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I recently found myself in a discussion with some students about handstands. The topic centered around idea that a handstand is a backbend. Now, these students had heard this from another teacher and since I teach a lot of inversions in my classes, they asked me about it. As we chatted, I could understand where that other teacher was coming from and why the students thought a handstand could be lumped into the backbend family but, in reality, it can’t. Now I will say that variations of handstands like scorpion, stag, splits etc. are backbends and as such, the position of your shoulders relative to your hips must change to support the body in these positions. But a classic handstand is one where your toes, hips, shoulders and wrist all stack on top of one another to create a long stable line with the body.
There are a few reasons why, when you practice handstands, it might feel as though you’re in a back bend. But that feeling is caused by 3 different faults that we will want to correct to create the best handstand possible. Here they are;
- Lack of mobility in the shoulders. For most men, this can be a huge problem. If you can’t open your shoulders all the way, your body will have to compensate by sending your feet behind you. That leads to an arch in the lower back thus the feeling of a back bend.
- Lack of core strength and awareness. If mobility is not a problem, maybe core strength is. If you can’t keep your belly pulling into the spine it won’t be stable and thus a arched lower back will occur.
- Lack of knowledge. Handstands are difficult to master and take a lot of practice. Without a strong foundation for the basic set up and approach, it is easy to make it a backbend.
This doesn’t mean that if you do find yourself arched while standing on your hands that you shouldn’t continue to practice them. But it does mean that you will want to focus your attention on improving your form. Continue to play around with handstand, get stronger (check out my post on Tips and Tricks for Upping your Handstand Game), find more mobility in the shoulders. But don’t be fooled. Your goal is not to arch the lower spine. It is to stay tight.
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