More for the road.

When is the last time you tried doing a handstand? What if I told you that doing handstands will help you develop core strength and improve things like coordination, accuracy, agility, and balance? The fact is, handstands will help train midline stabilization, core and shoulder strength, and hip control.

Here is an excerpt from the January 2004 Crossfit Journal called “Handstands” authored by Greg Glassman. (Full article at http://journal.crossfit.com/2004/01/)

Sport favor individuals who keep bodily and spatial awareness regardless of their orientation in three-space. Standing on one’s hands dramatically alters the normal kinetic chain required for standing on one’s feet. In the handstand, a much weaker base supports the body while simultaneously raising the body’s center of gravity a foot or more in a world turned upside down. Things don’t get more foreign. When standing, the hip is the focus of control and leverage. When in the handstand, the focus shifts to the shoulder. This shift not only helps develop “shoulders strong as hips” but also presents a set of unique demands on the body’s core.
Many of the common motor recruitment patterns found in extending the trunk and hip while standing upright are reversed in pressing to a handstand. The enormous difficulty the beginning hand balancer encounters in bringing the hip over the shoulders and hands is due to the utter confusion of activating the extensors of the back from shoulder to hip. While upright the task of midline stabilization involves maneuvering the torso relative to the base of support—the hips and feet. While upside down the task of midline stabilization requires bringing the hips over the base of support—the shoulders and hands. The difference is profound and for most of you will be the primary obstacle to pressing to a handstand, not insufficient strength!
Similarly, a potent and largely unfamiliar recruitment of the abdominals is required of pressing to a handstand.

Find a wall to kick up against and give it a try! Once you have perfected the handstand, try this workout:

8 rounds of: 30 second handstand hold (wall supported) and 10 squats

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My Workout Today: Two day certification this weekend. All we did was workout. That has earned me a rest day Monday.
My Confession Today: Nothing so far, I love that!