Doing hand circles in the air for 5 minutes is a warm-up.
Working on wrist mobility and the strength of hand and forearm muscles for 10 - 25 minutes qualifies as prehabilitation - a neologism based on the term “rehabilitation” and referring to the work needed to prevent the injury.
You need both.
Prehab can be performed at the beginning of your sessions (especially in your first months of practice), as well as on some rest days, without any attempt at handbalancing, especially if you experience soreness.
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
training | rest | training | active rest | rest | training | rest |
ㅤ | ㅤ | ㅤ | prehab | ㅤ | ㅤ | prehab |
same drill, different volume. In handstands, the good news is that most of your warm-up drills and prehab exercises overlap. During a warm-up, we usually perform each drill once, for 6 - 12 reps. To prehab, you can simply select a couple of warm-up drills, and perform 10 - 20 reps of each, for 2 - 4 series.