Bodyweight Blast: Handstand Push Ups at He's Fit

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Bodyweight Blast: Handstand Push Ups

Posted March 12, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Donnell Peavy

Section: His Fitness, Strength Training, His Health, Physical Health

handstand pushups Today’s exercise is a killer – the handstand push up. This exercise trains the deltoids and triceps like no other and will remind you of the childhood days when you were doing cartwheels and handstands all over the playground during recess.

To begin, squat down facing a wall and kick yourself up into a handstand, placing your feet against the wall for support. Once you are in handstand position, hold it. If you cannot hold this position, you are not yet ready to perform this exercise, so make sure you can comfortably hold this position for about 30 seconds.

From the handstand position, lower your body toward the ground – slowly – you do not want to lower yourself too fast and run your head into the floor. When you feel your head touch the floor, push yourself back up to the starting position and repeat. Your goal should be to attain a level of strength and balance that will allow you to perform this exercise without having to rely on the wall for support.

This exercise is HARD. You may not be able to do it from the beginning, but of course, you can work your way up to it. If you are unable to do the handstand push up, try this – get on the floor, your knees, toes and hands being the only parts of your body touching the floor.

Next, raise your knees off of the floor and push up onto your toes, straightening your arms. You should now be in an inverted ‘V’ position, similar to the “downward facing dog” position in yoga. From this position, lower yourself to the ground and push up, just as you would with the standard handstand push up. With enough time and effort, you will work your way up to doing handstand push ups.

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10 Responses to “Bodyweight Blast: Handstand Push Ups” (Leave a reply)

Trail running nut from Borrego Springs, CA said:

I used to do these a lot. They are pretty tough at first, but you get used to them. Then, I got older, they got tougher again. I loved them. Nothing better than body weight resistance.
March 12, 2008 at 03:50 PM
Dan from Charleston SC said:

Yeah these are hard and a great exercise. By the end of the year I am going to be able to do these without using the wall for assistance… at least that is a goal of mine. No real reason behind it, I just think it would be cool.

There are some really cool variations you can do too once you get good at these… or once they become easy. Adding dumbbells in your hands… do a headstand push up and then quickly lift one of the dumbbells toward you.
March 13, 2008 at 10:36 AM
re said:

I am into a full year of doing bodyweight drills and this is the last exercise that i feel i have to do, in a way it kinda scares me being upside down as i dont want to fall on my head, but the variations to start them look good, i want to be able to do at least one rep of this wonderful exercise.
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