#6 HANDSTAND PUSHUP
If you’re looking for the best way to sculpt the shoulders of a superhero, this wins hands down. The vertical pressing pattern of the Handstand Pushup forces you to support 100 percent of your body weight as opposed to only 70 percent with traditional floor Pushups. Sound tough? Thinking there’s no way you’ll be able to do these moves? Well, that’s where step-by-step exercise progression comes into play.
It’s all about adjusting your body angle as much as needed so you can safely train the muscles that push your arms overhead. And here’s a nice incentive for doing the work: Making your shoulders wider and more developed will automatically make you look leaner by causing your waist to appear smaller from every angle.
Caution: Supporting your body weight with your hands over your head requires a great deal of shoulder mobility and core stability. People who struggle to get their arms overhead will often compensate by arching and extending their lower back and shrugging and elevating their shoulders. This is a recipe for shoulder and back pain. Will you have that trouble? Test yourself right now by putting your back against a wall with your head, upper back, and butt making contact and your arms at your sides. Your feet should be as close to the wall as your butt allows. Assume a hollow-body position and then slowly raise your straight arms in front of you and overhead while keeping your ribs and shoulders down and core braced. Stop raising your arms the moment you start to lose the hollow-body position and begin to hyperextend your lower back. If you can’t touch the wall with your hands, it means you’re missing flexion motion at the shoulder and not ready for the advanced exercises in this chapter. I encourage everyone to use the step-by-step progressions to gain the mandatory mobility.
There are ample benefits to Handstand Pushups besides making you as strong on your hands as most people are on their feet (pretty cool, right?). Hand balancing (or arm balancing, as some call it) strengthens your hands, mobilizes your wrists, and improves your overall sense of balance and body awareness. Inversion (being upside down) improves your digestion and circulation and brings more blood to your brain. Kicking up into a Handstand against a wall and holding the top position for as long as you can is a great daily habit to maximize your overall health and performance. Just be sure to take your shoes off so you don’t mark the wall!
The HANDSTAND PUSHUP Progression
Level 1 Ground Zero: DIRTY DOG PUSHUP
Level 2 Beginner: PUSH-AWAY
Level 3 Intermediate: PIKE PUSHUP
Level 4 Advanced: HANDSTAND PUSHUP
Level 5 Superhero: SELF-ASSISTED SINGLE-ARM HANDSTAND PUSHUP
Level 1: Ground Zero
DIRTY DOG PUSHUP
Probably the most basic and popular pose in yoga is the Downward Dog, where you begin in a Pushup position and then push your hips back as far as you can. It’s a natural stretch that four-legged animals do every day. My two boxers, Mustafa and Kaila, hit this mobility move every time they wake up or stand from a lying position, which seems to be a hundred times a day. (Hint to humans!) There is no better way to open your shoulders and hips in one fell swoop and instantly feel better. This move simultaneously stretches the entire back side of your body while activating the front. It lengthens your calves and hamstrings (which takes pressure off your back and knees) and it opens up your shoulder girdle (which improves posture).
But there’s more to this basic stretch. It’s a great warmup move for workouts or sports and an anytime, anywhere full-body energizer when you’re feeling flat. Quick note: Unlike yoga’s Downward Dog, the Dirty Dog should be performed with feet together, if possible, as this will best translate to the other progressions. However, if you have poor hamstring flexibility, you may need to widen your feet or even bend your knees slightly to fully execute this movement.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps before moving to the next level.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Place your hands directly underneath your shoulders with arms extended.
• Screw your hands into the floor and grip the ground with your fingertips.
• Set your head in a neutral position with your ears aligned with your shoulders, hips, and ankles, and gaze between your hands.
• Assume a hollow-body Pushup position with your feet together: Squeeze your legs together, tense your thighs, glutes, and abs, and pull your ribs and shoulders down.
• Your back should form a straight line from head to heels.
Perfect Execution
• Hinge at your hips and push your butt back as far as you can while keeping your arms fully extended and trying to get your feet flat on the floor.
• Briefly hold this position and sink into the stretch. Push your head as far away from your hands as possible while keeping your chest up. Reverse the movement and then perform a full-range-of-motion Pushup if you can and repeat.
• You can rotate your upper back to enhance the stretch.
• Try to keep feet flat.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: If you’re not strong enough to do a floor Pushup while in the top position, skip it and just hold the Plank position briefly before shifting back into the stretching portion.
EVEN EASIER: Increase your base of support by widening your hands or feet.
EASIEST: Decrease your body angle by performing a Hands-Elevated Dirty Dog. Place your hands on a sturdy box, bench, chair, or ottoman. It’s best to place this object against a wall so that it doesn’t slide on you when pushing back. This makes it much easier because you’re holding less of your body weight.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Progressively bring your hands closer together until your thumbs are touching.
EVEN HARDER: Perform Single-Leg Dirty Dogs (a). Lift one leg off of the floor and squeeze the glute of your supporting leg while driving the toes into the floor.
HARDEST: Perform Single-Arm Dirty Dogs (b). Place the hand of your working arm directly underneath your shoulder or slightly inward toward your body’s midline before hinging back. Move your other hand to your back. Place your feet shoulder-width apart or wider for balance.
SUPER HARD: Raise the leg opposite your nonworking arm (c).
Level 2: Beginner
PUSH-AWAY
This stepping-stone exercise works the angle in between horizontal and vertical pushing while putting a greater load through your shoulders than Dirty Dogs do. It’s a perfect mix between a regular Pushup and the Pike Pushup to be shown in Level 3. If you’re doing it right, you should feel it mostly in your shoulders and less in your chest. Focus on keeping your hips higher than your shoulders throughout the movement.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps before moving to the next level.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Get into the Dirty Dog position with your hips piked up and pushed back toward your feet and your arms fully extended in front of you.
• Screw your hands into the floor and grip the ground with your fingertips.
• Spread your fingers as wide as you can with your fingertips pointing straight ahead.
• Set your head in a neutral position with your ears aligned with your shoulders, hips, and ankles, and keep your gaze centered between your hands.
• Avoid rounding your upper back.
• Keep your feet together.
Perfect Execution
• Bend your elbows and shift your body as far forward as you can until your head passes through your hands and your nose touches the floor.
• Briefly pause in this position, feeling your shoulders work, and then push back and away (not straight up), reversing the movement to return to the starting position.
• Keep your hips higher than your shoulders throughout the movement.
• Keep your hips elevated throughout the movement.
• Try to push the floor apart with your hands.
• Keep your chest up.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Increase your base of support by widening your feet.
EVEN EASIER: Increase your base of support and decrease the range of motion by widening your hands.
EASIEST: Decrease your body angle by performing the Hands-Elevated Push-Away. Place your hands on a sturdy box, bench, chair, ottoman, or even a wall. This makes it much easier because you’re holding less of your body weight.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Perform the Close-Grip Push-Away. Progressively bring your hands closer together until your thumbs touch.
EVEN HARDER: Perform Single-Leg Push-Aways. Lift one leg off of the floor and squeeze the glute of your supporting leg while driving the toes into the floor to keep your hips square to the ground.
HARDEST: Perform the Single-Arm Push-Away. Place the hand of your working arm directly underneath your same-side shoulder or slightly inward toward your body’s midline. Place your feet shoulder-width apart or wider for extra balance.
Level 3: Intermediate
PIKE PUSHUP
This is your first foray into the inverted Pushups, in which your upper body is upside down. If you do a Pike Pushup with your feet on the floor, the easier option, only your upper body will be inverted. If you do it with your feet elevated on a stable surface that’s at about hip level, then your whole body will be inverted. The feet-elevated option is almost as challenging to your shoulders as Handstand Pushups, except that your hands aren’t supporting as much of your leg mass. It’s also a lot easier on your abs (and lower back) because your knees are bent and behind your body, and it doesn’t require as much balance as when your legs are fully extended overhead. Feel free to place a padded mat or pillow underneath your body so that you can have a soft target for your head in the beginning.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps before moving to the next level.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Place your feet together and on a stable box, bench, chair, step, or ottoman at shin to hip height. Your hips should be aligned over your hands, head, and shoulders.
• Keep your weight over the center of your hands (just in front of your wrists).
• Screw your hands into the floor and grip the ground with your fingertips.
• Spread your fingers as wide as you can with your fingertips pointing straight ahead.
• Set your head in a neutral position with your ears aligned with your shoulders, hips, and ankles.
• Brace your abs.
• Pull your rib cage and shoulders down.
• Screw your hands into the floor.
Perfect Execution
• Bend your elbows and slowly lower your head to the floor. Don’t bounce your head off the floor!
• Briefly pause in this position, feeling your shoulders work, and then push up and away to reverse the movement and return to the starting position.
• Keep your pelvis balanced over your ribs throughout the movement.
• The higher your feet are elevated, the more work your arms and shoulders do.
• Keep your elbow pits facing behind you.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Decrease your body angle and place your feet on the floor so you’re pushing and supporting less of your body weight.
EVEN EASIER: Increase your base of support and decrease the range of motion by widening your hands.
EASIEST: Perform a Pike Pushup Hold with your arms fully extended. This will help you build the shoulder strength and core stability needed to perform the actual Pushup component.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Perform Single-Leg Pike Pushups. Lift one leg off the box or floor and extend that leg upward as much as you can to simulate the leg positioning of a Handstand Pushup.
EVEN HARDER: Increase the range of motion with Close-Grip Pike Pushups. Progressively bring your hands closer together until your thumbs touch.
HARDEST: Increase the range of motion by placing your hands on elevated surfaces of even height like two low steps/boxes, balls, weight plates, or books. This will allow your head to sink lower than the floor would otherwise allow.
Level 4: Advanced
HANDSTAND PUSHUP
Warning: Don’t attempt this difficult move until you’ve mastered the previous progressions.
This is the ultimate shoulder builder and a true test of your core because your legs are fully extended overhead, which makes your abs work to prevent your lower back from arching too much. You must first master the ability to kick your legs up to the wall. Do so by placing your hands on the floor 6 to 12 inches in front of a sturdy wall with one foot forward and one foot back. The forward leg should be bent and the back leg should be fully extended. Then kick up into a Handstand one leg at a time by pressing off with your trailing leg. Do your best to come up slowly and with control so that your legs don’t smash into the wall like a wrecking ball. Focus on keeping your arms fully locked out and extended throughout the kick up. Where people can get into trouble is if they panic and then let their arms bend, which puts you at risk of falling on your head. Until you become proficient, use a safety spotter to assist you in getting into position and performing the exercise.
Another note of caution: The top of your head should touch, never bounce, off the floor. And never hyperextend your neck.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps before moving to the next level.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Place your hands on the floor 6 to 12 inches in front of a sturdy wall and then kick up into a Handstand one leg at a time.
• Keep your weight over the center of your hands (just in front of your wrists).
• Screw your hands into the floor and grip the ground with your fingertips.
• Spread your fingertips as wide as you can.
• Assume a hollow-body position with your feet together and your toes pointing up. Squeeze your legs together, tense your thighs, glutes, and abs, and pull your ribs and shoulders down.
• Press off your back foot.
• Hands are 6 to 12 inches from the wall.
• Point your toes away from your body.
• Brace your core.
• Don’t allow your hands to turn out.
• Squeeze your legs together.
• Don’t hyperextend your back.
Perfect Execution
• Bend your elbows and slowly lower the top of your head to the floor. Do not let your head hit the floor!
• Briefly pause, feeling your shoulders work, and then push up and away to the starting position.
• Keep your pelvis balanced over your ribs throughout the movement.
• Bring your legs down slowly one at a time when exiting the Handstand.
• Bend your elbows to lower.
• Keep your forearms vertical.
• Pause here, but don’t rest your head on the floor.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Increase your base of support by widening your feet.
EVEN EASIER: Increase your base of support and decrease the range of motion by widening your hands.
EASIEST: Simply perform a Handstand Hold with your arms fully extended. This will help you build the shoulder strength and core stability needed to perform the actual Pushup component.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Perform Single-Leg Handstand Pushups with only one foot in contact with the wall. Focus on squeezing your glutes to prevent lower-back hyperextension.
EVEN HARDER: Increase the range of motion by performing Close-Grip Handstand Pushups. Progressively bring your hands closer together until your thumbs are touching.
HARDEST: Increase the range of motion by placing your hands on independently elevated surfaces of even height like two weight plates or books. This will allow your head to sink lower than the floor would otherwise allow.
Level 5: Superhero
SELF-ASSISTED SINGLE-ARM HANDSTAND PUSHUP
Now it’s time to start shifting more of the work to one side of your body at a time. I should probably mention that very few people in the world can pull this move off with full range of motion and perfect form on one arm without some significant off-arm assistance. As of the time of writing this book, I’m not one of them. Still, we need a way to independently train one arm or shoulder at a time like we could with a Single-Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Press. That’s why we’re going to be using self-assisted versions so that everyone can reap the rewards of unilateral training. Start with Self-Assisted Single-Arm Push-Aways first before progressing to the Pike and Handstand versions.
Your Goal
You should be able to do multiple sets of 10 reps per side.
How to Do It
Starting Position
• Kick up into a two-hand Handstand as described in Level 4. You may want to set up in the corner of a wall so each foot can press off of the edges for extra stability.
• Once you secure the hollow-body position with your feet together, shift your weight to one hand (your working arm) and come up onto the fingertips of your other hand (your assisting arm). This is a staggered-hand setup.
• Keep your feet together.
• Most of the weight should be on your working hand.
• Assisting with your fingertips puts more weight on the working arm.
Perfect Execution
• Bend your elbows and slowly lower the top of your head to the floor, keeping most of your weight on your working arm. Do not let your head bounce off the floor!
• Briefly pause in this position, feeling your shoulders work, and then push up and away to return to the starting position. Only use as much assistance from your assisting arm as needed.
• Bring your legs down slowly. It tends to be easier to come down one leg at a time.
• Keep your pelvis balanced over your ribs.
Regressions
MAKE IT EASIER: Perform Self-Assisted Single-Arm Pike Pushups.
EVEN EASIER: Perform Self-Assisted Single-Arm Push-Aways.
EASIEST: Perform Single-Arm Dirty Dogs.
Progressions
MAKE IT HARDER: Perform an Archer Handstand Pushup where the hand of the assisting arm is fully extended to the side of your body, just like with an Archer Pushup.
EVEN HARDER: Perform the Single-Arm Handstand Pushup Hold without assistance. This is best done in the corner of a wall to allow your feet to press off of the edges so that they don’t slip to the side as much.
HARDEST: Perform the Single-Arm Handstand Pushup. Progress further by performing this move freestanding without the support and assistance of a wall. If you can pull this off, your body is basically functioning like it’s in a zero-gravity environment.
Variations
1. Wall Push-Away
An easy way for beginners to mimic the movement of the Handstand Pushup is by pushing the body away from a wall. Stand about 3 feet away from a sturdy wall with feet shoulder-width apart. Hinge your hips back, bend your knees slightly, and bend forward with arms outstretched until your hands contact the wall. Keep your back flat. Now bend your elbows to bring your head to the wall. Rise up on your toes to press into the wall. Pause, then straighten your arms against the resistance of your legs pushing forward. Keep your body hinged, and repeat.
• Keep your back flat and parallel with the floor.
• Don’t raise your head, but look down throughout the exercise.
• Feel the tension in your shoulders and arms as you lower to the wall and press away.
Variations
2. Extended-Range-of-Motion Handstand Pushup
Place your hands on two low boxes, steps, or even phone books of even height to allow your head to lower farther than it would if your hands were on the floor. This increased range of motion creates an extra challenge for your shoulder muscles. Make it easier by doing it from the Pike position with your feet elevated or on the floor.
• Keep your elbows in and pointing forward.
Variations
3. Pike Shoulder Tap
Build bolder shoulders by shifting your weight to one hand and then picking up the other hand and touching the opposite shoulder while in the Pike Pushup position. Reverse the movement, switch sides, and repeat. This move is best performed slowly for more stability and control. Add a Pike Pushup between reps if you’re up for it. Make it harder by doing it from the Handstand position against a wall.
• Don’t bend your legs.
• Keep your back flat from head to tailbone.
• Touch your opposite shoulder.
Variations
4. Side-to-Side Pike Pushup
Begin this exercise as a normal Pike Pushup but as you lower your body to the ground, slowly shift your weight as much to one side as you can. Then push back up to the starting position. You can either switch sides every rep or perform all of your reps on one side before switching.
• This is the starting position.
• Don’t hyperextend your neck.
• Keep your feet together.
• Lower to one side, then press back up.
• Don’t bounce your head off the floor.
Variations
5. Spider Pike Pushup
Another way to shift more work to one side of your body during Pike Pushups is to add leg movement. As with a Spider Pushup, flex your hip and bring one knee to the same-side elbow as you lower to the bottom position. You can make it even harder by fully extending that same leg to the side in the bottom position. This forces you to shift more weight to the opposite arm for counterbalance. You can either perform all of your reps on one side before switching or switch sides every rep.
• Spread your feet hip-width apart.
• Start in the pike position.
• Push the floor apart with your hands.
• Bring your knee to your elbow as you lower yourself.
• Avoid rounding your upper back.
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