following the steps in the right order, and yes, at the end, maybe ornament it with a cherry.
But before putting the cherry, you have to bake the cake.
Before worrying about pointing your toes, you have to align your centre of mass over your shoulders.
Knowing the exact recipe will be the difference between a microwave meal and a succulent dinner.
Or, as I see in it the world of movement, the difference between training smartly and throwing yourself at the wall till it works…
ON TRAINING SMARTLY
Training smartly is the act of both understanding and embodying what needs to be done to get the desired results as fast as possible.
Training smartly involves taking into account both conscious and subconscious cues, practicing for quality instead of quantity - ie listening to your body’s signals and needs - as you program and perform your training sessions.
I’ll add to that - Training smartly is the only way for adults with a full time job to take pleasure and progress steadily in their movement practice.
Every serious mover must understand its principles if they want to reach their most audacious goals in a record time.
It involves understanding fully what you are doing and why you are doing it, and then performing quality-oriented reps.
Truth is.... You can be exceptionally strong, robotically disciplined, incredibly flexible, or a lucky combination of all of the above…
But, if you can’t train smartly and know exactly what to do more of, what to stop doing and why… well... you’re doomed to becoming dependent to the wall!
Among the thousands of students I have come across over the years, strength or flexibility was not the reason for their lack of progress in 99% of the times.
Instead, it had everything to do with their ability to pin down the ONE THING they should focus on in their training.
Or, to go back to our cooking analogy - the ONE INGREDIENT they should put at any given time.
So, what is the key to solving the riddle?
If you don’t want to spend years practicing against the wall, you must know and learn how to leverage the recipe and all its ingredients to help you get there QUICKLY and EFFECTIVELY.
I'm not just talking about training templates, though they can be useful… I'm referring to methods of deconstructing handstands that are already working and apply these time-proven, efficiency-driven strategies to your own inversion practice...
In short...
If you exactly know which ingredient to use and when, you won't have to rely on "guessing" if your training will eventually yield results.
Enters The Handstand Recipe