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sun_salutationSince I recently achieved one of my dreams and learned how to kick up into a handstand against the wall, I wanted to share some of the excellent resources that helped get me there (and some I've found since then; if you've got resources to suggest, please please rec them in the comments).
Handstand is thrilling and wonderful -- wait, no, actually, for a lot of us it's terrifying and dispiriting and something we think we will never, ever be able to do. Dayna Macy says:
Trying to kick into Handstand leads me straight into the heart of fear and shame and negative body image, which I've hung on to since childhood. When I was young, I was amazed when other kids flipped up onto their hands. I watched the crazed joy on their faces as their bodies sliced through the air with abandon. I was never that kid—I never felt that kind of unfettered freedom and trust.
Which makes it amazingly powerful and liberating when you do it. Not to mention fun.
Caveats: handstand is not advised for people who have problems with blood pressure, heart problems, glaucoma or other eye problems, wrist injuries, or who have a headache (it won't help). As it's an inversion, some teachers will advise against doing it during menstruation. I am not a doctor or a yoga teacher: if you have concerns, please talk to someone who is.
[/caveats]
Okay, beginning with:
Handstand modification with feet on a chair
A nice modification that allows you to get the feel of having your hips over your head in a relatively easy and non-scary way; I think this would be accessible for most people who are okay with downwards-facing dog.
Intimidated by Inversions? Start Out with Half Handstand
Half-handstand actually takes more strength than a handstand against the wall, because you're using a lot of body tension to hold your feet in place. But you don't have to kick up, and it feels safer and less like you might topple onto your head. So it's physically and psychologically easier to get into.
If you're okay with half-handstand, try taking one leg up vertically while keeping the other on the wall; you'll probably find you feel lighter when more of your weight is stacked vertically over your head. I found this interesting and helpful to play with.
Sadie Nardini: Sadie's 30
It helped me a lot to make the connection between handstand and "floating" jumps forwards (which I still can't do; one day …).
Yoga Today: Handstand How-To (you can also download this in iTunes)
Those Anusara people really love their handstands. This is a sweet little 13-minute mini-workshop on alignment, beginning with lots of work in downwards-facing dog (this was when it really clicked for me that down dog is the first stage of handstand), then dolphin, half-handstand, and finally working on handstand against the wall.
Sadie Nardini: Core Handstand for Everyone
A progression from the "Sadie's 30" hops to kicking up against the wall.
It took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize that when you "kick up," you're not just pushing off with the bottom foot, you're swinging the top leg to give you the momentum that carries your hips up over your shoulders.
In the end, the final bit of advice I needed to make it happen didn't come from the net, but from a RL Iyengar teacher: put a bolster against the wall in front of your head. This helps with the fear that you're going to bash your head into the wall, and also makes you keep your head down between your arms.
(She also advised not kicking up into handstand more than two or three times in a row, at least for beginners; you get tired and dizzy faster than you think.)
Natasha Rizopolous's step-by-step guide to handstand (some nice Iyengar-style modifications, including the bolster trick and a belt around the arms)
I only just found this article in Yoga Journal, Standing on Your Own Two Hands, but it's a wonderful guide to the whole process, including the psychological elements, with recommendations for a wide range of poses you can use as preparation to build arm strength, shoulder openness and balance.
This blog post and the comments have some fun thoughts about handstand and everyone's fears about it.
From Fear to Freedom: One woman's journey into Handstand, and how it turned her life upside down by Dayna Macy (who I quoted earlier) is a very long and thoughtful article about learning handstand, including detailed descriptions of her work with three different expert teachers and their different approaches.
Finally, some pure inspiration: I found this Handstand workshop for dancers completely mesmerizing, and keep rewatching it.
It has a few movement ideas I can play with, and many that are waaay out of my league, but it's a really interesting creative exploration of the physical dynamics of handstand, and a reminder that it can be a form of play.
Now, to work on getting off that wall …
Handstand is thrilling and wonderful -- wait, no, actually, for a lot of us it's terrifying and dispiriting and something we think we will never, ever be able to do. Dayna Macy says:
Trying to kick into Handstand leads me straight into the heart of fear and shame and negative body image, which I've hung on to since childhood. When I was young, I was amazed when other kids flipped up onto their hands. I watched the crazed joy on their faces as their bodies sliced through the air with abandon. I was never that kid—I never felt that kind of unfettered freedom and trust.
Which makes it amazingly powerful and liberating when you do it. Not to mention fun.
Caveats: handstand is not advised for people who have problems with blood pressure, heart problems, glaucoma or other eye problems, wrist injuries, or who have a headache (it won't help). As it's an inversion, some teachers will advise against doing it during menstruation. I am not a doctor or a yoga teacher: if you have concerns, please talk to someone who is.
[/caveats]
Okay, beginning with:
Handstand modification with feet on a chair
A nice modification that allows you to get the feel of having your hips over your head in a relatively easy and non-scary way; I think this would be accessible for most people who are okay with downwards-facing dog.
Intimidated by Inversions? Start Out with Half Handstand
Half-handstand actually takes more strength than a handstand against the wall, because you're using a lot of body tension to hold your feet in place. But you don't have to kick up, and it feels safer and less like you might topple onto your head. So it's physically and psychologically easier to get into.
If you're okay with half-handstand, try taking one leg up vertically while keeping the other on the wall; you'll probably find you feel lighter when more of your weight is stacked vertically over your head. I found this interesting and helpful to play with.
Sadie Nardini: Sadie's 30
It helped me a lot to make the connection between handstand and "floating" jumps forwards (which I still can't do; one day …).
Yoga Today: Handstand How-To (you can also download this in iTunes)
Those Anusara people really love their handstands. This is a sweet little 13-minute mini-workshop on alignment, beginning with lots of work in downwards-facing dog (this was when it really clicked for me that down dog is the first stage of handstand), then dolphin, half-handstand, and finally working on handstand against the wall.
Sadie Nardini: Core Handstand for Everyone
A progression from the "Sadie's 30" hops to kicking up against the wall.
It took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize that when you "kick up," you're not just pushing off with the bottom foot, you're swinging the top leg to give you the momentum that carries your hips up over your shoulders.
In the end, the final bit of advice I needed to make it happen didn't come from the net, but from a RL Iyengar teacher: put a bolster against the wall in front of your head. This helps with the fear that you're going to bash your head into the wall, and also makes you keep your head down between your arms.
(She also advised not kicking up into handstand more than two or three times in a row, at least for beginners; you get tired and dizzy faster than you think.)
Natasha Rizopolous's step-by-step guide to handstand (some nice Iyengar-style modifications, including the bolster trick and a belt around the arms)
I only just found this article in Yoga Journal, Standing on Your Own Two Hands, but it's a wonderful guide to the whole process, including the psychological elements, with recommendations for a wide range of poses you can use as preparation to build arm strength, shoulder openness and balance.
This blog post and the comments have some fun thoughts about handstand and everyone's fears about it.
From Fear to Freedom: One woman's journey into Handstand, and how it turned her life upside down by Dayna Macy (who I quoted earlier) is a very long and thoughtful article about learning handstand, including detailed descriptions of her work with three different expert teachers and their different approaches.
Finally, some pure inspiration: I found this Handstand workshop for dancers completely mesmerizing, and keep rewatching it.
It has a few movement ideas I can play with, and many that are waaay out of my league, but it's a really interesting creative exploration of the physical dynamics of handstand, and a reminder that it can be a form of play.
Now, to work on getting off that wall …